How to Evaluate Your Emergency Action Plan: 10 Questions Every Organization Should Ask

Your organization has an emergency action plan.

But would it actually work?

That question is more difficult to answer.

Emergency plans frequently accumulate over time. Someone writes the original document, another employee updates portions of it, personnel change, facilities are remodeled, and new procedures are added.

Eventually, the written plan and the way the organization actually operates can become very different.

Schools, churches, businesses, nonprofits, and other organizations should periodically conduct a structured review of their emergency procedures.

Here are ten questions that can help begin that process.

1. When Was the Plan Last Reviewed?

Look at the date of the last meaningful review—not simply the date printed on the document.

Who participated?

What was evaluated?

What changes resulted?

If nobody can answer those questions, a comprehensive review may be appropriate.

2. Does the Plan Match the Facility Today?

Walk through the facility while reviewing the plan.

Look for changes involving entrances, exits, office locations, classrooms, access controls, construction, gathering locations, and other physical features.

A plan describing a building as it existed several years ago may create problems during an emergency.

3. Do Employees Know the Plan Exists?

Leadership sometimes assumes employees understand emergency procedures because the procedures are available.

Availability is not the same as understanding.

Ask employees basic questions about notifications, evacuation, emergency responsibilities, and where to obtain additional information.

The answers can reveal training needs quickly.

4. Are Responsibilities Assigned to Positions or People?

Plans sometimes rely heavily on particular individuals.

What happens when that person is absent?

Critical responsibilities should have appropriate redundancy.

Leadership should know who has authority to make important decisions and who assumes those responsibilities when primary personnel are unavailable.

5. How Will You Communicate During an Emergency?

Organizations should understand both primary and alternate communication methods.

Consider what happens if normal communication systems are unavailable.

Employees also need to know what emergency notifications mean and what actions are expected.

6. What Happens to Visitors?

Employees may receive training.

Visitors usually don't.

Schools have parents and contractors. Churches have guests. Offices have clients and vendors.

Your emergency planning should consider people who are unfamiliar with the facility and its procedures.

7. Have You Considered Different Operating Conditions?

Your organization probably doesn't operate the same way every hour of every day.

A school during dismissal is different from a school during class.

A church on Sunday morning is different from the same facility on Wednesday evening.

An office with 200 employees at 10:00 a.m. may have only a handful after normal business hours.

Evaluate whether the plan works under different conditions.

8. When Did Leadership Last Exercise the Plan?

Training and exercising are different.

Training teaches procedures.

An exercise asks people to apply them.

A tabletop exercise can reveal assumptions, conflicting responsibilities, communication problems, and missing procedures without requiring a large-scale drill.

9. What Changed After Your Last Exercise?

Every exercise should produce lessons.

Those lessons should lead to improvement.

If organizations conduct drills or exercises but never document findings or modify procedures, much of the potential value is lost.

A useful cycle is:

Exercise → Evaluate → Improve → Train → Exercise Again

10. When Is the Next Review?

Preparedness needs a calendar.

If the answer is “we'll review it when necessary,” years can pass surprisingly quickly.

Put the next review on the organizational calendar.

Establish responsibilities for maintaining the plan.

Schedule recurring training.

Preparedness becomes much more sustainable when it is part of normal organizational operations.

Consider an Independent Preparedness Assessment

Internal reviews are valuable, but organizations can also benefit from an outside perspective.

People naturally become accustomed to their own facilities and procedures. Assumptions that seem obvious internally may stand out immediately to someone evaluating the organization for the first time.

An independent preparedness consultant can review existing procedures, discuss responsibilities with leadership, evaluate how the organization operates, facilitate exercises, and identify opportunities for improvement.

For schools, churches, businesses, and organizations in Dallas, DFW, North Texas, and throughout Texas, a recurring annual assessment can also provide a useful benchmark.

Instead of conducting isolated training events, the organization develops a continuing improvement cycle:

Year 1: Establish the baseline.

Year 2: Evaluate progress and organizational changes.

Year 3: Test more challenging scenarios and continue improving.

And the process continues.

The Question That Matters

The purpose of emergency planning is not to produce a perfect binder.

It is to prepare people and organizations to make better decisions during difficult circumstances.

So don't measure preparedness by the number of pages in your emergency plan.

Measure it by asking:

Do our people understand what to do, has our leadership tested the plan, and are we better prepared than we were last year?

If you cannot confidently answer yes, it may be time for a professional emergency preparedness assessment and updated training.