In the average year, there are over 15,000 fires in office locations across the U.S.
Can you truly say that you’re prepared for an emergency at your office? The figures suggest that the likelihood of a fire is not as slim as you’d like to think.
Emergency management for offices helps you to fully perform your duty of care for employees, honoring your responsibility for their well-being. Keep reading as we explore the top methods and tools for emergency management in the modern climate.
What Is Emergency Management?
Emergency management for offices is an essential strategy for any business, ensuring wholeheartedly that third parties and employees are protected when under the office roof. Most emergency procedures and management techniques are mandated by industry regulations to keep business leaders entirely accountable.
However, you can improve upon these basic regulations and mandates to ensure more effective emergency management, making sure your employees make it to the evacuation point safely and quickly in the event of a disaster or emergency event. Here are some of the basics to cover in your emergency management for offices plan:
- Detection: The earlier you’re aware of an emergency, the more quickly you can begin addressing it and performing evacuation procedures.
- Evacuation or lockdown: Depending on the type of threat detected, you may need to either evacuate or lock down the property. In the event of a workplace fire, for instance, it’s best to hastily evacuate. But, in the event of an active shooting, it may be prudent to lock down the building and prevent the shooter from progressing.
- Clear chain of command: You should always have a designated employee in the office who is trained in emergency management for offices and able to lead the response. All rotas and hotdesk planning should be centered around the provision of a designated emergency responder. They will be responsible for alerting the authorities.
- Employee tracking: You should have a clear understanding of which employees and visitors are in the office at all times, allowing you to perform accurate headcounts and identify missing employees in the evacuation assembly and registration process.
With all of these measures in place, and a full understanding and implementation of mandatory health and safety measures, you’re set for an emergency. But, there are some technologies that can simplify and improve your response.
Top Emerging Technologies For Office Emergency Management
Let’s explore some of the innovative and groundbreaking security technologies that are making office emergency management for offices simpler and more agile.
Cloud-Based Access Control For Improved Evacuation
Access control technology is the best way forward for companies operating from office locations. It allows employees to enter the building easily with keycards and fobs while eliminating the possibility for lockpicking that exists with traditional key and lock systems.
In recent years, cloud-based access control solutions have become the top dog in the security sphere for the following reasons for emergency management for offices:
- Remote management: In an emergency, system administrators can initiate lockdown procedures or evacuation procedures from anywhere, allowing for immediate response. Remote door locking and unlocking is a winning strategy for emergencies. It also allows for remote viewing of access logs which can make for more accurate registration processes in a fire assembly situation.
- Open API integrations: Cloud-based technologies have open API integrations, allowing system administrators to integrate software enhancements to expand the function of their existing hardware, improving ROI.
- Wireless infrastructure: A wireless access control system is better suited for emergencies, as it will not fault in the event of a cut or burnt wire.
For all of these reasons, access control is a true asset to an emergency management strategy.
Visitor Management Integration
By leveraging the open API integrations that come with a cloud-based access control system, offices can keep track of visitors flawlessly, without having to rely on inaccurate or ignored visitor logbooks.
With this system, all visitors must register on their mobile devices to enter the building. Upon registering, they will be able to download temporary access keycards to their mobiles, allowing them to enter the building and access the resources associated with their visitor level.
With this information, you can ensure for certain that there are no visitors remaining inside the building in the event of an emergency.
Sophisticated Alarm Technology
Alarm technology is advancing to provide more accuracy in the event of a disaster or emergency. Here are some of the new and innovative alarm types on offer in the modern security sphere:
- Fire alarms
- Vape sensors
- Carbon monoxide alarms
- Glassbreak sensors
- Gunshot detection systems
- Motion sensors
Investing in as many alarm types as possible will provide you with the clearest visibility of your security situation. With modern and cloud-based alarms, you are able to use a browser or mobile app to view the layout of your floor plan and visually locate the trigger, allowing for immediate investigative response using your surveillance system. From there, you can begin emergency evacuation procedures or call a false alarm.
Summary
What should you do to respond to an office emergency effectively? Firstly, ensure accurate detection. Then, create a safe and agile evacuation plan. Then, ensure there are no visitors or staff remaining inside the building. This process can be immensely aided and smoothened by the technologies listed above. Consider which ones would be most beneficial to your emergency plan.
