Cultivating A Culture Of Awareness And Preparedness Through An Emergency Plan

In running a business, the last thing that you want is for operations to be hampered by emergency procedures. Despite advances in technologies, there are some industries wherein risks cannot be totally eliminated. This, however, does not mean that a business can do nothing to protect its workers and even the community where it operates.

Last January 2012, the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 began to take effect. The main objective of the Act is to provide "a balanced and nationally consistent framework" which will ensure the health and safety of workers at their job sites. Two key points in the Act are the recognition of the differences in health and safety policies across various states that it seeks to unify, and the emphasis on the term "reasonably practicable."

One of the key requirements that businesses operating in Queensland, Northern Territory, Australian Capital Territory and New South Wales need in order to comply with the Act is the development of an emergency plan. This plan is also a crucial part of the Safety Management System requirements of businesses operating in South Australia, Western Australia, Victoria and Tasmania.

A suitable plan should include review procedures and records. It should also clearly define an emergency, including those pertaining to medical emergencies, bomb threats and dangerous goods or hazardous chemicals. The plans should also detail how to properly deal with each type of emergency. As such, it may contain procedures for general emergency response and evacuation procedures. In order to help workers develop a heightened awareness, the plan should also provide for the training and instruction of employees on first aid and emergency response as well as the conduct of emergency response drills.

Because of the technical nature of the plan, formulating one can be a time-consuming and costly endeavour. For one, you may have to select some employees to help you tick off some tasks associated with the formulation of the plan or even enlist the help of technical experts to guide you throughout the process.

A viable alternative to formulating your own plan or hiring a team of specialists is to purchase a template made by experts in workplace health and safety. This allows you to meet the requirements set by legislation while freeing your staff from the burden of completing an emergency plan by themselves. As compared with hiring a specialist team to draw your own plan, a template is less costly but just as effective. The only thing you have to do is run through the template and modify it to suit your business’s particular requirements.

If you are looking for an emergency plan template, this link contains all the details you’ll need.