Contingency Planning Emergency Response and Safety

Although there is some recognition of the importance of contingency planning, far too few firms have anything beyond a contingency plan that sits on a shelf in the CEO’s office. Even in those companies with crisis management teams (CMTs), the members often do not meet to plan or even discuss how the team would function in an actual situation. The most progressive firms offer the team members, fire brigades, and employees an opportunity to preplan (contingency planning) through mock exercises that replicate industrial disasters, explosions, fires, or tornado alerts. The end result is a better-prepared team of employees ready to respond to any contingency. Unfortunately, many firms have not gone this far. Contingency planning may not have been a traditional security process, but in today’s global business environment the security organization is assuming a much greater role and responsibility for its implementation. Even prior to the events of September 11, 2001, many organizations were becoming more conscious of the need to have contingency plans. A complete contingency planning program has three major elements: 1. Emergency Response; 2. Crisis Management; 3. Business Continuity: Business Recovery and Business Resumption. Emergency response activities involve responding to an incident, crisis or disaster and managing that incident at the scene. Should an incident escalate to the crisis or disaster stage, a CMT should take over managing the crisis to its conclusion. If the crisis or disaster does cause damage to a company building, facility or operation, the CMT should hand over to a business continuity team the responsibility of recovery and resumption. After a disaster, it is critical that the business recovers and resumes normal (pre-event) operations as soon as possible. Customers, shareholders and stakeholders expect nothing less. Executive management has the obligation to ensure contingency planning is properly considered and addressed within their company. The consequences of not planning for contingencies can be catastrophic with numerous liability issues.