Emergency Action Plan Checklist

General Issues

Does your emergency action plan:

• Consider all potential natural or man-made emergencies that could disrupt your workplace?
• Consider all potential internal sources of emergencies that could disrupt your workplace?
• Consider the impact of these internal and external emergencies on the workplace’s operations and is the response tailored to the workplace?
• Contain a list of key personnel with contact information as well as contact information for local emergency responders, agencies and contractors?
• Contain the names, titles, departments, and telephone numbers of individuals to contact for additional information or an explanation of duties and responsibilities under the plan?
• Address how rescue operations will be performed?
• Address how medical assistance will be provided?
• Identify how or where personal information on employees can be obtained in an emergency?

Evacuation Policy and Procedure

Does your emergency action plan:

• Identify the conditions under which an evacuation would be necessary?
• Identify a clear chain of command and designate a person authorized to order an evacuation or shutdown of operations?
• Address the types of actions expected of different employees for the various types of potential emergencies?
• Designate who, if anyone, will stay to shut down critical operations during an evacuation?
• Outline specific evacuation routes and exits and are these posted in the workplace where they are easily accessible to all employees?
• Address procedures for assisting people during evacuations, particularly those with disabilities or who do not speak English?
• Identify one or more assembly areas (as necessary for different types of emergencies) where employees will gather and a method for accounting for all employees?
• Address how visitors will be assisted in evacuation and accounted for?

Being prepared for disasters can make a huge difference in how quickly you can recover and return to business as usual. BLR’s upcoming live webinar will explain how to develop a comprehensive emergency preparedness plan that effectively addresses extreme weather events. Click here for details.

Reporting Emergencies and Alerting Employees in an Emergency

Does your emergency action plan:

• Identify a preferred method for reporting fires and other emergencies?
• Describe the method to be used to alert employees, including disabled workers, to evacuate or take other action?

Employee Training and Drills

Does your emergency action plan:

• Identify how and when employees will be trained so that they understand the types of emergencies that may occur, their responsibilities and actions as outlined in the plan?
• Address how and when retraining will be conducted?
• Address if and how often drills will be conducted?

Train, Train, Train!

OSHA says that training in emergency procedures should be provided for all employees, including during orientation for new employees. Employees should be retrained:

• When your plan changes due to a change in the layout or design of the facility
• When new equipment, hazardous materials, or processes are introduced that affect evacuation routes
• When new types of hazards are introduced that require special actions

General training for your employees should address:

• Individual roles and responsibilities
• Threats, hazards, and protective actions
• Notification, warning, and communications procedures
• Emergency response procedures
• Evacuation, shelter, and accountability procedures
• Location and use of common emergency equipment
• Emergency shutdown procedures

You may also need to provide additional training to some employees (i.e. first-aid procedures, portable fire extinguisher use, etc.) depending on the responsibilities allocated employees in your plan.

Join us on August 13 for an in-depth, live webinar on how to safely get back up and running when extreme weather strikes. Our presenter will show you how to make valuable upgrades and improvements to your emergency plan. Learn More

Prepare Now, Recover Quicker

Among the emergencies your workplace emergency action plan must address are extreme weather events. These events run the gamut from hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, earthquakes, major rain and snowstorms, extended droughts leading to fire—the list is quite lengthy. Although each event has its own specific way of impacting your facility, the end result is very similar; your operations are severely impacted for some length of time, maybe even permanently.

Given the unpredictable and ferocious nature of weather, no one can fully predict or prepare for what may be in store, but you can prepare considerably so you’re ready to effectively manage smaller extreme weather events and reasonably, and safely, handle larger events.

The real trick is sitting down ahead of time and developing an effective strategy to deal with the potential risks and exposures that could impact your organization. It requires effort, but if you are strategic, you can develop an emergency preparedness plan for extreme weather events that will weather the storm.

On August 13, an in-depth, live BLR webinar will explain how to develop a comprehensive emergency preparedness plan that effectively addresses extreme weather events. This event will help those who already have an emergency preparedness plan in place with review and evaluation so they can make valuable upgrades and improvements.

Join us and learn:

• The applicable OSHA regulations pertinent to an emergency preparedness plan
• Strategies for identifying the likely extreme weather events that could impact your facility
• How best to evaluate the extreme weather event scenarios, including worst case, that you need to be prepare for
• A detailed discussion about the basic elements that need to be included in your emergency preparedness plan
• The approaches to consider for assuring that business/organizational recovery strategies are adequately considered and addressed
• How best to assure that all employees are adequately protected and accounted for including those with limited abilities during an extreme weather event
• Proven strategies for training emergency preparedness personnel and assuring that the training is kept up-to-date and drills are included in the process
• And more!

About Your Presenter

Attorney Claud L. (Tex) McIver is a partner in the Atlanta office of Fisher & Phillips LLP. In his 30-year career, he has assisted clients nationally and internationally in their compliance efforts involving all federal and state employment laws and has successfully defended employers in more than 200 union-organizing campaigns. He regularly handles contract negotiations, arbitrations, defense of corporate campaigns and the full range of strikes, lockouts and other interruptions of work. He has also written widely on employment law subjects and presented speeches and seminars to hundreds of business associations, bar associations and client groups concerning a broad range of employment law and legislative issues.

He has been recognized numerous times for his legal contributions and has been cited as one of the “top legal minds” in Atlanta by Atlanta Lawyer magazine and named one of Georgia Trend magazine’s Legal Elite in 2010 and 2011. He has been listed in Who’s Who Legal USA – Management Labour & Employment by the researchers at the International Who’s Who Legal publication and was selected as a Client Service All-Star for 2011 in BTI Consulting Group’s survey where an elite group of attorneys are nominated by in-house counsel for their outstanding client service.

Mr. McIver is “AV” Peer Review Rated by Martindale-Hubbell and has been repeatedly selected for inclusion in Georgia Super Lawyers. He has been listed in Chambers USA, America’s Leading Business Lawyers since 2007 and in The Best Lawyers in America since 2006. In 2012, Mr. McIver was appointed by the Georgia Attorney General to serve as Special Assistant Attorney General representing Gov. Nathan Deal and the State in the matter of Coleman et al. v Deal and Jackson. He was awarded the 2012 Highest Effort Award from Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity for his achievement in the field of law.

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