Training is essential to ensure that everyone knows what to do when there is an emergency, or disruption of business operations. Everyone needs training to become familiar with protective actions for life safety including evacuation, shelter, shelter-in-place and lockdown.
- Conduct safety and evacuation drills, such as fire drills, as required by local regulations.
- Conduct regular sheltering and lockdown drills.
- Train employees to become familiar with safety, building security, information security and other loss prevention programs.
- Train members of emergency response, business continuity and crisis communications teams so they are familiar with their roles and responsibilities.
Team leaders should receive a higher level of training, including incident command system training, so they can lead their teams. Review local regulations to determine training requirements. Keep records of the scope of training, participants, instructor and duration of training.
If emergency response team members administer first aid, CPR or use AEDs, they should receive training to obtain and maintain those certifications. If employees use portable fire extinguishers, fire hoses or other firefighting equipment, they should be trained in accordance with the applicable OSHA regulation. If employees respond to hazardous materials spills, they also require training.
Drills and exercises should also be conducted to validate emergency response, business continuity and crisis communications plans and to evaluate the ability of personnel to carry out their assigned roles and responsibilities.
Training Resources
- Training Requirements in OSHA Standards and Training Guidelines - U.S. Occupational Safety & Health Administration
- ICS (Incident Command System) Training Materials and Opportunities - Emergency Management Institute (EMI), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
- Building An Information Technology Security Awareness and Training Program - National Institute of Standards and Technology, Special Publication 800-50
- Emergency Management Institute Higher Education Program - DHS, FEMA, EMI
- Business and Industry Crisis Management - DHS, FEMA, EMI
- Continuity of Operations Training – DHS, FEMA, EMI