How boutique firms can prepare for emergencies

In many organisations the prospect of lengthy meetings to develop emergency business plans is often met with rolled eyes and sometimes even outright derision.

Employees may understand the importance of these planning sessions from a conceptual viewpoint, but from a practical perspective they may feel that such interruptions are unnecessary and detract from their productivity.

One possible explanation is the long hours put in by many business owners - with many managers feeling that they do not have enough time come up with safety protocols.

To remedy this, the federal government has released the Emergency Management an Recovery Resources package to encourage boutique firms to plan ahead.

This gives small business owners and franchise managers access to planning templates and other resources that may help them to establish a reliable emergency procedures that could help save lives.

Leadership programs sometimes include the importance of promoting safety at work as an important part of managing an effective team - as it may reassure employees of their ongoing commitment to long term success of the organisation.

CEO of the NSW Business Chamber Stephen Cartwright said that many organisations stood to benefit from the new package.

Cartwright asserted: "Small business owners are hard pressed in just the day-to-day operations of a business but you do need to take the time to be prepared for when disaster strikes."