May you live in interesting times. It seems more of a curse than a prophecy as a second COVID-related lockdown seems to be approaching some of us. Government, healthcare, and businesses are rightly concerned about the health and well-being of those who look to them for leadership. There are common, simple things we know can help mitigate the risks of contracting the coronavirus—wash your hands often, don’t touch your face, wear a mask, work from home, limit exposing yourself to large crowds. These all seem to be reasonable measures made by reasonable people. Additionally, the promise of more widely available vaccine options is welcome news. A question looms, however. How does your site follow the guidance from the CDC and others to limit exposure from large crowds while keeping your business open? Can you comply with both governmental policies and your business policies to conduct regular safety, muster, and evacuation drills?
Regular drills keep your workforce engaged in your site’s safety policies and practices. Muscle memory plays a huge role in your site’s ability to muster during actual emergencies, but it stems directly from regular drills.
So there is an apparent conflict. How do you keep your people safely distanced from large congregations while conducting emergency preparedness drills that typically require people to assemble in a few common areas?
AllClear is the industry’s only Emergency Readiness Platform designed, from the ground up, to further the goals and practices of your Health, Safety, and Environmental (HSE/EHS/HSSE) organization. It manages populations in hazardous work areas, directs onsite and offsite emergency response teams, and runs/evaluates emergency preparedness drills.
Percentage-Based Drills vs. Time-Based Drills
With data from thousands of drills over the past 19 years, drill management can be divided into two primary categories: Percentage-Based Drills and Time-Based Drills.
Percentage-Based Drills start with a goal of a predetermined success rate measured in the safe assembly of some percentage of a site’s population at the time a drill is run. The EOC runs a drill until the percentage is met (i.e. 97%). This tactic keeps the site population engaged for the duration but could cause concern with keeping people at common assembly areas.
Time-Based Drills are started with a preset duration of say 15 minutes. The drill is started, people assemble, and after 15 minutes, the drill is stopped, regardless of the participation rate of the site population. This drill is particularly effective in instilling a time target the site must meet for drills and live events. “We need to know where everyone is within 15 minutes of signaling an emergency.” An AllClear Time-Based Drill makes it possible.
Regardless of the type of drill, AllClear provides reporting to HSE management and the EOC team to evaluate the site’s mustering performance. These reports help conduct your drills without increasing exposure time in larger groups.
A Time-Based Drill could be engaged and people could be instructed to muster as they would during a normal drill event. However, instead of remaining at a muster location, people could be told to return to their work areas. Muscle memory is gained from people safely stopping the work they are doing, calmly but rapidly mustering at the nearest safe location, and using AllClear to mark themselves as “accounted for”. They could then return to work. Once AllClear has marked a person as “accounted for”, it has all the data needed to run meaningful drill event reports.
Real-time performance metrics
AllClear’s reports provide performance metrics to show how rapidly people and groups responded to the event and arrived at muster or assembly areas. It also provides lists of people who did not assemble within the time allotted for the drill, along with a summary, several snapshots, and detailed reports of accounted for vs unaccounted for people during the drill.
These AllClear reports keep your people safe by conducting your drill and collecting data in real-time—thereby allowing your site personnel to practice and return to work safely.
If you already have AllClear and want specific help in setting up Time-Based Drills, please contact inFRONT Customer Care. If you want to find out more about how AllClear can help your facility become safer, let’s get started.
And until we hear from you, may you live safely in interesting times!
