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Emergency Supply Strategies - For Any Business |
by Jim Serre
This paper will unlock some of the mysteries of emergency supply planning for those managers tasked with developing emergency response plans for their company. We’ll begin by addressing the critical survival needs of employees and then evaluate “best-in-class” strategies for determining and storing emergency supplies based on office size, physical building structure and geographic location.
While most large businesses have expended the energy to develop business continuity plans, the majority only focus on the operational aspects of the business. Considerations generally include backup power, redundancy in computing systems, office space requirements should relocation be required, management of employees working remotely, external communication systems, inventory replacement, and contracts for support vendors from office supplies to computer tech support.
But what if your office had to shelter-in-place for up to 3 days or longer? What if you were able to send “non-essential” personnel home and maintain a core group of employees to manage operations for several days or weeks? You will have to consider and overcome issues related to housing employees, communication systems that could be inoperable, power outages that could occur, water that could be cut-off, and your inability to cook or use cold storage (without a cafeteria in your building). Many office and risk managers are faced with such questions with little or no planning resources, just a budget limit. If your company has large regional office locations, a multitude of local offices throughout the country or a large multi-building campus, the solutions are even more complex. We’ll begin by examining the basic human survival needs.
Survival Considerations
Water - In general, the “Rule of 3s” tells us that humans can go without water for up to 3 days and without food for up to 3 weeks. However, such fasting could adversely affect many systems within the body. It has been shown that if you lose just 2.5% of your body weight from water loss, you will loose 25% of your efficiency. Water is the key to survival and having adequate supplies is critical to maintaining your employee’s mental acuity and stability. Many sources recommend up to 1 gallon of water per day per person; however, this includes medical and hygiene uses for the water as well. Two quarts (approximately 2 litres) per day may be a better approximation for drinking purposes only. Assuming that the average outdoor temperature is 80 F and employees are inside a building out of the direct sunlight, survival may be possible with at little as 8 to 10 ounces of water per day. The general rule for water storage is the more the better, but there are storage and transportation issues associated with large quantities of water that you need to consider. 1) Space to store large quantities of water is generally at a premium and floor loading may be a consideration in some instances; and 2) the cost to ship water is expensive due to the weight. Local purchases tend to be less expensive.
Food - In survival terms, “Food” is a generic term that represents calories. It is not that we need a cheeseburger for lunch, we need 800-1000 calories per day to maintain acceptable body functions. Variations depend on a person’s weight, level of activity during the emergency and their mental outlook (stress level). Employees performing light search and rescue operations in your building will burn more calories and therefore require more calories. This will also be true in low temperature environments where humans expend additional energy to maintain body heat. Most employees enjoy 3 meals a day in their normal daily routine; however, in survival mode they may be snacking more throughout the day to make their rations last. The easiest food rations to procure are high calorie food bars designed to be stored for up to 5 years. While all employees may not enjoy these bars, they will provide the needed calories for your employees to survive a 3 day emergency. To make the emergency more tolerable, you can consider more sophisticated rations such as “meals ready to eat” or “MREs.” These are available in various breakfast and dinner entrées as well as complete meals. Most are self-heating and you should make sure that the ones you select do not require additional water to heat the meals. This is important as you may not have the means to heat food, and water may be in short supply. Such meals could allow employees to get at least 2 “normal” meals per day and you can augment those with food bars for mid-day snacks if you like.
Shelter - Assuming your building has not been structurally compromised, it would be possible to keep your employees within the structure or maybe a smaller section of the structure. As such, shelter from the elements would not be a concern. However, if power has been lost, you may need to consider supplies to keep your employees warm and somewhat comfortable at night while asleep. Items such as limited use survival blankets and sleeping bags could prove useful. A greater problem is keeping your employees at the office when the structure is not suitable for occupancy. This exposes them to the environment and there are a myriad of shelter problems that should be considered. An initial plan would be to coordinate with adjacent businesses or other suitable structures (e.g., church, warehouse, etc.) that your employees may share during an emergency. Another unaffected building on your campus may also be an option. In lieu of an alternate structure, you will need to consider portable shelters or tents (with walls if your location is susceptible to cold weather), cots, tarps, and portable heaters, lighting and power.
Communication - It is critical during any emergency to have access to the Emergency Alert System (EAS) to keep you informed as to the status of the emergency. If land-line and cell phones are inoperable and power outages restrict radio, television and Internet access, you need a way to stay informed. Here is where a hand wind-up AM/FM radio becomes very valuable. Even without electricity or batteries you can listen to stations still able to broadcast via the EAS. Obviously, not everyone needs a radio, but having access to updated information will help to put employees at ease. The number of radios you should have depends on the total number of employees sheltered, number of floors, size of your office or number of buildings on your campus. In general, having one radio for every 20-40 employees is a good estimate.
Hygiene/Sanitation - This should not be a concern unless you have lost the water supply to the lavatory facilities in your building. In which case, you now need to consider a backup waste collection system and provide some means for employees to maintain their personal hygiene and prevent the spread of germs. Portable wash stations and toilets are readily available and fairly inexpensive to rent; however, you would have to have these resources placed at your facility in advance of an emergency and they are bulky. Other less expensive options include portable folding toilets with waste bags or 5 gallon buckets with toilet seats and waste bags.
First Aid - Most offices have mandated OSHA first aid kits located throughout the building. While these may be sufficient for everyday small emergencies, you may need to consider additional supplies for a larger emergency of extended duration. Certainly, trauma supplies should be included in your planning with plenty of 4x4 sponges, gauze rolls, tape, splinting materials, eye wash, burn gel, assorted aspirin and non-aspirin products, and protective gloves, goggles and face masks. Key personnel trained in emergency medical operations should be readily identified in your office and have immediate access to needed medical supplies. Your trauma supplies should be outfitted to meet the scope of practice of your certified emergency personnel. If you don’t already have one, consider installing an Automated External Defibrillator (AED) and train personnel in its use.
Now that we’ve identified the needed supplies to support our employees let’s examine how to determine the amount of supplies needed for various business scenarios.
Workforce Considerations
When determining how many employees will need to be housed in the office, you need to evaluate the average number of employees in your office on any given day. While a call center may have a fairly high usability factor, consulting firms strive to have the majority of consultants off site at client offices. Depending on the emergency, you may be able to dismiss the majority of employees to their homes but retain a much smaller core group to manage operations in the office. This option significantly simplifies your preparedness needs but it is completely dependent upon your business and the nature of the emergency. Another key consideration is your ability to monitor severe weather in your area and dismiss employees well in advance of a potential disaster. If you can advise employees to return to their homes safely in advance of a potential disaster, this will also significantly reduce your planning needs. Keep in mind; your emergency plan must consider many emergencies, even if the most likely scenario in your area would allow for advance warning (i.e., hurricane). There are many other types of emergencies, so betting on being able to release employees in advance of a potential emergency is not a complete plan.
Fleet Considerations
Some businesses rely heavily on a large fleet of vehicles to transport employees, provide services to customers, or deliver goods to end users. You need to consider that employees may become stranded in a company vehicle during an emergency. As such, a sufficient quantity of minimal survival supplies (e.g., water, food, shelter and first aid) should be maintained in every vehicle to support the potential number of occupants. It is very important to maintain the integrity of these supplies and inventory them often. This should be done as part of regularly scheduled vehicle maintenance. You should also inspect the supplies prior to a significant weather season (e.g., hurricane, tornado, winter, etc.). Pay special attention to supplies kept in vehicle trunks that operate in extreme environments (especially heat), as this can significantly shorten storage life of food rations and usability of first aid supplies.
Office Structure Considerations
Small Offices - If your business is in a small office suite, emergency supply storage is a problem. Such businesses are usually better off procuring pre-assembled emergency kits (e.g., 5, 10 and 20 person kits) that would support slightly more than the number of employees in the office. These kits are compact, stackable and water-proof in case of sprinkler system discharge.
Regional Offices - Companies that have regional offices are generally contained in one stand-alone building, a portion of one floor in a building or located on one or more floors of a larger structure. Regional offices need to consider that all or a portion of their floor space may be impacted by an emergency and not usable or accessible. As such, you need to divide up your emergency supplies in such a way as to support each area on a floor or the entire floor depending upon the interior structure. Consideration also needs to be given to barriers such as automatic fire doors or blocked stairways to ensure employees on both sides of the obstacle have access to needed supplies. It is best to keep emergency supplies in a locked area to prevent the day-to-day usage of emergency supplies. However, several individuals should have access to the secure supplies to ensure employees have access in an emergency.
Large Multi-Building Campuses - For the largest companies that maintain one or more large multi-building campuses, the considerations presented above are amplified. Having multiple buildings may allow you to relocate employees from one damaged structure into an adjacent sound structure. Such facilities may also have large buildings (e.g., warehouses, manufacturing buildings, etc.) that could accommodate the majority of personnel in an emergency. Basically, you would have the same considerations that regional offices do above, and you should attempt to segment your buildings so that each area has a cache of emergency supplies secured to prevent pilferage. Although, based upon the potentially large number of employees, you may want to provide a larger, more centralized area for food and water storage. Being able to store larger quantities of both could significantly reduce your costs. For example, storing water in large potable water tanks vs. 55 gallon drums vs. one litre boxes provides huge savings. Given that such campuses may have more than one cafeteria also provides the option to store additional food supplies in the existing freezers and refrigerators if possible. However, you need to consider that such supplies could be lost during an extended power outage, so think in terms of a back-up generator.
Geographic Considerations
Geographic location certainly has an effect on your emergency planning. California is earthquake prone, hurricanes hit hard in the southeast, floods occur annually in the Midwest, tornadoes roam the plain states, ice and snow storms cripple the northeast, and the pacific northwest is prone to tsunamis. In general terms, it is colder in the northern U.S. than it is in the southern states and very humid around the gulf coast. And on top of all these considerations, terrorism has no bounds or season. But given all this, you need to make sure that you don’t focus on the most obvious threat, and consider multiple scenarios in your emergency preparedness plans. Local weather conditions should figure prominently in your plans and selection of emergency supply items. For certain events, such as earthquakes and hurricanes, you should plan on tripling your supply inventory. A 10 day supply is usually considered the minimum for such potentially large scale disasters.
Annual Emergency Supply Inventory
You need to check your emergency supplies inventory at least every year. Make sure temperature extremes have not affected your supplies. Such extremes can significantly reduce the shelf-life of food and first aid supplies. Make sure that you have adequate supplies if your company has increased staffing levels. Evaluate any office relocations, building additions or modifications to ensure you have the supplies properly placed in the structure. Consider replacing a portion of your food supplies every year so you don’t have the expense of doing it all at once.
Emergency Supply Incentives
Making sure your employees are prepared ahead of time is one of the keys to reducing the negative effects of an emergency situation upon your business. A prepared employee will know what to do in an emergency. You should also consider ways to help employees adequately prepare their families for emergencies with survival gear and disaster supplies. This will increase their personal safety and help your business get back up and running quickly, as those who are prepared at home will be better able to focus and carry out their responsibilities at work. One way to help your employees prepare is to provide survival gear as part of a company reward or recognition program. For more information read our Employee Recognition Awards You Can’t Live Without article.
You can procure bulk supplies and provide such supplies or survival kits directly to employees as a reward, or make an online emergency preparedness store available through your intranet for employee purchases. Either way, you will truly be helping your employees and their families, as well as improving your employee’s ability to recover from a disaster and more readily support your business following a disaster.
Summary
While having a well organized emergency plan is a start, make sure that you articulate your plans to employees so that they understand your commitment to them and their families. Make sure you address necessary survival considerations to ensure the comfort of your employees during and after an emergency. Unfortunately, such planning and supplies is no longer a luxury, it is a necessity in the world today. And be sure all employees are aware of their closest emergency supply location so they can locate and assist in the distribution of needed supplies. |
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