“Well, that was an easy way to save time and money!” Wouldn’t it be nice if you could be the one saying that? With a little thought put into planning your next Emergency Action Plan (EAP) exercise, you can be.
Most owners of high and significant hazard projects are aware they need to exercise their EAP every five years. However, fewer people know they should do the same for their project’s security plan. As a refresher, Security Group 1 (G1) projects need to exercise their security plans a minimum of every five years. There is no requirement to exercise your security plan if you have a Security Group 2 (G2) project, but, like any plan, you won’t know if it will work when you need it unless you exercise it beforehand. The peace of mind you will gain knowing your G2 security plan will work is well worth the small time investment of testing it out.
By conducting both your EAP and project’s security plan on the same day, you can cut that time commitment even further—and save money, too. Conducting both exercises on the same day allows you to:
- Minimize the time commitment for your staff, law enforcement officials, and local emergency managers, especially those that must travel to attend the exercise.
- Save time planning and organizing the logistics for a single event rather than two different ones.
- Save money—you’ll only need to pay for coffee and donuts once, not twice!
- Sleep better knowing both your EAP and security plan will work when you need them.
It’s not often you get to improve project safety and make lots of people happy with one move. Why not take this opportunity? And if you suggest the idea, well, saving people time and money should qualify you for hero status!