What is an emergency management program?
Emergency Management is a holistic methodology applied to human-made, natural, and technological emergencies. Operationally emergency management identifies threats and develops practical plans that effectively manage the response. This is possible through the application of the pillars of emergency management:
· Prevention: Actions taken to stop an emergency or disaster from occurring, this includes engineering solutions.
· Preparedness/Mitigation: Actions taken to reduce the impacts of an emergency or disaster.
· Response: The actions taken before, during, and after an emergency to manage the event.
· Recovery: The process and steps required to return operations to normal capacity as efficiently as possible.
Emergency management programs provide comprehensive management systems to organizations, this includes the roles and responsibilities of all staff members before, during , and after an emergency. An emergency management program can include the following components:
1. Emergency Response Procedures
2. Threat Risk Assessment(s)
3. Business Continuity Plan(s)
4. Business Impact Analysis
5. Crisis Communication Plan(s)
6. Emergency Exercise facilitation
7. Training
The inclusion of all components listed above will create a comprehensive emergency management program. A comprehensive emergency management program effectively encompasses every pillar of emergency management into the organization’s operations.
Without adopting the entirety of a comprehensive emergency management program organizations expose themselves to certain risks. Omitting aspects of the comprehensive program can affect the organizations level of preparedness including deliverables, reputation, customers, revenue, life safety systems, and regulatory requirements.
HOW ARE THEY USED?
Emergency Management Programs formalize the response to emergency events in a way that effectively and efficiently supports the organization’s goals and commitments. Once a program has been tailored to the organization all staff will have a clear understanding of their responsibilities during any identified event.
For every component of the program a predetermined ‘activation’ criteria are included, this criterion identifies when the content of the plan is formally in operation. Levels of Activation will indicate to senior leadership what impact the event has and what aspects of the plan should be considered in the response or recovery of operations.
Levels of Activation: Outlines criteria that must be met to determine the resources required and steps to be taken to effectively manage the event.
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS?
Organizations are complex social structures, during emergency events without a predetermined emergency management program facilitating the response, conflicting opinions will hinder the response time.
Having a comprehensive emergency management program provides other benefits such as:
· Saves lives and protects properties.
· Improves resumption of operations following an emergency.
· Establishes roles and responsibilities during an emergency.
· Identifies threats to the organization.
· Facilitates informed decision making.
· Organizes a clear communication strategy.
· And so much more!
HOW TO GET STARTED ON AN EMP?
Initiating an emergency management program can be daunting, LRI Technical Consultants are knowledgeable and equipped to support you and your organizations goals. To get started contact us at: info@lrifire.com
