Develop an emergency management plan

This section prepares your business for an emergency by identifying your critical areas and how to protect them. Consider the following areas of your business.

Products and services

List your most important or profitable products or services.

Describe how you provide each one to customers and a backup if these arrangements fail.

Key customers

List your important customers and how you’ll contact them in an emergency to explain what happened.

Insurance

Record the details of your current insurance policies.

Property and infrastructure

Describe how you minimise risks to your property and infrastructure. For example:

• Is your property protected by alarms, security guards or video surveillance?
• Does your building use fire- and flood-resistant building materials?
• Do you control fire risk by cleaning your gutters and minimising leaf litter and long grass on your property?

Relocation and continuity strategies

Identify temporary office space you could access quickly in an emergency.

Include other strategies you could use to maintain business as usual. For example, a virtual office service or an online store.

Staff training

List your staff, their relevant skills and strengths, and any training that would help them keep your business running in an emergency.

Information backup

Record how you protect business information such as customer records, financial records and contact lists. This includes your backup procedures for digital data.

This section covers what you need to do during an emergency. You should include the following information.

Emergency contacts

List anyone you might need to contact in an emergency. This includes your local police, fire, ambulance and state emergency services.

Emergency procedures

Briefly outline your emergency evacuation procedures. You can also attach a copy of detailed emergency procedures and a floor plan showing emergency exits and equipment.

Include a schedule of your emergency evacuation drills.

Emergency kit

Record where your emergency kit is located or stored. Make sure:

• your staff know where it is
• it is clearly visible and labelled.

List the contents of your emergency kit and the date each item was last checked.

Emergency team roles and responsibilities

Communication is essential when making emergency planning procedures. Consider making a team of people responsible for any emergency. Set clear roles and responsibilities and provide appropriate training.

Complete the recovery section of the plan after an emergency happens. You should include the following.

Business impact assessment

Assess the damage to your business. List the main damage, its impact on your business and what you’re going to do about it. Assign responsibility for the tasks you've identified.

Recovery contacts

List all the organisations and people that are essential to your business’s recovery.

Insurance claims

List any insurance claims you make and discussions you have with insurers.

Market assessment

Based on the damage to your business and surrounding area, outline any changes to your market.

Marketing strategy

Outline the marketing strategy you’ll use after the emergency. Make sure you consider any changes in the market.

If your business is reopening, how will you get the message out? What channels will you use to target customers? For example, you might consider a targeted social media campaign to let people know your business is reopening.

After you‘ve completed your plan, attach copies of supporting documentation, such as:

• detailed emergency procedures
• evacuation maps
• insurance policies.

Regularly review your emergency management and recovery plan. It's important to update your plan after staff changes or when you move to a new business location.

Rehearse your emergency action plan with your staff. You might find there are things missing or steps you need to change. This is your chance to make sure your emergency procedures are as efficient as possible.