EAP, What Does Your Security Provider have to do with it.

What is your responsibility as a business manager to your owner/shareholders, employee, guest, customers, residents, or tenants? What liabilities do you face? What do OSHA and your local and federal government agencies expect of you? And what does your security provider have to do with it?

The first question you should be asking yourself is whether my business or facility has an Emergency Action Plan? Does it include an activity shooter plan? Does it include an emergency evacuation plan if something happens to your facility or a continuity plan to keep your business going and open? A plan to keep your employees working or having alternative vendors when your suppliers are also victims of the disaster. Most importantly, what part of your plan does your security vendor fit into? What do they do? And do they know what you expect them, and are they trained for such emergencies?

What is an Emergency Action Plan?

Part of L&P Global Security’s consulting services is to assist and participate in our client’s emergency action plan (EAP). An EAP is a written document required by OSHA standards. [29 CFR 1910.38(a)]. An EAP aims to facilitate and organize the employer, employees, and visitor’s actions during emergencies. Well-developed emergency plans and proper training (such that employees understanding their roles and responsibilities within the plan) will result in fewer and less severe injuries and less damage during emergencies. A poorly prepared plan likely will lead to a disorganized evacuation or emergency response, resulting in confusion and injury.

Several questions need to be asked when developing or reviving an EAP:

1. Have you conducted a risk assessment?
2. Do you have a threat management team?
3. Does your plan already include a plan for fire evacuation, severe weather, or bomb threats? Active shooter preparedness?
4. Have you developed a notification system in case of emergencies?
5. Have you identified evacuation routes and shelter locations within the building(s)?
6. Is there a plan for notification and evacuation of employees, visitors, people with disabilities seeing/hearing impaired, Non-English speakers?
7. Is there a plan to account for personnel and guests?
8. Do you have trained employees to recognize and report concerns?
9. Have you prepared a go-bag (facility maps, master keys, etc.) for use by arriving emergency responder?
10. Have you got an access control roster?
11. Is there a lockdown procedure and a shelter in place procedure?
12. Is there a recovery plan from an active shooter scenario that will include the whole community? It may include hospitals, grief counselors, lawyers, employee assistance, and other assistance as required.
13. Do you have a business continuity plan that allows for continuity of operations?
14. Does the plan include actions taken if a neighboring organization experiences an emergency and/or active shooter event?
15. Does the plan consider major suppliers and critical components in the supply chain for needed goods or services?
16. Does the plan address training, practice drills, and update classes?
17. An does your plan include your security vendor and their duties and responsibility during the emergency?

This blog will be the first of several. It will guide you and help you answer some of these questions. Our future blogs will help you evaluate each phase of your responsibility and help you develop your custom EAP for your specific business and facility type.

Let’s start by defining what your responsibility as a business manager to your employees, customers, and visitors to your facility is.

EMPLOYER RESPONSIBILITIES

Under the OSHA law, employers have a responsibility to provide a safe workplace. This is a summary of key employer responsibilities. Below is a reprint of what OSHA list as your responsibilities:

1. Provide a workplace free from serious recognized hazards and comply with standards, rules, and regulations issued under the OSH Act.
2. Examine workplace conditions to make sure they conform to applicable OSHA standards.
3. Make sure employees have and use safe tools and equipment and properly maintain this equipment.
4. Use color codes, posters, labels, or signs to warn employees of potential hazards.
5. Establish or update operating procedures and communicate them so that employees follow safety and health requirements.
6. Employers must provide safety training in a language, and vocabulary workers can understand.
7. Employers with hazardous chemicals in the workplace must develop and implement a written hazard communication program and train employees on the hazards they are exposed to and proper precautions (and a copy of safety data sheets must be readily available). See the OSHA page on Hazard Communication.
8. Provide medical examinations and training when required by OSHA standards.
9. Post, at a prominent location within the workplace, the OSHA poster (or the state-plan equivalent) informing employees of their rights and responsibilities.
10. Report to the nearest OSHA office all work-related fatalities within 8 hours, and all work-related inpatient hospitalizations, all amputations, and all losses of an eye within 24 hours.
11. Keep records of work-related injuries and illnesses. (Note: Employers with ten or fewer employees and employers in specific low-hazard industries are exempt from this requirement.
12. Provide employees, former employees, and their representatives access to the Log of Work-Related Injuries and Illnesses (OSHA Form 300 Provide access to employee medical records and exposure records to employees or their authorized representatives).
13. Provide the names of authorized employee representatives to the OSHA compliance officer who may be asked to accompany the compliance officer during an inspection.
14. Not discriminate against employees who exercise their rights under the Act.
15. Post OSHA citations at or near the work area involved. Each citation must remain posted until the violation has been corrected, or for three working days, whichever is longer. Post abatement verification documents or tags.
16. Correct cited violations by the deadline set in the OSHA citation and submit required abatement verification documentation.
17. OSHA encourages all employers to adopt a safety and health program. These include management leadership, worker participation, and a systematic approach to finding and fixing hazards.

As you have read, OSHA wants all employers to participate in workplace safety, from the work environment to the product and/or services you provide. OSHA also publishes this list to your employees on their website, informing them of their rights and how to report unsafe conditions.

Did you catch number 1.?  To provide a workplace free from serious recognized hazards and comply with standards, rules, and regulations issued under the OSH Act.

NOW, HOW DOES ALL THIS PERTAIN TO SECURITY?

In today’s world filled with growing concern over safety, the need for security in all aspects of life is becoming inevitable, specifically in the workplace. Employers have a responsibility not only to their shareholders but also to their employees and anyone visiting their facilities. And while security may seem like a surface-based issue strictly, one in which only employees are at risk, a simple cost-benefit analysis would prove otherwise. Imagine a situation in which a simple act of violence or an emergency occurs within your company’s walls.

Now imagine the consequences of the situation should business operations be interrupted for as little as a day. Imagine the financial impact this could have. Imagine the peace of mind of the owner/shareholders and the employees taken away by one individual’s actions. The overall results could be devastating.

Now imagine if you had planned ahead and not only hired security but hired competent security to ensure that such potential losses are mitigated. Not only would you as the employer avoid losing value with the owner/shareholders and staff, but you would instead gain value with the aforementioned as they would feel an even greater sense of security knowing that upper management truly cares about their safety and well-being.

In future blogs, we will discuss your security provider’s role and how to incorporate them into your Emergency Action Plan. How to conduct a Risk Assessment and develop a written EAP costumed to the specific needs and facility.

If time is short and you don’t have, an EAP or can’t wait for our next blog, call L&P Global Security. We will assist your personnel in developing or revising your EAP to include any security risk or threat to your organization and member agencies. We provide this service at no additional cost as part of our security services to our clients.

P.S. If you have any security concerns or any security needs at all in: Austin, Houston, San Antonio, Dallas, Fort Worth, El Paso, Arlington, Frisco, Plano, Addison, Carrollton, Cedar Hill, Coppell, Desoto, Duncanville, Grand Prairie, Hutchins, Irving, Lancaster, Mesquite, Richardson, Rowlett, Sachse, Seagoville, Wilmer, Mckinney, Celina, Prosper, Denton, Hurst, Euless, Bedford, Farmers Branch, Burleson, Cleburne, Grapevine, Keller, Southlake, Trophy Club, Little Elm, Lewisville, Flower Mound, Midlothian, Waxahachie, Highland Park, University Park, Wylie, Saginaw, White Settlement, North Richland Hills, Saginaw, River Oaks, Mansfield, Corpus Christi, Laredo, Lubbock, Garland, Irving, Amarillo, Waco, or somewhere throughout Texas, Contact L&P Global Security today and put your fears to rest. We provide free consultations and will consider any security concerns or needs regardless of risk.