In my many discussions with people, I have noticed something in common:

Critical Incident Response and Training, or the lack thereof.

This article will be divided into two parts; the first will be for employees, the second for managers and executives.

For employees:

Question 1, If there is a critical incident at your place of employment, have you been trained on how to respond?

Question 2, Do you know the location of the closest Artificial External Defibrillator (AED) to your workstation?

Question 3, Do you feel comfortable with your employer’s training program for critical incident response?

Question 4, Do you feel competent to handle your duties and responsibilities in a critical incident?

Question 5, Have you ever participated in an exercise at your current employer?

For management:

Question 1, Do you have a Critical Incident Response Plan?

Question 2, If not, how do you expect your employees to respond to a critical incident?

Question 3, Do you have onsite AED’s?

Question 4, Are you comfortable with the level of training your employees have in incident response?

Question 5, Do you feel that your employees are competent to handle their duties and responsibilities during a critical incident?

Question 6, Have you recently conducted an exercise to test your Response Plan?

Question 7, Do feel that your company communicates its Response Plan in a manner that is easily understood by all employees.

This survey could be given to employees and responses used to improve training and response.

Unfortunately, my experience is that most, if not all, of the responses would be in the negative.

Why is that? We live in one of the greatest eras of human history, with free resources from all manner of experts. Why not take advantage of those resources? Employers generally exaggerate their employees level of training and knowledge. Remember, in a critical incident we do not rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training.

So are you comfortable with your companies training program?

If not, or if you just want a review of your existing plan, please contact me to fulfill your emergency planning needs.