Today's Tip
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Involve your employees. Ask them if they are aware of the emergency procedures of your company. Do they know what to do and who to call if they see something dangerous? Are they aware of the resources available to them after a traumatic event has occurred? Ask them to objectively rate your company's emergency plan. If they don't feel safe at work, perhaps your plan needs work or your employees simply need to be better informed. Involving employees somehow in the process of evaluating your company's emergency plan can add an important perspective on its weak areas.
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Dear ,
In the business world, all are familiar with--and somewhat fearful of--evaluations. However, with respect to emergency readiness, a business's failure to self-evaluate may result in even scarier consequences. It is easy to be caught up in the details of the here and now, but neglecting to effectively prepare your company to handle crisis in the future makes it extremely difficult or impossible to recover from traumatic events.
Emergency preparedness is more than having a fire escape and knowing to call 9-1-1. It includes having an organized plan designating specific roles of handling an emergency to specific people. It takes into consideration the aftermath such an event will leave on the mental and emotional health of your employees. It involves the appropriate people--authorities, therapists, HR--in its planning and execution.
Is your business prepared? Read on and evaluate your business with a critical eye. Allowing this important matter to fall through the cracks now will only make it more difficult to pick up the pieces later.
Let us help you prepare your business. To start, find out where you stand!
Best regards,
Vanessa & Wilma
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Self-Evaluating Your Business's Preparedness
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 Where do you stand?
Does your business's emergency plan pass the test? Consider the following questions in assessing your strategy and see if it's up to par. 1) Are the appropriate people and resources involved in your plan? --It is important to build a team of reliable individuals to know about and assist with every aspect of an emergency. Do not forget to involve security, law enforcement, therapists, HR, etc. in addition to a select group of employees capable of acting under highly stressful situations.2) Does each person involved have a clear understanding of what their responsibilities are in the event of an emergency? Are all employees aware of the procedure for handling an emergency when it happens and after it happens? --Knowledge is power. The more your crisis team and employees know about what to do and what will be done, the better they will handle the emergency. 3) What does your post-crisis strategy entail? Do you have one? --It is absolutely vital to consider the toll a crisis will take on employees when developing your strategy. In order for a business to recover quickly and effectively from a traumatic event, you must equip yourself with the support of therapists or your company's EAP. This aspect of preparedness is vital to helping your company get back on its feet faster after a trauma.These are only a few of many factors you should take into consideration in preparing for an emergency. For more questions to ask yourself in evaluating your plan and ways to address weak areas, visit our website at http://traumaoutreach.com/where.asp.
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, Thank you for taking the time to read this month's Trauma Talk. We hope you have found the information useful. If there are any topics you would like to see featured in a future
article of Trauma Talk, please let us know and we
will do our best to address them. We appreciate your comments, stories,
and thoughts as they will help us further refine and enrich the newsletter in
such a way to benefit you. We are also excited to announce that our long-anticipated forum has finally arrived. Please visit our website here and feel free to post queries and thoughts. We look forward to hearing from you! Until our next talk, stay healthy and take care.
Warmly,
The Trauma Team
Trauma Outreach Associates, Inc.
Phone: 415.772.9999
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In the next issue...
When violence at home comes to the workplace
415.772.9999
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