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4 Phases of Emergency Management & How to Build a Comprehensive Plan [+Template]
Emergency management is crucial, expected, and incredibly difficult. Learn how to meet your emergency management duties in four phases.
In an era marked by escalating natural and human-caused disasters, organizations face mounting challenges in safeguarding their people and maintaining operational continuity. From wildfires and floods to workplace violence and supply chain crises, more emergencies than ever threaten business operations worldwide.
To successfully navigate today’s complex threat landscape, emergency management can’t be reactive—it must be strategic and structured. Organizations need to anticipate disruptions, plan thoroughly, and respond with precision. That’s where the four phases of emergency management come in: mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery.
In this article, we’ll break down each phase to help your organization build a resilient, well-rounded approach—whether you’re starting from scratch or strengthening an existing emergency plan.
Download Our Emergency Response Plan Template
What Are the 4 Phases of Emergency Management
Emergency management has four main phases: mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery. These phases represent critical actions to minimize the impact of emergencies on your employees and operations. Each phase serves a slightly different purpose for different stages of a crisis.
1. Mitigation phase
Mitigation is taking action to reduce the severity of a crisis. For example, wearing a seatbelt mitigates the risk of injury in a car accident. For your business, strong passwords minimize the risk of cybersecurity attacks, emergency evacuation plans reduce the loss of life during a fire, and preparing your facilities for winter mitigates the impact of severe weather.
Performing a risk assessment will help your business identify what threats may require mitigation efforts. With common hazards identified, your business can develop a plan to avoid those risks altogether or reduce the harm done if a crisis is unavoidable. Those plans will include specific actions for employees to take during an emergency, a strategy for communication, and pathways toward recovery.
To determine what internal hazards your workplace may need to mitigate, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) lists top workplace safety violations. From preventing slips, trips, and falls to monitoring hazardous materials to handling heavy equipment properly, safety-promoting actions can help reduce the impact of common workplace hazards.
Of course, not all threats stem from internal workplace hazards. Severe weather, like winter storms and tornadoes, is out of your control, as are threats to public safety like disease outbreaks or acts of violence. Monitoring external threats with threat intelligence software and alerting employees quickly will help prevent and reduce the negative impact of any disaster.
2. Preparedness phase
While mitigation may significantly reduce the impact of an emergency, not all crises and impacts are avoidable. With that in mind, being prepared for the worst with a strong emergency management plan will help your business respond effectively. Your organization’s strategy should outline ways to address all potential threats to employee safety and business operations.
The preparedness phase ensures that your organization is ahead of an emergency and equipped to handle it effectively. First, identify potential threats, then define ideal responses to those threats. For instance, businesses in wildfire-prone areas should create defensible space around their facilities and have wildfire evacuation routes in place. Organizations like healthcare facilities, where power outages could be deadly, should ensure they have working backup generators and redundant systems for critical medical equipment. Businesses in high-risk industries like construction and manufacturing should be prepared for workplace injuries, having easy access to first aid kits and first responder numbers.
—Peter Steinfeld, Senior Vice President of Safety Solutions, AlertMedia
Flexibility and adaptability are essential, especially considering that workplace emergencies range from power outages to bomb threats. Some disasters, like hurricanes or flash floods, might require more than one emergency plan—personnel might have to respond simultaneously to power outages, IT complications, and travel disruptions. The more elements of an emergency management program your business plan can address, the better.
Clear, consistent, and timely communication is foundational to any effective emergency management plan. It ensures employees know what to do in the event of an emergency and always have a lifeline to support them. A robust emergency communication strategy will ensure everyone is on the same page and understands what is going on, whether they should be actively responding to the emergency or just keeping themselves safe.
3. Response phase
When an emergency hits your business, you don’t want to just react; you want to respond. Where reactions are often chaotic or unpredictable, an effective response is intentional, well-planned, and action-oriented. It is tailor-made for types of hazards but still flexible enough to adjust in the face of unforeseen changes. Taking advantage of your prepared emergency plans in the face of a crisis will minimize the impact on the well-being of employees and business operations.
The response phase is critical in an emergency, so communicating with employees quickly is invaluable. A quality emergency communication solution will ensure that your messages reach the right people quickly, no matter where they are. Without communication, key personnel cannot execute their designated emergency duties, provide real-time emergency alerts and up-to-date information, or answer any employee questions that may arise.
You are set up to respond to the incident with the right plan and a reliable communication system. Activate your emergency operations plan to maintain essential services and contact emergency services/law enforcement or your emergency management agency if necessary. While response activities take place over the short term, they will see your business through the worst of the crisis and into the next phase of disaster management: recovery.
4. Recovery phase
Management of an emergency often continues long after the initial threat has passed. This is the recovery phase, where you address the impact of the disaster and mitigate further risk. Be prepared to take corrective actions to recover the business and your employees.
Establishing a recovery plan during the preparation phase of emergency management will help guide the process. For instance, recovering from an information technology (IT) crisis might include restoring data and performing careful system updates. In the case of a public health crisis, workplace recovery might consist of developing an illness/sick time policy or helping employees adjust to remote work.
Write an after-action report (AAR) summarizing your organization’s response to emergencies or drills. Documenting your recovery activities will also help identify opportunities for improvement for future disasters and enable you to communicate event details effectively with employees and other stakeholders.
Learn a step-by-step framework for developing an after-action report to ensure your organization is prepared for any emergency scenario.
What Is a Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan?
A comprehensive emergency management plan (CEMP) outlines an all-hazards approach that accounts for any plausible threat to your business. It outlines steps to take during critical events to optimize safety and minimize harm. While emergencies often occur when we least expect them, emergency preparedness can prevent them from becoming catastrophes.
Comprehensive emergency management plans are broad, detailed plans that provide a framework for solving problems. This approach differs from an emergency response plan, which exists to mitigate the impact of one specific emergency on your business.
In the workplace, the emergency management planning process begins with a threat assessment to analyze the likelihood and severity of potential threats that could impact the business, from severe weather to acts of violence. Next, you establish and practice a plan of action, assign disaster response roles, collect essential supplies, and develop plans for post-disaster recovery.
—Larry Robert, Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery Manager, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston
Maintaining a proactive, rather than reactive, response to emergencies ensures that employees stay as safe as possible. A strong plan also helps keep the continuity of operations during any unpredictable situation.
Why Build an Emergency Management Plan?
At their core, CEMPs exist to protect people. All employers have a duty of care to their employees—in other words, businesses are obligated to keep people safe at work.
Establishing a preparedness plan provides a safe work environment, but there are other benefits as well. Effective preparedness activities reduce loss of life and property damage, speed up recovery, and minimize the overall cost of disaster recovery. One study even found that every $1 invested in disaster preparedness can save up to $11 in total cost.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) estimates that about 25% of businesses won’t reopen after facing a disaster. Adequate preparation will help reduce an emergency’s negative impact on business operations and promote a return to normal operations and success. Though it might seem like more work on the front end, committing to a comprehensive emergency management plan is a wise business decision and invaluable when protecting your people.
—Justen Noakes, Director of Emergency Preparedness, HEB
How to Build a Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan
Now that you have the basics of emergency management, it’s time to build a plan that works for your business. Here are five practical steps to guide you:
1. Determine your risks
First, sit down with your organization’s key stakeholders and run a risk assessment, business impact analysis, and/or threat and vulnerability assessment to determine what threats are relevant to your business and its employees. You may work with hazardous materials or have significant technological hazards and cybersecurity risks. Remember to consider seasonal and regional factors, like preparing for hurricane season or severe winter weather. Other hazards, like supply chain issues or workplace violence, might pose a threat year-round.
2. Account for your whole team
When building your CEMP for the year ahead, consider all members of your business team. For instance, how can you maintain accessible evacuation routes for personnel with disabilities? Consider vendors who might be onsite in the event of an emergency and how you can effectively care for and communicate with them, too. Identify the key stakeholders responsible for these actions and build contact lists for different groups based on location or potential impact.
3. Find your technology solutions
Many software solutions can make building and executing your CEMP much easier, and you want to have them implemented before a crisis hits.
Threat intelligence solutions can help you identify and assess emerging threats impacting your business. Emergency communication software allows for rapid, multichannel notifications and up-to-date information in the case of a crisis. Using two-way emergency communication software also allows employees to ask questions and gather the information they need to remain safe and maintain essential operations.
Since technology should make things easier, not harder, finding all-in-one platforms for emergency communications is always better than patching together various disconnected systems. Emergency communication solutions with integrated threat intelligence and employee safety monitoring, like AlertMedia, make staying connected easier for you and your employees.
4. Run drills
A plan is only that unless you ensure everyone knows how to use it. True preparedness requires practice. Running evacuation drills, such as natural disaster or fire drills, will show everyone what to do and where to go in an emergency situation. Running an active shooter drill will help employees respond appropriately in a potentially paralyzing situation.
Disaster recovery tabletop exercises are also a great way to prepare for when disaster strikes in the workplace. They are low-stakes, simulated scenarios where employees can put their strategic plans into practice. A tabletop exercise creates a safe learning environment and is also a good way to identify potential opportunities for improvement.
5. Plan for communication
A communication system is invaluable in various situations—from winter weather to political demonstrations to the global pandemic. The ability to disseminate vital information and stay in touch with employees is essential in an emergency.
Mass notification solutions allow you to keep everyone informed. You can ensure employees have accurate, rapid, and regular updates by using a two-way, multichannel alert notification system that will help minimize chaos and maximize employee safety.
Event page functionality ensures employees receive consistent and accurate information during a crisis. With a centralized hub acting as an incident command system, providing ongoing updates and streamlining access to critical resources for any incident, employees are always on the same page. Disseminating information in this way prevents misinformation and reduces confusion during critical events.
Planning for Your Safest Year Yet
There’s no better time than now to look over your current emergency management plan and make improvements for the year ahead. Don’t wait until mid-crisis to start getting organized—get prepared now. Need to do more research? Subscribe to The Employee Safety Podcast. And our newsletter, The Signal, is packed with safety insights and action-item alerts.
Wherever you are on the journey toward building a stronger emergency preparedness plan, AlertMedia has the resources your business needs to find success. With a comprehensive emergency management plan—supported by robust emergency communication software—you can be confident that you will have your safest year yet.
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