Including an Emergency Plan in your Handbook

30 Aug Including an Emergency Plan in your Handbook

Including an emergency plan in your employee handbook is a successful way to assist in the overall safety of your employees. In the case of an unfortunate event, you’ll want to make sure your employees are aware of the right actions to take. When your staff isn’t prepared to know what to do in the event of an emergency, it can lead to staff, client, or customers getting harmed. Injuries and casualties lead to a large loss of finances leading to the failure of your company.

Emergencies can happen in an instant and there could be only seconds present to make a decision. With your staff informed on policies and protocol, it helps to ensure everyone remains safe. Your employees are valuable, if not the most valuable asset your business has. Here are a few key points to include in your handbook:

1. Including an in-depth emergency plan that includes all possible scenarios could be difficult to tackle. Make sure your employees know where to find the information in your handbook.
2. Include a map or indicate where a map can be found of the premises and indicating emergency exits as well as emergency routes and meeting spots.
3. Provide your employees with phone numbers of individuals to contact. Having a complete list or a tree of contacts is a great way for everyone to stay informed.
4. Medical emergencies may not impact everyone on your team, but knowing how to deal with one is vital. Understanding who to contact and where eye wash stations, medical supplies, defibrillators, etc… could save a life.
5. Include the expectations of your employees and how they should conduct themselves. Workplace violence unfortunately occurs on a regular basis and is an emergency when it happens. Policies in place to combat workplace violence can help to eliminate it from happening. In the event workplace violence happens, setting the expectation of how it will be addressed should also be included in your emergency plan.