Improve response to major incidents with effective preparedness and training
(Excerpted from our article in the March 2010 issue of Professional Safety)
When a major safety event takes place at one of your company's facilities, what do you do? How do you manage the immediate issues - avoid more danger, handle employee fear, manage circling news trucks or helicopters, and the like?
We often hear stories of engineers, supervisors and safety folks attacking the scene like a herd of elephants in a china shop. Others recount that one safety professional is sent out to do everything, which can feel like herding cats - including cats that don't accept the safety professional's authority.
Site managers and their staffs often are hesitant to call in someone from corporate because they like to maintain control of their own site and would rather handle the situation privately -- without judgment or imposition of corporate culture and opinion.
In short, it can be total chaos without a thorough plan and adequate preparation.
The heat of the moment is not the best time to decide what needs to be done and who's going to assume each role. In some cases, organizations have thought about that ahead of time, so they create and document protocols and procedures. But is that enough to enable people to be totally prepared? Many organizations don't know until the major incident happens.
How do you set up a system so that everyone really knows what response will look like, and what their roles/responsibilities will be? Plant personnel are responding with a goal to recover from the incident, so someone else needs to be prepared to respond with a mission to find the causes and solutions.
By designating, training and preparing employees ahead of time, and continuously practicing and refreshing training, organizations are most well-equipped to effectively respond to safety events...and help prevent them from recurring in the future.
For best practices related to setting up such a system, see the full article here.
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