Developing an Emergency Communications Plan
During an emergency, being able to efficiently communicate with staff, customers, authorities and the public can make a huge difference in regards to how well your business will be able to recover from the disaster. To better assure this efficiency, it is wise to encourage open communication amongst workers prior, during, and following an emergency situation.
Because it is essential for everyone to play a role in the communication process, the following outline should give you an outline of what plan to have in place:
Employees - Be ready to provide employees with details regarding when, if, and how they should report to work after an emergency situation. Devise ways to communicate with employees during an emergency. This can be done by setting up a telephone call-tree, call-in voice recording, creating a password-protected area on the company website, or sending out an email alert.
Management - Provide your top-level executives with all the pertinent information needed to protect employees, customers, third-party vendors and nearby facilities.
Customers - Be sure to update customers on if and when products and services will be received and rendered.
Public - Depending on the nature of the emergency, there may be a need to update the general public with the added assurance that all efforts are being exercised to not only protect employees, but the community as well. Informing the public that recovery plans are in place could be vital to the longevity of your business.
Authorities - Get in touch with the local and state authorities and explain what type of emergency assistance is needed to carry out your essential business operations. If need be, inform government officials of what your company is willing to do to aid recovery efforts.
Neighboring Businesses - Be prepared to provide other companies in the area with a briefing regarding the nature of the emergency. This will allow them to assess their own risks and threat levels.
Being able to communicate is absolutely vital during an emergency situation. By developing a strategy, you can make sure staff is safe, provide the public with the needed information, receive the assistance you need, and most importantly, get on the road to recovery.
on Mar 27th, 2009 at 12:36 pm
Hi,
This is essential for a business to be prepared for any disaster. Company management should make their employees, senior management and other staff better understand about their business, business requirement, targeted area and users, changing environment and technology. All these information and knowledge can make employees to be prepared for any disaster or risk in future. If everybody will be prepared then only a company can face the problems and come out with that in a easy and safe way. Risk management or disaster management companies can educate the entire staff of any company to face disaster and risk involved with their business, so that in future they can be well prepared to stand against that having all possible solutions and alternatives in hand.