Emergency management planning: What business continuity professionals need to know
How can business continuity (BC) professionals be more actively involved in emergency management planning for their organizations? How important are emergency management planning activities and emergency management standards?
In the context of business continuity planning, emergency management is defined by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 1600 as “an ongoing process to prevent, mitigate, prepare for, respond to, and recover from an incident that threatens life, property, operations or the environment.” Or, according to the International Association of Emergency Managers IAEM), emergency management is the “managerial function charged with creating the framework within which communities reduce vulnerability to hazards and cope with disasters.”
Both BC/DR and emergency management are responsible for protecting the company, its personnel and assets. Identify opportunities for collaborative projects, such as joint disaster exercises, evacuations and risk assessments. Regular joint meetings of risk-related departments, such as business continuity/disaster recovery, emergency management, incident management, information security and insurance, can help eliminate potential confusion in an actual emergency, as compared with those same units operating in independent silos.
See Emergency management planning: What business continuity professionals need to know, by Paul F. Kirvan, FBCI, CBCP, CISSP for SearchDisasterRecovery.com.
Tags: emergency management, IAEM, NFPA 1600
