As a business owner, you have a responsibility to provide a safe working environment for your team, and whilst you may think that you’re doing all you can on a day-to-day basis, have you considered what might happen in an emergency situation? If the answer is no, then it’s imperative you continue reading and implement a safe evacuation process in your workplace, whether that’s something as simple as ensuring you have an evacuation chair in place, or something more complex like creating a complete process and procedure, we at K5 have designed this post to help!

What Do I Need To Include?

When faced with an emergency situation you’ll undoubtedly end up running around like a headless chicken without an evacuation process, and not having one could result in confusion, injury or property damage.

– The first thing to consider is in what scenarios will you need to evacuate; sit down and brainstorm the very worst situations and come up with a list of the conditions needed for full evacuation.
– A chain of command is vital in an emergency situation, if you don’t clearly set out who is in charge at times like this you’ll run the risk of a highly disorganised evacuation.
– You need to set out specific procedures in terms of exit routes, and whilst this may sound simple, you need to think carefully about them; make sure they are clearly marked and well-lit, wide enough to fit your team and kept unobstructed and clear of debris at all times. It’s also worth setting up secondary routes should you not be able to access your primary ones.
– Next you’ll need to consider your processes for assisting people with disabilities or who don’t speak English, which is something that we’ll be able to assist you with in terms of the correct equipment and subsequent training that’s needed.
– Finally, work out how you are going to account for your team, which might be something as simple as keeping a register in an easily accessible place for emergencies.

The best way to prepare is simply to plan ahead, you’ll think much more logically now than when in the face of an emergency.