How to Handle a Business Emergency
A business emergency can look like anything: a sudden stock shortage, an employee injury, even an attack in the workplace. Large or small, a business emergency is anything that has the potential to put your workplace on hold and perhaps cause danger to your employees or your business’ reputation.
As they’re so varied in scope, you shouldn’t treat all business emergencies with the same severity. However, it’s useful to know of the basic responses to a general emergency in the workplace, for if you ever find yourself in such a situation.
Here are 5 top tips on how to handle a business emergency:
1. Prepare in advance
Whatever your emergency may be, you can prepare in advance to either prevent the situation from arising or ensure a fast resolution if an emergency does occur.
Putting a means in place to report emergencies quickly, familiarising staff on escape routes, and using a system to account for all employees in the workplace will help you maintain control at all times.
2. Use your own emergency response team
If you work in a particularly hazardous environment, you may need your own emergency response team. This team should be trained in first aid, the use of fire extinguishers, shutdown procedures and anything that specifically relates to your line of work.
3. Identify the problem as soon as possible
All emergencies can be fixed faster if the problem is identified as soon as possible. In some cases, such as employee injury, you’ll be likely to be notified of the incident quickly.
But issues relating to stock, such as being let down at the last minute by a large supplier, may take hours to even learn of. Make sure you stay up-to-date with every element of your business to ensure you don’t miss out on an emergency as soon as it occurs.
4. Take immediate action
There is no time for delay in a business emergency. If an employee has fallen ill, ring for an ambulance ASAP. If there’s a fire, call for back-up if it isn’t safe to put it out yourself. The quicker you can take action, the more successfully the situation will be resolved.
5. Build a relationship with a courier you can trust
If you’re in sudden need of an essential piece of stock or equipment, use a same-day courier service you can trust to get it to you faster. It helps to have already built a relationship with – or at least made a note of – a courier you can trust. If there is an emergency delivery required, the team at Hawk Couriers can step into help.
6. Put steps in place to prevent a future problem
While you can prepare in advance against any emergency, your business may experience a situation you could never have expected.
In this case, you can move on from the ordeal with new knowledge on a potential workplace threat, which you can take steps to prevent in the future. Even just keeping the relevant emergency numbers at hand, including those for specific emergency services and emergency couriers, will help you massively.
Some people believe that there’s no real way to ever fully prevent a business emergency – but you can certainly try your best.
In all instances, if you’re unsure you can resolve the situation yourself, call on an expert. They will almost always be able to help you safely and quickly settle the ordeal.