Incident Management Planning

Critical Incident Management Planning is about having a framework that builds the resilience of your people and by doing that, building the resilience of your company.

Why do Incident Management Planning?

Critical incidents at work are a fact of life. They have happened before and will happen again. While it’s easy to focus on all the positive things happening in your organisation, it’s just as important to be prepared when tragedies and accidents occur. Having a framework set up to handle your organisational response is crucial. A correct response supports your staff through times that can be confusing and emotionally challenging.

Different organisations have different needs - factors such as size, business model and environmental factors will play a part. A good Incident Management plan is therefore tailored to your organisation.

Simplicity and not layered in complexity is key, because when an incident happens it’s the pre-planning and incident “muscle memory” that will see you be more resilient and recover quicker.

What's your plan for dealing with critical incidents ? - Because hope is not a plan or a good strategy for critical incident management. A good Incident Management Plan should look at readiness from an end to end perspective. People safety - communication - safeguard brand and assets - recovery - debrief - learn - develop resilience..

A good Incident Management Plan combined with robust Scenario Testing Exercises will ensure an organisation’s critical incident planning will work when it matters, to help increase organisational resilience.

Organisations in New Zealand and Australia face many potential incidents that could be categorized as critical;

• Natural disaster on a scale of disruption, destruction, evacuation or staff injury

• Dealing with aggressive customers with the potential for violence

• Serious workplace injuries

• Violent criminal offending - i.e. Robbery

• Business disruption - due to criminal offending in the proximity

• Emergency evacuations - fire - bomb threats

• Any situation requiring immediate lock down of premises and staff

• Threats and intimidation

• Bullying and harassment

• Adverse media attention

• Internal theft or fraud

Organisations needing to be on the front foot, need a critical incident management framework that is pragmatic, flexible in response and that is supported by leader led conversations to ensure that readiness and response actions are spoken to regularly in team meetings. This then builds your organisations resilience.

Which Incident Management Planning Provider should I use?

Look for a Incident Management Planning provider that you can Trust., who has independence and the experience of running real critical incident management plans, so they know what works operational when stuff goes bad.

A good provider will listen to your requirements and then help you build a plan to fit your organisations current and future requirements, be they very simple, or more complex if the situation requires it.

An initial discussion around approach with the provider should allow you to understand their experience and get a good feel for Trust.

QRisk Incident Management Planning

QRisk are experts in creating and implementing Incident Management Planning in New Zealand and Australia. We specialise in providing engaging services with key stakeholders to truly understand concerns and gain alignment.

Crown entities, national and international organisations have relied on us to run their incident management plans and you can too.

QRisk’s approach to Critical Incident Management Planning is:

• Always be ready - Responding to a critical incident starts well before it happens, when everything is going smoothly. Readiness is about having a plan that is simple to implement, pragmatic in its scope, and is tailored to your organisation. While every organisation is vulnerable to different risks, everyone benefits from a certain kind of culture. If your staff feel looked after, your records are well-kept, and everyone knows their specific role in the response, you’re already halfway there.

• Start on the front foot - The immediate response is clear thinking under stress – and this is crucial. Securing the physical safety of all staff is the priority, but just as important is making sure their emotional needs are looked after. After a critical incident, anxiety and stress can be overwhelming. Compassion and care need to start at the top of the organisation. As the response unfolds, it’s also important to secure any evidence related to the incident and understand your reporting obligations to regulators and responders who will be investigating the incident with you and your team. Through all of this, maintain open lines of communication with staff, including being clear about what can and can’t be discussed if parts of the response are necessarily confidential.

• Recognise which situations have greater risk - A range of risks exist for a range of businesses - and all must be accounted for. Natural disasters offer the same level of threat to everyone in the area, for example, but risk from aggressive or violent customers is dependent on the clientele encountered by your organisation. From project to project and task to task, your organisation will encounter different degrees of risk.

Don’t go it alone - Your organisation can never be too prepared for critical incidents. At QRisk, we have industry-leading expertise for you to access. When it’s about the health and wellbeing of your staff, and the reputation of your organisation, it doesn’t pay to go at it alone.