What goes in the office emergency plan?

Recent emergencies have got me thinking about office emergency protocols. That's probably because the other week I was driving to campus when I received a text alert about a bomb threat to the building next to my office. Huh, I thought. Do I keep driving in?

I ended up turning around and heading home to wait for an all-clear, which came an hour later. But colleagues in the building told me what a strange afternoon it had been. They were, after all, only steps from a potential bomb. Should they shelter in place, assuming inside is safest, or flee to gain some distance?

The truth is, even when our workplaces have emergency plans, they're often forgotten about, sitting in a dusty binder in a random office, or made by an employee who has since moved on to other tasks, positions, or companies. That's all the more reason to dust off the binder (and put the information online--remote work taught us that one!). In a recent article in Science Magazine, I discussed emergency plans with Alaina Levine. A good office emergency plan should contain the following info:

1. Contact information and alternative contact information. Work extensions aren't helpful if everyone has to stay home. What if your work network is compromised? Alternative emails and phone numbers are helpful.

2. A general plan for if you can't talk: If lines are busy or infrastructure is disrupted, who needs to come in, and for what reason? Should we all stay home or meet at the office? Consider if any crisis could lead to further crises at work that need to be attended to (lab buildings, take note!).

3. Floor plans, entry codes, and anything else first responders would need to enter the building.

4. Preplanned messages: There's a reason you were told to practice dialing 9-1-1 as a kid (just don't hit call!)--when we're stressed we can't think clearly, and people misdial these simple numbers all the time. Don't wait to create messages for employees as a crisis is happening.

To this point, I suggest creating templates that can be quickly filled in--think of it as a crisis MadLib. Emergency communication templates should include the location, scope, seriousness of the event, and action that should be taken upon receiving the message (NIST researchers support this template for short alert and warning messages as well). In the case of my text notification on the way to campus, what was missing was the scope of the event (did the next building over need to do anything?) and the action to be taken.

Crisis response templates can also stop the "freeze" moment that happens when you know your organization needs to respond but time is of the essence--whether that is caused by a reputation crisis or unfolding national event. But, maybe that's the subject for a different blog post. This is just a start to what goes in the office emergency plan, but a little goes a long way compared to not having a plan at all.