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Kamloops fire rescue personnel practice their skills during a massive emergency response drill at the city’s Thompson Rivers University. Photo submitted by Thompson Rivers University In May 2015, after more than two years of planning, the university conducted a massive emergency response exercise, involving hundreds of RCMP and emergency response personnel — including an Air 4 helicopter — and staff and student volunteers. While this particular exercise simulated a campus hostage-taking with multiple shooting victims, the lessons apply to any emergency, whether it’s a fire, a hazmat incident, or an earthquake. “The bottom line,” Jyrkkanen says, “is that you need to be prepared, you need plans, you need to test those plans and procedures, and you need to continuously improve them.” Plan for business recovery Planning for a crisis is crucial, and so is planning for the recovery afterwards. It can make the difference between an enterprise that goes under and one that survives, and even thrives. Laurie Pearce is a faculty member in the Disaster Management Program at Royal Roads University and she teaches business continuity management at the Justice Institute: “It’s about getting back to normal as quickly as possible,” she says, “because even a short-lived crisis can ruin a business.” Most importantly, says fellow academic Robin Cox, in planning for big emergencies, business owners should be thinking about their effects on the overall well-being of employees. Cox, who is program head of Disaster and Emergency Management at Royal Roads, and the lead researcher in the university’s ResilienceByDesign research lab, studied the process of recovery after a devastating fire in the summer of 2003 that virtually razed Barriere, B.C., north of Kamloops. “Businesses are made up of people” she says. “And if you want your business to continue after a disaster, you need people working. But if employees are uncertain about the safety of their families, friends, and pets, that’s where they’ll focus. An employee’s first impulse after a disaster is to go home to be with family.” 10 September / October 2015 | WorkSafe Magazine
And disaster can wreak longer-term effects on employees’ mental health. “Displacement leads to a loss of routine and a disruption of support networks,” Cox says. “Often the environment is completely changed, and that can be disorienting. And there are complex, stressful decisions to make, all while catching up on mounting workloads. “Being concerned about the well-being of employees is always important,” Cox says. “It’s even more so when in crisis.” But that work, of course, needs to happen well before a crisis occurs. Cox recommends employers develop a business continuity plan with employee input. “Consult with them, educate and train them, and encourage them to be prepared at home and on the road as well.” Jackie Kloosterboer can’t emphasize enough the importance of personal preparedness. She is the emergency planning coordinator for the City of Vancouver, and provides earthquake preparedness training for downtown businesses; she has also written a book on earthquake preparedness targeting families. “It starts at home,” Kloosterboer says. “If employees aren’t prepared at home and end up struggling personally after a disaster, they’re likely not going back to work any time soon.” So, in the event of an emergency, how do employers maximize the capacity for their businesses to recover quickly, maintain profit margins, and, ultimately, contribute to the recovery of the community in general? “Business recovery requires some extra considerations,” Pearce says. “You need to look at your supply chains, alternative facilities if your worksite is damaged, off-site data storage, how you can safeguard your computers, whether you have business interruption insurance or not — all the things you’ll need to get the business back to the state it was in before.” James Simpson, WorkSafeBC’s manager of corporate security and emergency management, agrees. “In addition to a business continuity plan that we regularly test and update, we also educate our staff to be well prepared at home, in their vehicles, and at work — because we know that the organization’s resilience is very much dependent on the collective resilience of our staff.” W Templates, checklists, and more • For flood and earthquake preparedness tools targeting business, go to the Emergency Preparedness for Industry and Commerce Council’s website at www.EPICC.org • For useful tips on everything from emergency pet care to being prepared for an emergency while travelling to business preparedness and a range of plans, guides, and templates, go to the North Shore Emergency Management Office website at www.nsemo.org/ preparedness FortisBC employees took part in a rope rescue drill as part of a North American Occupational Safety and Health (NAOSH) week activity in May 2014. Photo submitted by FortisBC September / October 2015 | WorkSafe Magazine 11
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