How to manage evacuation with a hybrid workforce
How to manage evacuation with a hybrid workforce
Traditionally, fire safety has been shared amongst a dedicated group of trained individuals selected from within the workforce. Often referred to as Fire Wardens or Fire Marshals, each would receive dedicated training for their role and would involve on-site and sometimes off-site training.
As you know a Fire Warden is a person(s) designated to assist the workplace manager in the implementation, improvement, and monitoring of the necessary fire safety procedures in place to prevent a fire from endangering the health and safety of occupants, and other relevant persons for whom a duty of care is held.
Along with the organisation’s evacuation and fire escape plan, Fire Wardens play an important role in ensuring the continuity of the workplace and are prepared for a fire emergency, often acting as first responders in a fire situation, and raising awareness with other staff about the fire hazards that exist within the workplace.
What does it mean to be a hybrid workforce?
The recent pandemic has pushed many businesses into offering new ways of working to keep their staff safe, including working from home.
This has created hybrid workforces, with teams no longer closely together in one place.
While this new flexibility has been welcomed by staff, understandably it has created some limitations, particularly on the availability of trained staff to fulfil required safety roles, such as that of the Fire Warden.
In the UK, it is a legal requirement for organisations to have trained people in place to assist with firefighting, evacuation, and providing fire safety assistance, The challenge is how this corporate responsibility is managed in a way that is both easy to train and deliver with the people available, at any time.
Evacuation Marshall
It is because of these new hybrid workforces that we are encouraging organisations to review their resource options and create a simple and adaptive role of a dedicated Evacuation Marshal. This position simplifies and separates the role away from the Fire Warden so they can provide assistance as necessary depending on the circumstance
Now, during an emergency evacuation, this role deals specifically with the task of checking if each area of the building is clear, and reporting that information to the Incident Control Manager. This information can be relayed simply in real time to the emergency services on arrival at the building.
To work accurately and efficiently however, the role of Evacuation Marshal and the emergency evacuation procedure is wholly reliant on trained staff. Taking this role away from the Fire Warden offers enormous flexibility to any organisation. And because it’s easy to achieve this many businesses we work with are opening up this training so they are assured of coverage at all times.
By using TagEvac® evacuation management tools, a building evacuation can be achieved quickly and efficiently. Training for your team can be delivered online, allowing total flexibility on the number of people trained, ideal to cope with new working arrangements.
Summary
To conclude, in this post we have looked at the challenges facing businesses getting back to work and how to manage the evacuation process with reduced numbers of staff and a hybrid workforce. We have considered the traditional role of the Fire Warden and put forward reasoning for why the role of Evacuation Marshall would be better suited to providing long-term flexibility, ease of training and a compliant solution. We call this T.E.A.M. The TagEvac® Evacuation Accredited Marshal.
The Evacuation Marshal role will ensure organisations always have a trained resource dedicated to help report and manage the safe evacuation of a premises. Our skilled team at TagEvac® can provide training to your business to enable you to fulfil both the Evacuation Marshal and Fire Warden roles you need. Contact us to find out more.