More worryingly, disrupting the plans of other businesses within close proximity, especially in high density urban conurbations like the City of London, with a daytime population of approximately 300,000, says CitySafe, a provider of web-based emergency planning tools.
CitySafe suggests five steps towards collaborative emergency planning.
1. Talk to other businesses on adjacent sites. It does not matter how good your response plan looks on paper if you have not considered whether it is compatible with your neighbours' plans. For example, it is crucial that the capacity of evacuation routes and rendezvous sites be assessed collaboratively.
2. In multi-tenanted buildings, appoint one business to co-ordinate the plans of all tenants. This will be the business managing the facility in many cases. If they are not doing this already, ask them to.
3. Find a business in a different locale willing to provide reciprocal support following a disruptive event affecting either party. After the Manchester bombing, a major retailer was able to continue business on the premises of another major high street retailer it had a reciprocal agreement with.
4. Work with your key suppliers. Make sure you exercise closely with your critical suppliers in order to understand your supply chain dependencies and test your planning assumptions.
5. Collaborate with your local police service. Make them aware of your plan and provide ongoing updates. This is essential, for example, to gain cordon access (from those police forces or local authorities who hold such cordon databases) so you can enter your premises in the event of a disruption.
A recent report by the UK's tripartite financial authorities found that over 40% of firms in the financial sector take no account of local authority emergency plans in their own planning, while some 75% percent fail to involve neighbouring businesses.
