We don’t generally like to think about emergencies. Yet, every startup should have safety and emergency procedures in place. These also need to be known to everyone in the company just in case anything should happen. Therefore, we give you all you need to know about emergency and safety protocols for the workplace - and even your home!
We’ll start with a definition of emergency procedures and basic safety protocols. Then, we’ll give you tips on how to work on emergency protocols for office spaces. We’ll follow that with advice on safety protocols for a home. And then, we wrap up with our free emergency and safety protocol template. Through that, we’ll also define what should be included in emergency guidelines. Pretty comprehensive and amazing, right? Well, our goal is always to help entrepreneurs out in knowing how to get startups off the ground with great ease. So, let’s get to it!
What is an emergency procedure?
There are many types of emergencies. From fires to hazardous material mishandling, the key to emergencies is knowing that responses differ depending on the case. There are mandatory procedures for organizations that are based on regulations. Those give guidelines on the ideal steps to follow to keep people safe. Their goal is to prepare people to take the required course of action for everyone to be as free of harm as possible when an emergency happens. Focused on the most common causes of urgencies, their objective is to ensure people’s safety. And they aim to achieve that through planned courses of action for the most foreseeable events.
It’s a clear responsibility to consciously implement these procedures to prevent visitors, staff, and potential clients from suffering any harm. This is especially relevant based on legal binds when people occupy a company’s area of jurisdiction.
What are the basic safety protocols?
Basic emergency plans and safety protocols provide added benefits aside from guidance. They help recognize hazardous conditions in a home or office. For instance, they guide an entrepreneur or office manager in knowing if a company is lacking resources. Examples of those are flashlights, batteries, and more essential items. They also aid in acknowledging any dangerous practices or areas. We’ll now expand on steps you can take for basic safety protocols in an office, followed by those at home.
For the office:
- Initial physical and legal scout
The first step to creating a safety protocol for an office is to map potential health and safety hazards. Aim to define the most common ones in offices at first. Then, describe ways to prevent injuries that come hand in hand with general office work. Focus after that on your precise industry and niche. Make sure you’re informed of any applicable laws in your location. Primarily, seek to comply with any regulations for office spaces. Most territories are bound to specific occupational health and safety legislation.
As you can probably foresee, you’ll need first aid kits around an office. They should be made available to all staff and easily attainable.
Collaborators should also be able to get their hands on personal safety equipment if they’re working on dangerous tasks or hazardous materials. That also requires safe places for storage and secure handling.
Install all your furniture safely, and make sure all pertinent signs are clean and readable.
Any kind of equipment that could cause injuries should only be used by people who’ve been trained to use them safely. We’ll get to some training needs below.
Also, label all the office items clearly and store them properly. That’s even more important if you’ll have any chemical products.
Emergency equipment needs to be checked regularly. Implement procedures that can guarantee someone is on top of that with the required frequency. In general, office space should be on constant evaluation to ensure it’s always kept legally safe.
Have a clear evacuation route for your office. For this, use clear signs. These maps should be easily accessible and widely seen around the office.
Bear in mind that evacuation routes need to be kept clear at all times. Ensure staff and visitors don’t use areas designed for evacuation as socializing zones. No office should be overcrowded, either. And spaces need to be kept clean and organized.
Select a few members of your staff as a leading safety group. They should be first in handling certain types of emergencies or injuries.
As you do that, make sure your entire company knows who these brigade members are, so they can go straight to them when there’s a need.
As safety is a team effort, everyone needs to be educated on proper safety requirements. So, continue with office-wide training, as well.
People you know will be coming into your office should be trained in case something comes up. In doing that, it’s essential to incorporate drills. Go through simulations to make sure procedures are clear for everyone and that they’ve gone over what to do if a need for evacuation arises.
You need to have clear guidelines for injuries in the workplace. Have another set in case of emergencies such as fire or natural disasters. Train collaborators on the proper way to deal with each. Teach everyone how to handle the applicable equipment, such as fire extinguishers.
We hope the above has been of help for emergency and safety procedures for working spaces. Let’s now see what happens in a home setting.
A house is also a place where accidents happen. We should be prepared!
Start off by creating a similar emergency procedure in case anything happens. Then, share it with the rest of the household members and train the little ones in case something comes up.
Make sure you have a first aid kit with essentials. Let people know how to use it in case of small injuries. Other than that, create a list of emergency phone numbers. Add reliable people to it. Think of those who can get to their phones at most times. Also, include people nearby who can show up quickly in case something happens.
Aside from that, here’s a vital checklist on home emergency and safety protocols:
- Keep flammables at a distance from fire sources.
- Store potentially harmful products correctly and out of reach from children and pets. This includes sharp objects.
- Keep electrical cords away from appliances or a counter.
- Make room for ventilation around all devices.
- Tuck electricals away from water sources.
- Keep stairs clean, dry, and well lit. There should be stable railings on both sides.
What should be included in an emergency protocol?
Planning and writing an emergency protocol for a company that covers all legal requirements can be daunting. How do we prepare for at least the most basic of emergency case scenarios? The task might seem hard to achieve if we don’t know where to begin. Especially if we’re starting a small company that doesn’t have an occupational health department. Those kinds of experts are of great help when it comes to establishing the right emergency protocols with full liability coverage.
To help, we created a free emergency and safety protocol template as a base. Of course, you’ll need to do the legal background checks to meet all of your legislation’s stipulations. However, this template’s the best informal tool to base your startup’s emergency & safety procedures. Using this prefilled format will aid in protecting everyone’s health. At the same time, it provides guidance on the necessary safety procedures people should follow at the office and when they work from home.
In it, you’ll find an emergency contact sheet. List important numbers and addresses in it. It also comes with room for evacuation maps and routes, a medical emergency, fire, severe weather, and extended power loss protocol. It still holds enough space for any other specific protocol you might need.
All of our slides are designed to give you the basics and enough room for you to customize slides in a visually attractive and easy-to-understand way. Train collaborators with it, share it with brigades and keep an overall safe environment.