How to Prepare Your Business for Natural Disasters

Natural disasters like typhoons and earthquakes are common in the Philippines. In 2021, the country faced one of the strongest Typhoons in the world, Super Typhoon Odette. Odette caused much damage to homes, buildings, and small enterprises, especially in the Visayas region. Disasters like these can hamper big and small businesses for some time. The impact of these natural disasters is even more evident in small businesses, as it would take longer to resume their operations.

However, preparedness for these disasters is essential to helping your business recover quicker after natural disasters. A concrete action plan during disasters will streamline tasks before, during, and after natural disaster strikes.

Creating an emergency plan is a critical step in preparing your business to effectively respond to and recover from natural disasters. The plan outlines how you operate before, during, and after natural disasters.

A well-executed emergency plan reduces the damages and recovery after a disaster and, importantly, keeps your employees safe. So, here are some tips on how to prepare your business for natural disasters.

Assess Potential Damage

Assess what damages could happen during a disaster and prepare for them. For example, secure windows, doors, and roofs, are the common part of your establishment that will be damaged during a disaster. Likewise, floods could happen during typhoons, and if possible, move important equipment and documents in a much safer space.

Moreover, back your important data using cloud-based storage for electronic files to access data from anywhere.

Delegate Tasks for Your Employees

Identify who will be in charge of a task during a natural disaster and clearly define their responsibilities. This would help streamline your actions before and after a natural disaster.

Always Have Emergency Kits Available

If possible, no employees should be on-site during a disaster, but for these scenarios, ensure you have emergency kits with essential supplies like first aid materials, water, non-perishable food, flashlights, batteries, etc. Additionally, train employees on the location of these kits and how to use the supplies.

Have Multiple Lines of Communication

Communication is a crucial part when a natural disaster strikes. It is important to establish multiple methods for reaching employees and stakeholders, such as email, phone calls, text messages, and even social media. Also, always keep up-to-date contact information for all your employees and stakeholders.

Employee Safety and Well-being

Prioritize employee safety and well-being during and after the disaster. Check your employee’s safety and whereabouts. Consider providing guidance on personal preparedness to employees for their homes as well.

Explore Alternate Ways to Sustain Operations

If the physical space of your business is compromised, consider ways in which your business will continue to operate. Designate a temporary location suitable for your business to operate, or consider a remote working system while your establishment is under repair.

Create a Recovery Plan

Create an outline of the steps you need to recover and resume normal business operations after a disaster. Take into consideration the financial and logistical factors of rebuilding and restocking.

Lastly, if your business recovers successfully, it is also important to extend help to other businesses and people who are also affected in your community. Recovering from a disaster is a challenging process, by extending your hand to them will have a positive impact on your community. (ASC)