Essential Information for Emergency Management Procedures

As part of your obligations under the Australian Standard 3745-2010, all workplaces are required to have emergency procedures in place.

These procedures must be included in your emergency plan, which documents everything related to your workplace’s emergency management:

• Who the members of your Emergency Planning Committee (EPC) and Emergency Control Organisation (ECO) are
• The contact information of your EPC and ECO
• Review logs
• Maintenance logs
• Records of all Emergency Training (including Emergency Response Training)
• Emergency Response Procedures for the emergencies you may face in your specific workplace

A large part of creating effective workplace emergency management procedures is taking into account the requirements that are particular to your site. This is so that your emergency plans contain relevant information and apply to your workplace. It’s important to understand that emergency plans are not all one and the same, they should be designed and structured to fit the site’s needs properly.

Emergency evacuation plans, for example, are not one size fits all due to differing layouts, hazards, etc.

Emergency response procedures should cover the particular situations that can threaten your workplace, such as:

• Building fire evacuation plans
• Fire safety plans
• Bushfire evacuation plans
• Flood evacuation plans
• Procedures for receiving bomb threats
• Procedures for receiving suspicious packages
• How to handle hazardous material spills

Any emergency response plan that is created must have the following documentation included, to ensure the plan is comprehensive, effective, adheres to regulations, and will keep yourself and your workers safe when responding to an emergency:

• Emergency evacuation diagrams
• How to identify an emergency
• How you should respond to the emergency
• Who you should inform about the emergency
• Who you should take directions from in an emergency
• Where you should go in the event of an emergency
• Where the appropriate emergency equipment is located

This is only a basic outline of what your emergency management procedures and plans need to include, in order to be compliant with AS 3745-2010 and keep your workplace safe.

Looking after peoples’ safety is a huge responsibility, so if you feel like you need help going in-depth and creating comprehensive emergency management plans and procedures, or carrying out effective emergency response training with your staff, get in touch with us today and let us help keep your workplace safe.