ILMA Compoundings - June 2021 - 14

Emergency Preparedness
Tips and Resources
Preparation and planning can help ensure that your business
not just survives a hazardous event, but that you can
resume normal operations safely, quickly and efficiently.
To put things in perspective, let us take the auto industry's
current semiconductor shortage because of the COVID-19
pandemic as an example. While other automakers had to suspend
production and deal with long lead times for the chips,
Toyota raised its forecasts for vehicle output and earnings.
Toyota learned a vital lesson 10 years ago, when the
devastating earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan forced it
to shut down assembly for months. The company decided
to assess its supply chain risk. Toyota identified 500 components
- including semiconductors - that should be on
hand to prevent similar future issues.
As a result of that disaster planning and preparation,
Toyota now keeps two to six months' worth of chips in
inventory, allowing it to continue operating normally while
its competitors sit and wait for delivery.
WHAT EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS INCLUDES
Disaster preparation and planning is a significant task to
undertake, and it will involve almost every area of your business.
A good plan is not simply a document; it should include
frequent updates, regular drills and employee training.
Whether you go it alone or bring in experts to help create
your emergency preparedness plan, you should first start
with a risk assessment. This assessment should include
potential threats and vulnerabilities resulting from various
hazards and the impact and vulnerabilities those threats can
have on your business. Once you've done that, you're ready
to develop and document your plan.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) -
arguably the expert in emergency preparedness and response
- suggests that a comprehensive plan include the following:
* Resource management: This covers the resources you
need to respond to emergencies and how an incident
will be identified and assessed.
* Emergency response plan: How you plan to protect
people, property and the environment from any threat
identified in your risk assessment.
* Crisis communications plan: How you will communicate
with employees, customers, the media and
stakeholders in the event of an emergency.
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JUNE 2021 | COMPOUNDINGS | ILMA.ORG
* Business continuity plan: This section lays out your plan
to overcome any business disruption caused by a hazard.
* Information technology plan: Your plan to recover
hardware, connectivity and data to support critical
business processes.
* Employee assistance & support: How you will support
employees' needs in the event of a crisis.
* Incident management: This section covers who is
responsible for and who will coordinate activities before,
during and following an incident.
* Training: You should train the people identified above
to do their assigned tasks. Every employee should be
prepared to take appropriate protective actions during
an emergency.
RESOURCES
To ensure you are as well prepared as Toyota, we recommend
the following resources to get you started in creating
your emergency response plan today:
* OSHA.gov: Contains required emergency response
guidelines for any business with more than 10 employees,
along with online tools that will help you stay in
compliance (osha.gov/SLTC/emergencypreparedness).
* Ready.gov: Managed by the DHS, this site is devoted to
business and individual emergency and disaster planning.
* SBA.gov: The Small Business Administration provides
a " Business Guide " on its website that includes advice,
checklists and safety tips for just about any disaster
(sba.gov/business-guide/manage-your-business/
prepare-emergencies).
* DHS.gov and FEMA.gov: In addition to ready.gov,
the DHS and Federal Emergency Management Agency
(FEMA) websites offer emergency and disaster preparedness
advice for businesses (dhs.gov/how-do-i/
prepare-my-business-emergency and fema.gov/
emergency-managers/national-preparedness/plan).
* IRS.gov: Even the IRS has advice to help protect
financial and tax records in case of disasters (irs.gov/
businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/preparingfor-a-disaster-taxpayers-and-businesses).
INDUSTRY
RUNDOWN

http://www.OSHA.gov http://www.osha.gov/SLTC/emergencypreparedness http://www.Ready.gov http://www.SBA.gov http://www.sba.gov/business-guide/manage-your-business/prepare-emergencies http://www.sba.gov/business-guide/manage-your-business/prepare-emergencies http://www.DHS.gov http://www.FEMA.gov http://www.ready.gov http://www.dhs.gov/how-do-i/prepare-my-business-emergency http://www.dhs.gov/how-do-i/prepare-my-business-emergency http://www.fema.gov/emergency-managers/national-preparedness/plan http://www.fema.gov/emergency-managers/national-preparedness/plan http://www.IRS.gov http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/preparing-for-a-disaster-taxpayers-and-businesses http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/preparing-for-a-disaster-taxpayers-and-businesses http://www.ILMA.ORG

ILMA Compoundings - June 2021

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