An evacuation plan is nothing more than a document which shows where a staff member should go in the event of an emergency to most efficiently exit the building. It is no more than that. It might include shelters, zones, back up routes, or color coding, but at its core, any evacuation plan should focus on an employee’s ability to leave the facility. Now, you can add zones, shelters, back up routes, and color coding to an evacuation plan to make it easier for employees to leave the building in an emergency situation, and we would recommend that you do that, but do not let these additions detract from the point of the plan – helping employees to safely and quickly exit the building.

To help employers stay on track and create an efficient evacuation plan, OSHA created Standard 1910.36, which gives specific guidelines pertaining to the creation and dissemination of evacuation plans at work. And while there are a number of specific guidelines set for just about every circumstance imaginable, what is most important to remember is that every company needs to create an evacuation plan for every facility.

We have had clients with small facilities in the past who, when asked for their evacuation plan, laughed and said they did not have one because their facility was so small. Unfortunately, common sense is not an acceptable evacuation plan, even if you only have two rooms and one door to the outside. If you do not have a viable evacuation plan, or have not reviewed it recently, create a good plan which fits OSHA’s requirements.

If you have any questions about how to create an evacuation plan, where to post it in your facility, or how to handle a specific issue with your plan, please contact us. If you have anything to add about evacuation plans, leave a comment.