Is Your Business Prepared to Handle Potential Disasters? | SERVPRO of North Kenosha County

5/7/2019 (Permalink)

Is Your Business Prepared to Handle Potential Disasters?

Is Your Business Prepared to Handle Potential Disasters? | SERVPRO of North Kenosha County - SERVPRO OF NORTH KENOSHA COUNTY Blog

Business owners have many things to think about, but emergency preparation should be near the top of the list.

Having an emergency preparedness plan in place will not protect your business from all disasters or emergencies. However, it can offer peace of mind knowing that you have put together a plan to ensure that you have given the safety of your employees priority should a disaster or emergency situation occur.

Creating a Plan

Have you prepared an emergency preparedness plan that encompasses various disaster situations? If not, it should be a priority!

There are numerous emergencies your business should have a preparedness plan in place for, including:

• Fire
• Severe weather, including thunderstorms and winter storms
• Other natural hazards like floods, hurricanes, tornadoes and earthquakes
• Human-caused hazards, including accidents or acts of violence
• Technology-related issues like power outages and equipment failure

A disaster is a disaster, and an emergency is an emergency. It doesn’t matter if it’s a man-made incident or a natural disaster. If you have no emergency plan for your business, you are opening your business and your employees up for more problems than you would need in a stressful situation.

You should make sure that safety training and familiarization of emergency preparedness plans are included in the company onboarding process, team-building activities and continuing education opportunities. By helping employees familiarize themselves with proper safety protocol and emergency procedures, you’re not only giving them the tools to protect themselves, but you are also setting them up to help protect guests/visitors and the business itself.

Where to Start

As you are beginning to set up an emergency plan for your business, you should first perform an evaluation as to which scenarios are most likely to occur—and even consider the longshots. After all, it’s better to be prepared for all the worst-case scenarios and not be caught off guard.

There are plenty of online resources to help guide you through this process, including Ready.gov, the American Red Cross, FEMA and the CDC.

Perform a business impact analysis (BIA), which will help predict the potential effect a disaster may have on your business. This would include lost or delayed sales and income, increased expenses from repairs, and delayed implementation of business plans. Don’t forget to make sure a crisis communications plan is in place, too.

After you have done all of the above and have prepared an emergency preparedness plan, be sure to go over it and practice with employees. Reviewing and rehearsing various scenarios can help ensure the process remains fresh in their minds and can help employees feel more empowered.

Disaster can strike when you least expect it, but by being prepared and having a plan in place, your business will be better suited to handle whatever Mother Nature has in store. If the worst should happen and your business is damaged, know that SERVPRO of North Kenosha County is here to help make it “Like it never even happened.”