Individuals and families

The level of individual and family preparedness will have a direct impact on your business. Encourage employees to keep disaster supply kits at their work stations, and be sure to complete their kits by adding items for their personal needs. Use the Be Ready Family pages to support employees' individual and family preparedness efforts. Check out the Disaster Supply Kit document for a list of ideas to consider.

Workplace personnel supply needs

Consider having enough extra supplies to take care of your workforce for 12 hours or longer. Check out the 12 Areas of Preparedness for ideas.

Here are a few examples:

• Food and water
• Additional over-the-counter medications
• First-aid materials
• A means to stay warm

Also consider keeping supplies on hand to help respond to emergencies.  Having the tools you need and knowing how to use those tools can help save lives when professional responders are unavailable or delayed. Employees trained in basic disaster response skills through the CERT training, often use these suggested CERT Kit items.

Workplace operational supply needs

Consider the operational supplies needed to keep your business going in the event your supply chain is disrupted. The operational supplies you may need are best determined when you identify your workplace essential functions through the Business Continuity Planning process. Prioritize the supplies you need to continue operations by first starting with the supplies that directly support your business essential functions. Consider your workplace material needs, services, and even your business dependencies and key partners in your supply chain. Arrange contingencies and build redundancies by dispersing your supplies geographically if possible or pre-negotiating terms for short-term notice needs. In the event of infrastructure failure, like power, water, sewer, gas, etc., consider the supplies you may need in order to operate without the infrastructure.

Evacuation

Consider supplies you may need to grab from your workplace supply cache in the event you need to evacuate. Identify a storage location for supplies that will still meet your needs in the event evacuation is necessary. Also identify other important items you may need to remove from the premises in case of evacuation.

Administrative considerations for a workplace supply cache

Supplies will need to be acquired, stored, inventoried and made accessible.

• Acquire: Determine what you need, where you can find it, and how to procure it.
• Store: Needs to be organized and maintained.
• Inventory: Include the type of resource, its owner, location, and procurement procedures. Keep inventory maintained.
• Accessibility: The inventory and the supplies need to be made accessible to those who need it when they need it. Make inventory available in different formats at different locations.