Disaster Protection: How to Prepare Your Business for an Emergency

Disasters may come in different forms, from economic and health crises to natural disasters. The world is currently battling with the deadly COVID-19 pandemic that has forced most businesses to make hard decisions and halt operations. Regardless of the emergency, you’ll stand a better chance of survival if you’re more prepared than when caught off guard. It’s crucial that you come up with a plan to get your organization in shape in times of disasters of all kinds. We’ve prepared a list of ways to prepare your business for future disasters.

1. Conduct a Risk Assessment

Risk assessments help businesses identify any threats to the company, including safety hazards and potential financial problems. You need to ensure your workplace is inspected for potential safety hazards and all risk factors for disasters such as earthquakes, floods, and hurricanes. Consider to include inspections for cybersecurity threats as well to prevent safety violations and financial losses. You should also review your business’s financial health for the near future, including sales forecast, debts, expenses, and cash flow. When conducting the assessment, you may consider hiring an outside consultant or ask someone working in a different department or role to do the assessment. This will help ensure an unbiased report hence providing the relevant recommendations.

2. Provide Necessary Training to Your Workforce

Once the assessment has been completed, you’ll need to develop a training plan for your workforce to be in line with the recommendations. The training should include safety practices and procedures for handling different equipment and processes. Relevant training can help prevent any downtimes during a disaster when the workers know how to adapt to different work conditions and adopt new roles. Ensure to always update your training to include the latest trends in the industry. For instance, you need to train your workforce on effective ways to keep safe while performing their tasks amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Ensure to adhere to all the guidelines and safety standards from the government. You may install barriers for social distancing in the business to encourage your workforce and customers to observe physical distancing measures while working or shopping. The procedures and policies should also be made available to all employees to refresh their knowledge after the training.

3. Consider Having Emergency Supplies

Having a stock of the relevant emergency supplies in your workplace can help minimize damage, resulting consequences, and save lives. You’ll need vital items such as first aid kits, fire extinguishers, sustenance, batteries, flashlights, and medication. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, ensure to have items such as face masks, hand sanitizers, soaps, gloves, anti-bacterial wipes.

4. Prioritise Your Workforce

Workers are the lifeblood of every business. It’s your responsibility to set policies to address the needs of your workforce during a crisis. In most cases, workers tend to focus on taking care of their families first when a crisis hits. Therefore, ensure to come up with ways to help them take care of their families to enable them to concentrate on helping your organization. You may release them to work from home so they can be with their families while attending to their duties. You may also cover children and spousal insurance and favourable sick time policies to make them feel valued and motivated, especially during hard times.