Corporate Emergency Response Training: 5 Best Programs

While corporate emergencies, such as fires or data breaches, are unexpected events, boards of directors can still plan and prepare for these scenarios by building a crisis management plan and requiring corporate emergency response training. 

Effective training not only prepares employees to remain calm and capable in crises but also ensures the safety and continuity of business operations. Enhance your company’s emergency response strategies with the 5 programs outlined in this article. 

What is Emergency Response?

An emergency response plan involves the plans, procedures, and actions put in place by businesses to effectively address and mitigate emergencies or crises that may arise in the workplace. These emergencies can range from natural disasters like earthquakes, floods, or wildfires to human-made incidents such as fires, chemical spills, or data breaches.

An organization’s emergency response strategy is a crucial component of its overall crisis management plan, a detailed guide that provides each department with instructions on how to respond in the event of specified crises and delegate certain matters to a crisis response team. All plans regarding crisis intervention should be the result of a collaborative process among the board of directors, risk committee, and others in senior management positions, such as the CEO or executive chairman. 

Benefits of Emergency Response Training

The benefits of emergency response training include:

• Preparedness: Training equips individuals with the knowledge and skills needed for crisis stabilization, reducing panic, confusion, and fear.
• Safety: Proper training ensures responders understand how to prioritize safety for themselves and others in high-pressure situations. 
• Resource optimization: Emergency response training helps your response team allocate resources quicker and more effectively. This enables supplies to be distributed more strategically and emergency personnel, such as law enforcement or behavioral health specialists, to get to the right place at the right time.
• Employee morale: Training may not be the most exciting aspect of an employee’s job, but the workforce will have more trust in the organization as a result. 
• Property protection: Emergency response training helps to minimize the impact of a crisis on the organization, reducing damage to the workplace and maintaining business continuity. A higher level of preparation could also lead to lower insurance premiums for the company and its main assets. 
• Legal compliance: Corporate emergency response training helps organizations remain compliant with federal (OSHA, FEMA, CDC) rules and other industry standards. 
  
  

Best Corporate Emergency Response Training Programs

The best corporate emergency response training programs to offer to your employees include:

1. First Aid/CPR Training

Knowing how to properly administer first aid and resuscitate a coworker or customer at your workplace is a fundamental skill for employees, especially if you work in an environment with more safety hazards. 

First Aid/CPR courses teach people how to treat basic injuries, recognize when a stricken individual needs CPR, and the basics of how to perform CPR without harming the injured person. These training courses also provide instructions on how to wear personal protective equipment (PPE) and practice proper sanitation techniques.  

2. Fire Safety Training

The dangers of a fire breaking out are a shared concern in nearly every industry, but the threat is most apparent in restaurants, factories, construction sites, and other workplaces that involve the handling of heat, chemicals, and oils. Employees need to understand the importance of fire safety procedures to minimize risk and protect everyone in the workplace. 

Fire safety training teaches workers to be more attentive to fire hazards to avoid mistakenly starting a fire. Courses also develop several related skills, such as what to do if you see smoke or fire and how to properly use a fire extinguisher. 

3. Emergency Evacuation Training

Some crisis situations demand that employees and customers leave the premises as soon as possible. However, a disorganized evacuation could lead to widespread panic, injuries, and property damage. 

Emergency evacuation training guides participants through different scenarios in which an evacuation would be an appropriate course of action and what to do if an exit isn’t possible. It also clarifies the chain of command by discussing the roles of each employee during an evacuation. Another key aspect of emergency evacuation training is to define evacuation routes and exits, meaning that the administrator must customize the course to suit each workplace. 

4. Active Shooter Training

Preparing for an active shooter at or near your workplace is a horrifying scenario, but modern circumstances demand that all organizations have precautions in place to protect workers and customers from potentially fatal encounters. 

Active shooter training provides education, strategies, and procedures to maximize safety if there is a confirmed active shooter on the premises. Common features of training courses include learning how to recognize a potential shooting threat, alerting security and law enforcement, simulated drills that emphasize escaping the shooter and finding secure hiding places, and when to fight back as a last resort. 

5. Hazardous Materials Training

For organizations involved in the manufacturing, use, or transport of chemicals, pressurized cylinders, and other biological agents, hazardous materials training is vital to ensuring safety across all departments. Training helps participants learn about each material they will come into contact with, how it reacts under different circumstances, and how to properly handle them so there is a lesser chance of a spill or leak taking place. 

Training also teaches people how to respond when they or another person comes into contact with a hazardous material. The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) says the training of hazmat employees must be completed within the first 90 days of their employment or a change in their job function. Recurrent training is required at least once every three years. 

Master Corporate Emergency Response With OnBoard

Companies can come under threat from a number of sources at all times. Corporate emergency response training helps organizations keep their workers safe, minimize risk, and preserve the reputation of the business. From the first draft to a finalized strategy, creating an emergency response program takes a lot of organization and collaborative discussions between board members and important management figures. 

OnBoard’s board portal software is built to assist corporations, governments, and nonprofits in accomplishing their security and compliance goals. Features such as a secure messaging platform and integrated Zoom integration allow conversations to take place from anywhere at any time.

Whether for regular board business or emergency board meetings, the platform streamlines governance with its user-friendly design, intuitive meeting creation tools, and insightful analytics.

Download our free Board Meeting Minutes Template to level up your board’s recordkeeping.