Mind Your Business An emergency management planning guide for business in the City of Melbourne

Transcription

1 Mind Your Business An emergency management planning guide for business in the City of Melbourne

2 Mind Your Business An emergency management planning guide for business in the City of Melbourne Developed by City of Melbourne in partnership with Victoria Police, Melbourne Fire Brigade, State Emergency Services and Department of Human Services The purpose of this Mind Your Business guidebook is to provide business operators in the City of Melbourne with the incentive and basic information to develop an emergency management plan tailored to the needs of their business. Leading into the year 2000 businesses around the world went to great lengths to prepare for the possibility of Y2K problems. Fortunately not many problems occurred in that instance because businesses identified the risk and gave priority to preparing for a potential emergency. Such high levels of preparedness are not always evident and every year emergencies take their toll on business and industry - in lives and dollars. But something can be done. Business and industry can limit injuries and damages and return more quickly to normal operations if they mind their business and plan ahead - just like they did in preparation for Y2K. An emergency plan is the outcome of arrangements made, and agreements reached, as a result of the application of concepts and principles contained in this booklet. It is the formal record of those arrangements and agreements. To be effective it must be simple, written down, properly disseminated and regularly tested and revised. This guidebook provides step-by-step advice on how to create and maintain such a plan. It can be used by any organisation regardless of the goods or service they provide. Whether you operate from a high-rise building, a shop front or an industrial complex; whether you own, rent or lease your property; whether you are a large or small company; the concepts in this guidebook will apply. If you already have a plan, use this guidebook as a resource to assess and update your existing plan. The approaches described in the guidebook are recommendations, not regulations and they are intended to help business operators: Identify the risks you may face and the impact they would have Begin to plan for and reduce the impact of emergencies Keep your doors open for business after an emergency event An emergency management planning guide for business in the City of Melbourne 3

3 What Is An Emergency? The Emergency Management Act 1986 (s.4): defines an emergency as being: What Is Emergency Management? According to the Victorian Emergency Management Manual emergency management is defined as:... An emergency due to the actual or imminent occurrence of an event which in any way endangers or threatens to endanger the safety or health of any person in Victoria or which destroys or damages, or threatens to destroy or damage, any property in Victoria or endangers or threatens to endanger the environment or an element of the environment in Victoria. People have personal emergencies every day - when the photocopier jams, when a wallet is lost or the car won t start. But for the purpose of preparing your business and in considering the above we will define an emergency as: Any unplanned event that can cause deaths or significant injuries to employees, customers or the public; or that can shut down your business, disrupt operations, cause physical, or environmental damage or threaten the financial standing or public image of your business that requires sudden and urgent action by individuals and agencies. In the Australian context this includes but is not limited to events such as: Fire or bushfire Hazardous materials incident Flood or flash flood Severe storm Earthquake Communication s failure Contagious disease outbreak Civil disturbance Explosion Power or gas failure... The plans, structures and arrangements which are established to bring together the normal endeavours of government, voluntary and private agencies in a comprehensive and coordinated way to deal with the whole spectrum of emergency needs, including prevention, response and recovery. Emergency management is a dynamic process. Planning, though critical, is not the only component. Training, conducting drills, testing equipment and coordinating activities with the local community are other important functions. Emergency managers are those who carry out any tasks before, during or after an emergency, which contribute to creating or maintaining the safety of our communities from emergencies, be they natural, human-caused or technological. By definition emergency managers are the police, fire-fighters, ambulance and SES personnel, but they also include doctors, municipal engineers, social workers, public health employees, land use planners and trainers. They are also individuals and groups at community and business level. This wasn t always the perception of what constituted emergency management (either within or outside the sector). Until about ten years ago, the sector was seen very much as a response-focussed service. The culture and community expectation was skewed towards one of uniformed saviours with red and blue flashing lights, sirens and big trucks whose job was to come and save the community when struck. It is now clearly obvious everyone has a role to play in preparing for emergency events. States and Territories Under the Australian Constitution, the primary responsibility for the protection of life and property rests with State and Territory governments as they exercise control over most of the functions, which are necessary for effective prevention, preparedness, response and recovery. Each of the State and Territory governments develops emergency management arrangements, provides emergency services and coordinates related activities through local and State government emergency management committees. Our emergency service organisations (ESO s) rely heavily on the support of hundreds of thousands of trained volunteers who provide services such as search and rescue, fire fighting and medical care. Federal Government The role of the Federal Government is to provide guidance and support in developing State and Territory capacity for emergency management, and to provide requested assistance in the event of a major emergency when State or Territory resources are inadequate, exhausted or unavailable. Such assistance is coordinated through Emergency Management Australia (EMA), located in the Attorney-Generals Department. The Federal Government also provides specialised assessment, warning and monitoring services for meteorological and geological hazards. Local Government and Non Government Organisation s Australia s 750 local government authorities also play a key role due to their close links with the communities they serve. In Victoria the Emergency Management Act 1986 requires local government authorities to appoint committees to develop Municipal Emergency Management Plans (MEMP). The City of Melbourne has a comprehensive MEMP developed in consultation with Police, SES, MFB, Department of Human Services and other non Government organisations, which identifies potential risks and outlines cooperative prevention, response and recovery arrangements. Non-government organisations (NGOs), such as Red Cross, St John Ambulance, and the Salvation Army, are an essential component in our local response/relief arrangements and in supporting communities in the recovery phase. 4 Mind Your Business An emergency management planning guide for business in the City of Melbourne 5

4 Communities, Private Sector and Individuals As the focus on mitigation strengthens, Australia s emergency management efforts are expanding to further recognise the important role played by the private sector in developing and implementing mitigation plans and strategies. Self-help is a critical element of Australia s emergency management processes, especially as there may be a delay during or immediately following an emergency before the arrival of outside help. This depends upon developing a community that has: An alert, informed, aware and prepared population An active and involved local government, and Agreed, coordinated arrangements for prevention, preparedness, response and recovery. The City of Melbourne in partnership with emergency management agencies is working with its community though this Mind Your Business guidebook, and a range of other activities, to help business help itself prepare for emergency events. The Emergency Management Role of Business in the City Of Melbourne The role of business in emergency management is to ensure it has an appropriate and well-tested emergency management plan so that it can, be self reliant in the initial stages of an emergency event and be well placed to hasten the recovery from such an event. To be successful, emergency management requires upper management support. The chief executive sets the tone by authorizing planning to take place and directing senior management to get involved. In a small business it is up to the owner or manager to recognise the benefits of good planning and take the appropriate action to safeguard their livelihood. Why Bother? You ve invested all of your time and resources into making your business work. You have a dedicated customer base. You have a good reputation for paying your suppliers and providing your goods and/or services efficiently and quickly. You are a member in good standing of your local business community. Now, imagine that all you ve worked for goes up in smoke - literally - or that your business is hit by a flash flood, explosion, earthquake or severe power failure. All of your efforts simply are blown away. Many businesses experienced serious damage caused by Cyclone Tracey and the Ash Wednesday fires. This means that emergencies can only happen in the bush or up north, right? That s what the business operators in Fairfield thought, until an unexpected flood in 2003 devastated stock and nearly put many companies out of business. Similar situations occurred that had an impact on the City of Melbourne as a consequence of the Coode Island fire in 1991 and the Longford gas explosion in (Need to check these dates) Clearly emergencies occur in every part of our country. And don t think it has to be a catastrophic event to pose serious risk to your business: a severe storm can keep your customers and employees away. A pipe that bursts can obliterate your accounts. A power outage caused by storms can destroy your business records and a fire can destroy your stock. The case for thorough emergency management planning is clear: It helps companies fulfil their moral responsibility to protect employees, the community and the environment. It facilitates compliance with regulatory requirements of Federal, State and local agencies such as the Occupational Health and Safety Act. It enhances a company s ability to recover from financial losses, regulatory fines, and loss of market share, damages to equipment or products or business interruption. It reduces exposure to civil or criminal liability in the event of an incident. It enhances a company s image and credibility with employees, customers, suppliers and the community. It may reduce your insurance premiums. This Mind Your Business guide is designed to help you protect your business from the adverse effects of emergencies large or small: natural, human-caused or technological. By giving emergency planning priority, you will safeguard your investment for yourself, your employees, your customers and your community at large. Of all the businesses that close down following an emergency, at least 25 percent never reopen. In New York after the events of September 11, it is estimated that a staggering 18,000 businesses with 563,000 employees were disrupted or forced to relocate. Approximately 125,000 private sector jobs were lost and 30,000,000 square feet of commercial office space was lost or damaged. Protecting Your Critical Resources When you think about the impact emergencies can have on your business, you need to begin to consider your most important resources: Human Resources You need to protect yourself, your employees and customers or clients from injury on your premises. You also have to consider the possible impact an emergency will have on your employees ability to return to work and how your customers can return to your shop or office or receive your goods and/or services. 6 Mind Your Business An emergency management planning guide for business in the City of Melbourne 7

5 Physical Resources You need to assess the impact an emergency would have on your facilities. If your business operates in an older building, you may want to consider having it evaluated by a professional engineer to identify any potential hazards. The building s physical condition, and how it will survive an emergency, could have an impact on your ability to keep your business open following an incident. Business Continuity Even if your business escapes an emergency unharmed and your employees are unhurt, there is still a risk that the business will suffer significant losses because there is always a chain reaction due to the negative impact on the local economy. These losses can be broken down into two types. Upstream losses are those you will suffer when one of your suppliers is affected by the emergency and cannot deliver the goods or services your business needs. Most businesses depend on daily deliveries, such as fresh fruit and vegetables to a restaurant or stock to a retailer. If the supplier s building is damaged by the emergency and they cannot keep up their delivery schedule, this upstream loss will affect your business, even if it s undamaged. Downstream losses occur when a key customer and/or the lives of residents in your community are affected by an emergency. If everyone in town is digging mud out of buildings and cleaning up debris after a flood, a restaurant or shop won t have the same number of customers, theatres won t have the same attendance and tourists will choose a different city to visit. If supplying a service to a large factory is a major source of your firm s cash flow and that factory is closed by fire damage, your business will suffer a downstream loss even if it escaped unscathed from the emergency itself. Steps in the Emergency Management Planning Process There are five key steps in the planning process. Step 1 Step 2 Establish a planning team Analyse risks and determine capabilities Step 1 Establish a Planning Team There must be an individual or group in charge of developing the emergency management plan. The size of the planning team will depend on the company s operations, requirements and resources. In larger organisations involving a group of people is best because: It encourages participation and gets more people invested in the process. It increases the amount of time and energy participants are able to give. It enhances the visibility and stature of the planning process. It provides for a broad perspective on the issues. In most cases, one or two people will be doing the bulk of the work but you should obtain input from all functional areas in a larger organisation where the approach will need to be more sophisticated and should address the following: Establish Authority Demonstrate management s commitment to emergency management and promote an atmosphere of cooperation by appointing participants in writing and authorizing the planning group to take the steps necessary to develop a plan. Ideally the chief executive or general manager should lead the group and encourage the free flow of ideas. Issue a Mission Statement Have the chief executive or manager issue a mission statement to demonstrate the company s commitment to emergency management. The statement should: Define the purpose of the plan and indicate that it will involve the entire organization Define the authority and structure of the planning group Establish a Schedule and Budget Establish a work schedule and planning deadlines. Timelines can be modified as priorities become more clearly defined. Develop an initial budget for such things as research, printing, seminars, consulting services and other expenses that may be necessary during the development process. Step 3 Step 4 Step 5 Develop the written plan Implement the plan Monitor and review the plan The following description of each step in the planning process does not address every issue that requires consideration. It does provide a sound starting point. 8 Mind Your Business An emergency management planning guide for business in the City of Melbourne 9

6 Step 2 Analyse Risks and Determine Capabilities By completing the checklist on page xx you have begun to consider how prepared you are. This next important step entails gathering more detailed information about current capabilities and possible risks and emergencies, and then conducting a business impact analysis to determine the company s capabilities for handling emergencies. Asmall investment of time will go a long way toward averting serious damage to your business and minimize the disruption an emergency can cause to your life and business livelihood. No matter how small or large your business, you should engage in a business impact analysis to identify what your business needs to do to protect itself in the face of an emergency. Large corporations often hire risk managers to handle this task and some companies also use consultants with expertise in emergency planning and recovery to assist them with their plans. But small businesses can easily do the analysis and planning on their own. The primary purpose of your business impact analysis is to determine what parts of your business need to be up and running as soon as possible after an emergency event. To help you get started with your business analysis and recovery plan, answer the following basic questions: What can you do to protect your building? What if your suppliers are temporarily shut down? What if you are forced to relocate? Will your insurance cover be adequate? What will insurers require after an emergency event? What records do you need? Do your employees know about your emergency plans? Who will you need to contact in the event of an emergency? What emergency supplies should you have on hand? How can you help your customers? Larger businesses will be able to gather more detailed information and should also consider the following as part of the analysis of capability. Review Internal Plans and Policies Documents to look for include: Evacuation plan Safety and health program Security procedures Finance and purchasing procedures Employee manuals Process safety assessment Capital improvement program Find Out What Others Are Doing Fire protection plan Environmental policies Insurance programs Plant closing policy Hazardous materials plan Risk management plan Mutual aid agreements Talk with or research what government agencies, community organizations, neighbours, your business sector and utilities to find out what they are doing about emergency management planning. Ask about potential emergencies and about plans and available resources for responding to them. Identify Codes and Regulations Identify applicable Federal, State and local regulations such as: Occupational safety and health regulations Environmental regulations Fire safety standards policies Identify Critical Products, Services and Operations You ll need this information to assess the impact of potential emergencies and to determine the need for backup systems. Areas to review include: Company products and services and the facilities and equipment needed to produce them Products and services provided by suppliers, especially sole source vendors Lifeline services such as electrical power, water, sewer, gas, telecommunications and transportation Operations, equipment and personnel vital to the continued functioning of the company Identify Internal Resources and Capabilities Resources and capabilities that could be needed in an emergency include: Personnel: emergency management group, emergency first aid services, evacuation team, building security, public information officer Equipment: fire protection and suppression equipment, communications equipment, first aid supplies, emergency supplies, warning systems, emergency power equipment, decontamination equipment Facilities: emergency operating centre, media briefing area, shelter areas, first-aid stations, sanitation facilities Organizational capabilities: training, evacuation plan, and employee support system Backup systems: arrangements with other facilities to provide for: Payroll Communications Production Customer services Shipping and receiving Information systems support Emergency power Recovery support Identify External Resources There are many external resources that could be needed in an emergency apart from emergency service agencies including: Department of Human Services Community service organizations such as Red Cross, Salvation Army, St John Ambulance Utilities Contractors Suppliers of emergency equipment Insurance companies Employee assistance programs Neighbours Media and communication experts In some cases, formal agreements may be necessary to define the company s relationship with external resources. 10 Mind Your Business An emergency management planning guide for business in the City of Melbourne 11

7 Conduct a Business Impact Analysis The next stage in the planning process is to assess the vulnerability of your business - the probability and potential impact of each emergency. The Australian Standard AS/NZS 4360 sets out a thorough approach to risk management, however for the purpose of conducting an initial risk assessment a chart with the following headings could be used. This will guide the business impact analysis process, which entails assigning probabilities, estimating impact and assessing resources, using a numerical system. The lower the score the better. Type Of Human Property Business Internal External Emergency Probability Impact Impact Impact Resources Resources Total High Low Low Weak Strong 5 > 1 High Impact > Impact Resources > Resources List Potential Emergencies In the first column of the chart, list all emergencies that could affect your company, including those identified in the Municipal Emergency Management Plan which you will find at the www. melbourne.vic.gov.au/beaware&beprepared Consider both: Emergencies that could occur within your facility Emergencies that could occur in your community Some other factors to consider include: Historical: What types of emergencies have occurred in Melbourne, at this company and at other facilities in the area? Geographic: What can happen as a result of the business location? Keep in mind proximity to other facilities. Technological: What could result from a process or system failure? Human Error: What emergencies can be caused by employee error? Are employees trained to work safely? Do they know what to do in an emergency? Human error is the single largest cause of workplace emergencies and can result from such things as poor training, poor maintenance, fatigue, substance abuse or carelessness and misconduct. Physical: What types of emergencies could result from the design or construction of the building or facility you occupy? Regulatory: Are there any emergencies or hazards you are regulated to deal with? Analyse each potential emergency from beginning to end. Consider what could happen as a result of: Prohibited access to the facility Loss of electric power Communication lines down Ruptured gas mains Water damage Smoke damage Structural damage Air or water contamination Explosion Building collapse Trapped persons Chemical release Infectious disease epidemic Estimate Probability In the probability column, rate the likelihood of each emergency s occurrence. This is a subjective consideration, but useful nonetheless. Use a simple scale of 1 to 5 with 1 as the lowest probability and 5 as the highest. Assess the Potential Human Impact Analyse the potential human impact of each emergency - the possibility of death, injury or loss of income. Assign a rating in the Human Impact column using a 1 to 5 scale with 1 as the lowest impact and 5 as the highest. Assess the Potential Property Impact Consider the potential property impact for losses and damages. Again, assign a rating in the Property Impact column, 1 being the lowest impact and 5 being the highest. Consider: Cost to replace Cost to set up temporary replacement Cost to repair Assess the Potential Business Impact Consider the potential loss of market share. Assign a rating in the Business Impact column. Again, 1 is the lowest impact and 5 is the highest. Assess the impact of: Business interruption Employees unable to report to work Customers unable to reach the company physically or through electronic means Company in violation of contractual agreements Imposition of fines and penalties or legal costs Interruption of critical supplies Interruption of product distribution Assess Internal and External Resources Next assess your resources and ability to respond. Assign a score to your Internal Resources and External Resources. The lower the score the better. To help you do this, consider each potential emergency from beginning to end and each resource that would be needed to respond. For each emergency ask these questions: Do we have the needed resources and capabilities to respond? Will external resources be able to respond to us for this emergency as quickly as we may need them, or will they have other priority areas to serve? When assessing resources, remember that emergency workers - police, paramedics, fire-fighters- will focus their response where the need is greatest. Or they may be victims themselves and be unable to respond immediately. That means response to your business may be delayed. If the answers are yes, move on to the next stage of the assessment. If the answers are no, identify what can be done to correct the problem. For example, you may need to: Develop additional emergency procedures Conduct additional training Acquire additional equipment Establish mutual aid agreements Establish agreements with specialized contractors Add the Columns Total the scores for each emergency. The lower the score the better. While this is a subjective rating, the comparisons will help determine planning and resource priorities - the subject of the pages to follow. 12 Mind Your Business An emergency management planning guide for business in the City of Melbourne 13

8 Step 3 Develop the Written Plan You are now ready to develop an emergency management plan tailored to the specific needs of your business. The aim of the plan is to protect life and property and position your business so that recovery and restoration or resumption can happen quickly: keeping people employed and the business running. As you draft the emergency management plan remember it is a dynamic document that will be updated. It is unlikely it will be perfect in its first draft but the important thing to remember is that even the most basic planning done now will pay dividends in the event of an emergency. Components of the Plan The size and nature of your business will determine the complexity of your plan but as a starting point it should include the following five components: Asummary Emergency management elements Emergency response procedures Support documents Training schedule Summary The summary gives a brief overview of: The purpose of the plan Authorities and responsibilities of key personnel Where response operations will be managed Emergency Management Elements The facility s emergency management policy The types of emergencies that could occur This section of the plan briefly describes the facility s approach to the core elements of emergency management. These elements are the foundation for the emergency procedures that your facility will follow to protect personnel and equipment and resume operations. They are: Direction and control: Someone must be in charge in an emergency. The system for managing resources, analysing information and making decisions in an emergency is called direction and control. In larger organisation there will be an emergency management group responsible for the big picture and they should have a pre determined operations centre. Tenants in an office building may be part of an emergency management program for the entire facility. Communications: Communications are essential to any business operation. A communications failure can be an emergency in itself, cutting off vital business activities. Communications are needed to report emergencies, to warn personnel of the danger, to keep families and off-duty employees informed about what s happening at the facility to coordinate response actions and to keep in contact with customers and suppliers. Plan for all possible contingencies from a temporary or short-term disruption to a total communications failure. Consider the everyday functions performed by your business and the communications, both voice and data, used to support them. Consider the functions your business might need to perform in an emergency and the communications systems needed to support them. Life safety: Protecting the life and safety of everyone is the first priority in an emergency. You need to determine the conditions under which an evacuation would be necessary and designate primary and secondary evacuation routes and exits and assembly areas, and conduct regular training sessions. In some emergencies, the best means of protection is to take shelter within a building. Consider the conditions under which that might be necessary. Property protection: Protecting facilities, equipment and vital records is essential to restoring operations once the emergency has occurred. You need to consider such things as records preservation, closing the doors or facility shutdown, protection systems, backup equipment and supplies. Community outreach: People are now living in the City of Melbourne in close proximity to business premises which means you may need to consider informing your residential neighbours about your emergency plans. The sort of things they will want to know about includes: What does the business do? What are the hazards? What programs are in place to respond to emergencies? How could a site emergency affect the local residents? What assistance will be required from the community should an emergency occur? Recovery and restoration: Business recovery and restoration or business resumption, goes right to the bottom line: keeping people employed and the business running, along with preservation of life, is what emergency management planning is all about. Being in a position to resume operations quickly after an emergency will require a lot of pre planning to bring critical operations and systems back on line. It may entail: Repairing or replacing equipment Relocating operations to an alternate location Temporarily contracting operations Multi-skilling staff Referring to backed up data Providing or arranging for a range of services for staff Conducting salvage operations Communicating with employees, customers and supplies Emergency Response Procedures In an emergency, all personnel should know two key things: What is my role and where should I go? The procedures you develop need to spell out how the business will respond to emergencies. Whenever possible, develop them as a series of checklists that can be quickly accessed by whoever needs them. Determine what actions would be necessary to: Assess the situation Protect employees, customers and visitors including people with special needs and disabilities Protect equipment, vital records and other assets, particularly during the first three days Get the business back up and running Specific procedures might be needed for any number of situations such as bomb threats or fire, and in larger businesses for such functions as: Warning employees and customers Communicating with personnel and community responders Conducting an evacuation and accounting for all persons in the facility Managing response activities Activating and operating an emergency operations centre Fighting fires Shutting down operations Protecting vital records Restoring operations 14 Mind Your Business An emergency management planning guide for business in the City of Melbourne 15

9 Support Documents Documents that could be needed in an emergency include: Emergency call lists including: Wallet/pocket sized list of all persons on and off site who would be involved in responding to an emergency, their responsibilities and their 24- hour telephone numbers Emergency contact lists for key external business contacts Emergency contact list for employees Creditor contact information Supplier contact information Alternate supplier contact information should the supplier experience an emergency Key customer information Alternate source of supplies/materials for my customer should your business experience and emergency Computer hardware peripheral equipment inventory including supplier, leasing and repair information Computer software inventory including serial and license numbers, supplier contact details and location of backups Building and site maps that indicate: Utility shutoffs Waterhydrants Watermain valves Waterlines Gas main valves Gas lines Electrical cut-offs Electrical substations Storm drains Sewer lines Location of each building (include name of building, street name and number) Floor plans Alarm system Fire extinguishers Fire suppression systems Exits Stairways Designated escape routes Restricted areas Hazardous materials (including cleaning supplies and chemicals) High-value items Resource lists including: lists of major resources (equipment, supplies, services) that could be needed in an emergency; mutual aid agreements with other companies or agencies Training Schedule Everyone who works at or visits the facility requires some form of training. This could include orientation programs, periodic employee discussion sessions to review procedures, technical training in equipment use for emergency responders, evacuation drills and tabletop or full-scale exercises. Assign responsibility for developing a training plan and consider the training and information needs for employees, contractors, visitors, managers and those with an emergency response role identified in the plan. Determine for a 12-month period: Who will be trained? Who will do the training? What training activities will be used? When and where each session will take place? How the session will be evaluated and documented? As you become more competent in undertaking emergency management training you may wish to involve other people such as emergency response agencies, other tenants in your building or a whole neighbourhood precinct. Keep a record of the training program and conduct reviews after each training activity and amend your plan accordingly. The plan should always be modified at these times: After each training drill or exercise After each emergency When personnel or their responsibilities change When the layout or design of the facility changes When policy or procedures change Once updated, changes should be explained to employees and any other key stakeholders. Step 4 Implement the Plan Implementation means more than simply exercising the plan during an emergency. It means acting on recommendations made during the business impact analysis, integrating the plan into company operations, regularly training employees and evaluating and modifying the plan. And most importantly have the plan accessible but always keep a copy in a safe location well away from your worksite. 16 Mind Your Business An emergency management planning guide for business in the City of Melbourne 17

10 Step 5 Monitor and Review the Plan Planning is a continuous process. To be effective in an emergency, plans must be regularly checked, tested and revised or updated as conditions change. Monitoring is also necessary to keep track of staff changes, contacts, resources and the environment itself. Responsibility for monitoring and review would rest with the planning committee in a larger business, and a plan review schedule should be established. It is suggested that the minimum requirement is an annual review and test exercise. Amendments to plans are required where deficiencies in operational systems and procedures are revealed as a result of: Review meetings by the planning committee Changed hazards or operating environment Exercises and emergency debriefs More information For all Emergencies phone Victoria Police 000 For further information on the; Be Aware & Be Prepared Program visit or phone our Hotline This guidebook has been developed with reference to information sourced on the Internet including: Emergency Management Guide for Business and Industry: sponsored by a Public-Private Partnership with the US Federal Emergency Management Agency Mind Your Business A Disaster Planning Toolkit for the Small Business Owner: developed by the US Institute for Business and Home Safety and Small Business Administration Emergency Management Australia CRS Report for Congress, Bruce K. Mulock, Specialist in Government and Business, Government and Finance Division, November 29, 2001 Exercises are essential to ensure that plans are workable and effective, and are particularly important where: There have been no emergency operations for some time There have been significant changes to the plan, or There have been significant changes to the composition of the planning committee or key personnel Exercises allow planners to: Test the effectiveness of the plan Bring together all staff and give them knowledge of, and confidence in, each other in an emergency situation Help educate neighbours and the community about local plans and programs Allow participating emergency service agencies an opportunity of testing their operational procedures and skills in simulated emergency conditions in cooperation with business, and Test the ability of separate business divisions, tenants or neighbouring businesses to work together on common tasks, and to assess effectiveness of coordination between them After an exercise operational debriefs provide information, which assists in identifying shortcomings in emergency planning and also helps to validate plans. The outcomes of operational debriefs can lead to: Are-assessment of risks and the effectiveness of risk assessment and risk treatments Better preparedness for the next emergency and the potential for better response and recovery processes, and Improvements in prevention/mitigation arrangements Congratulations on making a decision to Mind Your Business by developing an emergency management plan to protect yourself, your employees and your customers from the devastating effects of an emergency. To help the emergency services in Melbourne know what emergency planning has been done by businesses in our city, please register your efforts to date at 18 Mind Your Business An emergency management planning guide for business in the City of Melbourne 19

11 How Prepared Are You? This simple checklist will help you identify just how prepared you are for an emergency? Has your business... Yes No 1 Documented an emergency management plan for the business Checked to see the business is complying with relevant legislation Documented aims and objectives for the company s emergency management plan Established an emergency planning committee Established an emergency control structure for the organisation including the appointment of appropriate roles and responsibilities Developed a process for ongoing maintenance of the plan and updating of information Hosted an ongoing program of awareness and education for staff, contractors and visitors.. 8 Documented and made readily accessible an emergency contact list for all internal and external stakeholders Held regular scenario testing to train staff and test the emergency management plan and arrangements Conducted an annual risk assessment for the business and its operations Given priority to training staff in areas of key risks Included familiarization with company emergency management policy and procedures as part of the staff induction process Developed building evacuation plans and held regular practice drills Considered the special needs of people with disabilities in building evacuation plans Established a system to account for all people on your premises Established a system to log events in the case of an emergency incident Spoken to your neighbours about emergency planning Established a process for emergency equipment maintenance and documented service providers and 24 hour contact numbers Mapped comprehensive building floor plans and site plans identifying items of interest to emergency services including power, water and gas supply, local roads, neighbours Established a business continuity plan identifying options for such things as relocation of facilities, information protection, asset replacement, service delivery maintenance, succession planning, public relations and reputation management, employee assistance programs and media management Mind Your Business An emergency management planning guide for business in the City of Melbourne 21

12 Check your results For a perfect score you should answer yes to all 20 questions. If your score is 17 to 20: Congratulations! Your business or organization is definitely one of the best in the area of emergency planning but don t be complacent - things change every day and so there is always maintenance work required If your score is 11 to 16: Your organization is more prepared than most but if there is an emergency that impacts on your business or organisation, chances are you won t have anticipated all of the potential consequences or be adequately prepared to cope. Put emergency planning on your agenda. At the very least make sure you complete this Guidebook and regularly check out the for more information. If your score is 10 or less: Your organisation is not well prepared and needs to take immediate action or the consequences could be drastic for your business, employees and customers in the event of an emergency. If, after completing the steps recommended in this guidebook, you are not satisfied with your level of preparedness you may also consider getting some expert help. Go to for more information 22 Mind Your Business

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