We’ve all done them.
From childcare centres to office buildings and construction sites, we’ve all ‘practiced’ emergency evacuations.
Often called fire drills, they’re more than just the opportunity to chat with our colleagues huddled together outside.
They exist to prepare businesses for an event—a fire, flood, or other kind of threat, like a dangerous accident—which requires everyone to leave site immediately. Fire drills test the readiness of your business and look for flaws in the process. This way, in the event of an actual emergency, you’re prepared.
Planning for Emergencies
Preparing for an emergency is an essential part of managing your workforce. An effective response across all areas of your business means your people get home safely after an emergency event.
To do this well, you need an emergency evacuation plan, safety wardens, first aid officers, and an emergency evacuation point (or muster point) where workers and visitors know to meet.
The First Step
When an emergency occurs, and you need to get everyone off your site or project, the first thing you need to do is make sure everyone is accounted for—how does your business do this?
Do you have a log of everyone who is in your building, or on your sites or projects, at any given time? And how quickly can you access this information?
Emergency Evacuations with Avetta
Alongside making sure your workforce is qualified and compliant, Avetta's workforce management software can help when it comes to emergency evacuations with our reporting and mobile solutions.
If you use Avetta on your sites or projects—especially Site Access—every person who enters your site or project needs to log in and out at an access point. This can be through the mobile app, logpoint, or kiosk. This ensures you have an accurate record of who is on your sites and projects at any given time, making it easy to account for them in the event of an evacuation.
What To Do When An Emergency Events Happens
There are three ways Avetta gives you the power to manage emergency evacuations:
The Mobile App
The Avetta Onsite Mobile App features useful emergency evacuation functionality.
- Create an Emergency Event
Select the site or project affected to post an emergency event and generate a list of those currently logged in at site. - Mark people safe
To mark people safe, select each worker to scan their access ID card or look them up using their ID number. - Contact absent people
Is someone missing? Tap each absent worker’s profile to view their details and contact them. This way, you can make sure everyone is accounted for.
The Emergency Evacuation Report
Don’t use the mobile app? You can jump on your laptop to open the ‘Emergency Evacuation Report’ direct from the Onsite database. You’ll see every person logged in at your site at the time of the evacuation. This allows for accurate roll call at your muster point.
The Emergency Evacuation Unit
This rugged tablet can be removed from its docking station and taken to your muster point. Workers can use it to scan their access ID cards and mark themselves as safe.
While no one wants an emergency event to happen, they can and do occur. Is your business ready?
Ensure everyone is safe in an evacuation with Avetta. Talk to someone today about supporting safety in your workplace.
