The motto, “Be prepared for anything,” extends beyond writing everything you can think of into your bylaws. As a business owner, you also need to be ready for practical emergencies which have the potential to cause massive problems for your business if you’re not ready for them, not to mention the harm to your employees. Increase your emergency readiness with these practical suggestions.
1. First Aid
Any office has to have a first aid kit somewhere in the facility, but it’s good to go even a step further and provide a first aid kit for each employee because you never know when mishaps will occur. It’s not just an act of goodwill for your staff; keeping sufficient first aid materials around for everybody might prevent the need for a trip to the ER or a Workman’s Comp claim.
2. Post Emergency Procedures & Contacts
Of course this is something else that is legally required for an office, but you can protect yourself and your staff by doing just a little bit more. In addition to clearly illustrated exit routes for the event of a fire or other emergency posted in a common area, it’s also very useful to post the procedures any employee should follow for a variety of potential incidents. That way, anyone who finds him or herself in a position where they need to act can see clearly what they need to do.
3. CPR Training
CPR is possibly one of the most underrated and underappreciated skills there is. Countless lives have been snatched back from the brink by some anonymous person who happened to be nearby and used CPR to save another person or keep them alive long enough for paramedics to arrive. Providing a CPR certification program for everyone on your team is essential, and making it mandatory, no matter what kind of business you have, is even better. It will most likely save a life one day.
4. Chain of Command
It’s not something you think about too much when everything is ok and there’s no disaster, but when an emergency happens, people want someone they can look to for guidance. Everybody at your organization knows who is in charge and next-in-charge, and so on (hopefully), but if those individuals are not available or, god forbid, incapacitated, then there has to be someone there to grab the wheel. That’s why you should have a clear “chain of command”, so to speak, to make sure someone is there to lead everyone out of harm’s way.
Stephanie
Stephanie is the Marketing Director at Talkroute and has been featured in Forbes, Inc, and Entrepreneur as a leading authority on business and telecommunications.
Stephanie is also the chief editor and contributing author for the Talkroute blog helping more than 100k entrepreneurs to start, run, and grow their businesses.