Having an emergency response plan tailored to the property is an essential first step in protecting infrastructure and people but it is unlikely to succeed if personnel are not intimately familiar with the roles they will actually play during an emergency. The best way to determine whether an emergency response plan will function as intended is by conducting a tabletop exercise in which property management team members play their roles and explain the actions that they would take during a simulated emergency. This often reveals dependencies and assumptions that had not been previously recognized, forces team member to think response activities through step-by-step and it familiarizes team members with what their colleagues will be doing in response to the emergency and how their actions may affect their own. It is important to note that “testing” in this context does not mean grading the team’s response; the goal is to foster a broader understanding of the complexities in responding to an emergency, to build “muscle-memory” so that responses become automatic and to identify aspects of the plan that may need to be clarified or improved.

 

Working closely with our clients, Analytic Risk Solutions can develop a variety of tabletop exercise scenarios tailored specifically to your property. Scenarios can range from how to deal with an active shooter situation to how to respond to fires, hazmat releases, hurricanes, protests outside or within the building or utility failures. ARS will also moderate the exercises to ensure that maximum benefit is obtained by all participants.