Every situation is different because every company operates differently and different locations mean different concerns, explains William McGuire, president and CEO of Global Elite Group. “An emergency plan needs to cover location-based threats as well,” says McGuire.
McGuire suggests companies establish a chain of command, a set of emergency best practices (Global has developed best practices from previous experience in earlier disasters), debriefing and retraining to solidify areas that will impact employees the most during an emergency. Programs that offer these elements provide employers with a comfort and calm during a situation that is anything but.
“Global monitors natural and unnatural disasters that affect many regions, the ability to foresee issues and plan conservatively gives us the ability to not only set goals that are attainable during the crisis, but to also supplement the critical activities that are required by many of the government agencies involved,” explained Joseph D’Ascoli, director of special operations for Global Elite Group.
During this past year, a new type of emergency emerged: protests. “We have seen over the course of the last year a unique threat to companies in the form of crowd control,” stated McGuire. At Occupy Wall Street, crowds presented a very different problem, which kept businesses from running smoothly for months. This type of demonstration caught on in other areas of the United States and the world, disrupting businesses.
A more familiar threat, weather, is a concern as well. The hurricane season of 2012 officially started on June 1st. Tropical storms Alberto and Beryl, however, decided to form and cause problems in the Atlantic Basin beginning in May. The last time storms formed so early, before the official start of the season, was 1908. Forecasters are calling for 12 tropical storms, 6 hurricanes and 3 major hurricanes of category 3 or stronger. Regardless of the number, storms of this nature should be planned for as their impact costs a lot in lost revenues.