Business Emergency Preparedness

Businesses that prepare for disasters:

• Are better positioned to survive disasters
• Are less likely to lose critical data
• Have greater chance of preserving their brand and customer base
• Are in a better position to protect employees
• Will have a greater and faster chance of recovery
• Can minimize loss of income

How do we prepare for any potential emergency? Visit our Business Continuity Plan page to get started! If this process seems overwhelming, never fear, organizations such as Community Futures Okanagan Similkameen in Penticton also offers workshops to help you through the process. 

1. Site Safety

• Install fire sprinklers and regularly check smoke detector batteries.
• Maintain fire extinguishers.
• Post your emergency contact information in a public place at your office.
• Make a list of safety equipment and supplies and post it in a visible place: This would include first aid kits, fire extinguishers, etc.
• Consider your customers’ safety: Create procedures to help them to safety and establish a method for accounting for them.

2. Protect your Data

• Install firewall and antivirus software.
• Ensure computers are connected to surge protectors.
• Back up your critical business data frequently and keep off-site or consider web-based backups.

3. Plan Ahead

• Check that your business insurance is adequate, including your tools, inventory, company vehicles, employees and your office space.
• Develop a business emergency preparedness/business continuity plan to ensure your business can get up and running quickly after any disruption. See more about this in the next section.

4. Plan your Recovery

Identify steps that will need to be taken to get your business up-and-running as quickly as possible. Examples:

• Make a list of potential contractors and/or cleanup crew.
• Who would you need to call for damage evaluations?
• Would a temporary office location be required?
• How will staff be compensated during this time?
• Consider security options to protect the business and its contents.

5. Review & Test Your Plans

• Conduct evacuation testing with employees at least once a year.
• Adjust and revise your plans as needed, ensuring your lists are up-to-date.

Greg Perkins, a former police officer who now leads security consulting firm Liahona Security, specializes in a method called Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED). He offers some key points to help businesses prevent crime.

Tip #1

Nip any signs of disorder in the bud as soon as you see it. This may be graffiti on the side of your building or beer bottles strewn outside your office. Clean up the area immediately to “create a perception that someone is active and passively in control of the space,” said Perkins. Keep your building and area maintained, including the trimming of shrubbery.

Tip #2

Improve sightlines. Make eye contact and say good morning to people, creating a cue of observation that drives offenders away. This is otherwise known as natural surveillance. Ensure you can see over store shelving in your business and outward onto the street. Be the “eyes on the street.”

Tip #3

Use CPTED strategies, including visible sightlines to your point of sale, remove marketing posters from ground-floor windows (which may block visibility) and ensure your building access is clearly defined and controlled. Ensure there is no external access to water and electricity and that the area is well lit. This removes any excuses for criminals to loiter. Also, avoid street trees at your business entrance points.

These are just a few examples. For more tips, read Perkins’s CPTED checklist.

Here are some quick tips and information for businesses. For more emergency preparedness information, visit the Fire Department's Emergency Preparedness page.

• Fire safety: Ensure smoke alarms and fire extinguishers are maintained and that employees know where extinguishers are located.
• Have a pre-fire plan identifying escape routes: Have two ways out of every room. Have a meeting place for all employees. Do not use elevators. In the event of an evacuation, know the escape route from the neighbourhood.
• Conduct evacuation drills with employees.
• Ensure your business is adequately insured. Too often a lack of insurance forces permanent closure.
• Review the Fire Department’s Emergency Preparedness advice.

Visit these pages for more information. 

• Wildfire Prevention tips
• Fire Extinguisher Training
• Smoke Alarms
• Emergency Preparedness
• Fire Safety

A fire today doubles in size every 30 seconds. Today’s synthetic materials burn rapidly and produce toxic gases.

59% of insurance claims are due to fire explosions. And most of those could have been prevented.

After a fire, the building will have restricted access, which means you won’t be allowed on-site while the investigation is underway. In other words, keep copies of important information and computer data off-site or in the cloud.

You can take a fire extinguisher training course. Visit the Penticton Fire Department’s Fire Safety page for details.

Abigail Cabunoc Mayes of the Mozilla Foundation, the organization best known for its Firefox browser, spoke about the health of the internet during FutureBiz Penticton 2019 business forum – and heeded advice for business owners. 

Tip #1

Understand the risks the internet poses. Just how safe are those smart devices? And how much personal information are you unknowingly sharing online? Find out more by reading Mozilla’s Internet Health Report 2019.

Tip #2

Visit the No More Ransom Project website for information about ransomware and how to prevent an attack.

Tip #3

Other tips involving ransomware? “Back up, back up, back up,” suggests Mayes. Also, be sure to use robust antivirus software and keep your computer software up-to-date. And trust no-one online: Cybercriminals can distribute fake email messages, luring recipients to click on a link. If you notice any strange activity, disconnect your machine immediately from the internet and Wi-Fi.

According to the 2019 CIRA Cybersecurity Survey, 71 percent of Canadian organizations experienced at least one cyberattack, with 13 percent of cases damaging their reputation. Garland Sharatt, an Okanagan-based information security consultant, offers some essential tips involving cyber security.

Are you at risk? Common issues:

• Weak or reused passwords
• No second-factor authentication for login processes
• No data backup
• Insecure devices, networks
• Lack of security awareness training
• No proper oversight of third-parties, suppliers, cloud services
• Insecure software development

Garland Sharatt, an Okanagan-based information security consultant, offers some essential tips involving cyber security.

Tip #1

Assign someone in the organization responsibility for information security and privacy/data protection.

Tip #2

Conduct a security and privacy threat and risk assessment, including a gap analysis against a recognized information security framework (CIS Controls, NIST CSF, or ISO 27000). Then work on remediating the risks you identified, starting with the highest risks items and going down toward lower risk.

Tip #3

Know that despite your best efforts, ecurity and privacy incidents will occur, so prepare carefully for them. Create your incident response plan before you need it, identifying levels of severity for incidents, criteria for invoking the plan, team members and their roles, how to preserve evidence, external resources you can call on (e.g., technical security experts), external contacts you'll need (e.g., government, media), and canned playbooks; then run practices and simulations.

Here are some important tips from Allison Markin of communications agency All She Wrote.

Tip #1

Have your crisis communications plan ready, even if it’s just one page, said Markin. Your checklist should identify your key spokesperson, key audiences and a holding statement. It’s also a good idea to include a list of key passwords. Download Markin’s Crisis Communications Planning Template (next to her biography) to get started.

Tip #2

Designate your spokesperson in advance. “When something bad happens, will you be ready to respond effectively? Who is your spokesperson? Who is going to be the face of your crisis?,” Markin asked.

Tip #3

Have a short list of holding statements ready for a variety of scenarios. You can then communicate quickly while you gather more information about a developing situation. Also, if approached by the news media, never say “no comment.” A better approach would be: “We’re looking into it and we’ll get back to you.”

When preparing your key messages and holding statement, keep in mind the following 5 C’s: Confirmation (“We’re aware of a situation and are looking into it”), Clarity, Control, Confidence and Concern (show empathy and how it relates to your business’s core values).

“What is the most important message you would like to get out about your business? What are the key words that you would like to get out about your business?” asked Markin.

Tip #4

Work out which social media channels you should use and be monitoring. If you receive negative posts, respond to it and attempt to take the conversation offline. Example: “We’re sorry you’ve had a bad experience. Please message us at [name@businessname.com or DM us @businessname] to discuss it further…”

Here are some quick tips from the Canadian Red Cross. 

Tip #1

Know the risks in your community. Visit the Red Cross website to read useful resources including the Be Ready brochure and 72 Hour Guide to Emergency Preparedness.

Tip #2

Make an emergency plan. Work through it with your employees so you’re all on the same page when something suddenly happens.

Tip #3

Get an emergency kit. See the recommended list of items and download a checklist

• Emergency Info BC
• PreparedBC: Guide for Small Businesses
• PreparedBC: Get Prepared for an Emergency
• PreparedBC: Emergency Plan for Small Business
• PreparedBC: Guide for Tourism Operators
• PreparedBC: Emergency Plan for Tourism Operators
• WorkSafeBC: How to Prepare an Emergency Response Plan for Your Small Business
• Insurance Bureau of Canada: Emergency Preparedness

Will technology destroy us all? Or will it save us? How can we prevent our businesses from being a target of crime? What steps can we take to prevent a workplace fire?

So many questions, so many lessons learned. At FutureBiz Penticton 2019, business leaders heard from expert speakers covering a range of issues involving emergency preparedness. They took part in workshops and left with new tools to help them react to any potential crisis.

Read more about the 7 lessons learned at FutureBiz Penticton 2019.

The City of Penticton’s Economic Development Office is here to help. We look forward to speaking with you!

Phone: 250-276-2165
Email: economicdevelopment@penticton.ca