3 New Year’s Goals to Prepare Your Business for Emergencies


By ePACT Network | Posted on January 17, 2019

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Unexpected events can happen to businesses just as they can to people, whether it’s a medical emergency for an employee, or a natural disaster that affects your business and others in your community. With so much going on day-to-day, it’s common for emergency preparedness in any organization to be pushed down the priority list, so the start of a new year is a great time to set workplace resolutions, goals, or intentions, just as you would for yourselves!

Here are three goals you can compete by month-end to make sure your business is prepared for any emergency:

Goal 1: Get your emergency kit in order
An emergency kit is critical to support employees during a disaster or emergency. Take some time at the beginning of this New Year to review the contents of your business emergency kit - review, update, and add your supplies, and remember to keep the season in mind, as well as your business location and your team too.

Consider asking your employees to prepare their own individual emergency kit too. Some items that can be included in a personal emergency kit are:

  • Non-perishable food
  • Prescription medication
  • A flashlight and extra batteries
  • A change of clothes (including comfortable walking shoes).

Tip: If you really want to motivate your staff to do this, consider hosting a contest to see which of your departments is able to put together their kits the fastest!

Goal 2: Develop an emergency procedure and practice
Knowing what to do when an emergency strikes is critical for employee safety. Develop an evacuation plan, and then practice with drills to make this second nature for your team! Make sure everyone knows where your emergency supplies are located, where the emergency exits are, common hazards, and what their role is in an emergency. Here are some suggestions for emergency procedures and practice drills you can share with your teams:

Goal 3: Make sure your employees’ emergency support network is up-to-date

Although we don’t like to think about it, emergencies can, and do, happen unexpectedly, and it’s important that your team members have a loved one to help them through difficult times. Despite this, there are many myths about your emergency support network, including the assumptions that information is up-to-date, that emergency contacts know that they are listed as such, and that these people will know how to support your employees in a crisis.

Having accurate, up-to-date contact information for emergency contacts is the first step to reunite your employees with their family and friends, so they receive the right support in an emergency situation. As your organization collects and updates emergency details, consider using ePACT to simplify the process as much as possible:

  • ePACT allows you to send an email invitation to all your employees at once.
  • Each member of your team can create a single emergency record, and update their medical details and contact information as soon as changes happen.
  • Employees will connect their ePACT record to their emergency contacts, ensuring they know their role in a crisis, and that you have a way to communicate with them directly.
  • ePACT makes it easy for you to manage emergency information and provide the best care for your team in an unexpected situation.

Wishing you a happy and safe new year!

ePACT Network
ePACT is an NRPA Member Discount and an emergency network that works with recreation departments across North America to move medical and emergency information previously collected on paper forms to an online, secure, easy-to-use system. For more information, visit our website and connect with us on Facebook or Twitter.