EMERGENCY EVACUATIONS
HOPE FOR THE BEST
Matthew Judge, Group Managing Director, at Anvil explains why crisis management plans are so essential, especially for internationally operating businesses.
It’s an old adage which still resonates today – ‘prepare for the worst and hope for the best’. We all hope that our personnel won’t be struck down by illness or affected by a disaster, but it does happen, and risk can be dramatically minimised when you have a crisis management plan in place that will form the basis of any evacuation.
CREATING THE BEST PLAN The fundamental factors in conducting a safe and efficient evacuation in a destabilised overseas environment are thorough prior planning, continuous and comprehensive analysis of potential security threats, and timely decision making concerning the evacuation itself. Emergency evacuation plans can help internationally-operating businesses
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effectively manage these factors and cope with situations that could require an evacuation of travellers when there is a threat to their safety from a specific source of risk.
The fundamental ideology of any contingency planning is to plan for the effect, not the cause. Of course, a business must consider what major event has led to the crisis, but the planning should be sufficiently flexible, whether it is for civil unrest, terrorism or a natural or manmade disaster.
Each crisis should be managed according to the situation at hand as it unfolds, but a base framework of considerations and processes will always be applied. Anvil develops crisis response plans with clients that are tailored to their specific needs,
locations and itineraries.
Amongst other areas, crisis management plans should always cover business continuity and practical considerations in case of an emergency, from highlighting designated ‘safe areas’ and routes, to assessing the geography of the location and establishing the easiest and safest way to remove an employee from any potentially dangerous situation.
WHEN TO REACT There are circumstances when it is obvious that corporations operating abroad must consider departure as the best course of action. Such incidents include serious terrorist threats, civil disorder or when a natural disaster or other event poses serious hazard to the safety of
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