11/19/2021

EM 01542 Facilities Management

Week 5
Facility Security Management and Emergency Preparedness

Chapter 14: Planning, Definitions, and Threat Assessment

Chapter 15: Command, Control and Communications

Alejandro Rodriguez, D.Eng.

Week 4 Standard Weekly Format

• Readings:
– Roper, K., & Payant, R. (2014). The facility management handbook.
Amacom Chapter 14, 15,16, 17 and 18
– Lectures: 05.1, 05.2 and 05.3
• Videos:
– Emergency Management 101
• Discussion Boards:
DQ (Discussion Question) 5

Week 4 Standard Weekly Format

• Weekly live conference.

• Note: Live conference attendance is optional but highly encouraged. Live
conferences will be recorded for later viewing.
• Assignment 5: Facilities Project Manager’s Handbook: Facility Project
Management (Section 5)

1
 11/19/2021

Week 5: Facility Emergency Preparedness

Chapter 14:
Planning, Definitions, and Threat Assessment

Week 5: Facility Emergency Preparedness

• Pulse Points
• The facility manager's priority is life safety!
• Share your facility emergency plan with your insurance provider.
• Always prepare for the worst case. What can go wrong, will go wrong!

Week 5: Facility Emergency Preparedness

• Threat Assessment
• A good plan is thorough, and carefully prepared, exercised, and drilled. It
addresses the various types of potential emergencies and identifies where
assistance can be obtained.
• As a facility manager, it is incumbent on you to educate yourself and train your staff
on how to respond to emergencies and understand the impacts and threats.
• The Building Security Council (BSC) has developed a system for facility managers
to assess the risks to their facilities consisting of a building classification system,
countermeasure evaluation system, and rating and point system.
• The threat assessment should be prepared for and focus on two broad areas: first,
prevention and, failing that, mitigating the effects of an emergency event; and
second, maintaining emergency preparedness and crisis response

2
 11/19/2021

Week 5: Facility Emergency Preparedness

• Threat Assessment Example

Week 5: Facility Emergency Preparedness

• Emergency Planning
• Emergency planning is a continuous process.
• It involves a detailed and systematic examination of all aspects of a
contemplated emergency.
• Effective plans provide a methodology to respond to any emergency.
• They are based on well-thought-out assumptions and are not static.
• They are modified, refined, and updated as a result of new information or as
situations change.

Week 5: Facility Emergency Preparedness

• Emergency Categories
• Man-made emergencies. These include workplace violence, labor strikes,
civil disorder, economic degradation, arson, hostage situations, indoor air
quality issues, hazardous material spills (e.g., broken natural gas lines;
improper mixing of chemicals; solid, liquid, or gas infectious agents, which
include medical and human waste, refrigerants for heating, ventilation, and
air-conditioning [HVAC], etc.), and terrorism acts, such as environmental,
cyber-terrorism, agroterrorism, bomb threats, conventional bombing, and
nuclear, biological, and chemical attacks.

3
 11/19/2021

Week 5: Facility Emergency Preparedness

• Emergency Categories
• Natural emergencies. These include any emergency resultant from
weather or environmental conditions (e.g., drought, fires, flooding,
earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, high winds, snow, ice, hail, extreme
heat, lightning, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, etc.)

• Technological emergencies. These include telecommunications failures

and interruptions (e.g., electrical power loss and malfunction, fuel shortage
due to technical interruptions, and HVAC failures.)

10

Week 5: Facility Emergency Preparedness

• Development of an Emergency Plan

• Appoint a leader to lead the emergency preparedness team.
• Organize the team and include representation from various functional parts of the
organization, such as human resources, legal counsel, purchasing, financial
affairs, information technology, public affairs, manufacturing, engineering,
production, security, risk management, environmental health and safety, etc.
• Develop the purpose (mission) of the team (with everyone's input) and determine
the final desired outcome.
• Outline the areas/functions to be addressed.
• Establish a timeframe with milestones (schedule).
• Identify mission essential services, products, and operations.

11

Week 5: Facility Emergency Preparedness

• Development of an Emergency Plan

• Conduct reviews of existing plans, interviews of “experts” including outside agencies
and organizations (including community), and hold brainstorming sessions.
• These sessions should focus on the type of emergencies that occurred in the past,
the type of emergencies expected, and technological and equipment emergencies
that could impact the organization's mission.
• Analyze each type of emergency from a scenario perspective.
• Conduct a risk assessment (internally or contracted) using the types of emergencies
brainstormed previously.
• Identify available internal resources. Identify needed external resources.
• Establish financial recommendations and a budget. Identify and review insurance
requirements.
• Modify plan as needed.

12

4
 11/19/2021

Week 5: Facility Emergency Preparedness

• Organization
• Emergency preparedness plans establish the organizational structure in order to
respond to any type of emergency or disaster situation.
• Organizational structure is designed to facilitate command and control.
• It considers the physical aspects needed to accomplish the task at hand.
• Consideration must be given to the type and magnitude of the emergency or
disaster, the communications systems required to support the mission, how the
situation will be managed.
• The facility manager has the responsibility to ensure that his or her organization
has an emergency response plan and employees are trained to respond to
specific emergency situations.

13

Week 5: Facility Emergency Preparedness

• Organization Considerations
• Facilities organizations are uniquely organized, staffed, and equipped for
handling emergencies.
• Facility organizations have the communications tools and management
systems already in place, and have contractors, with whom they interface daily,
available to respond.
• The organization structure should be flexible enough to allow for expansion and
extension of duties.
• Expansion of duties could include liaising with local government, community
groups, emergency relief agencies, and contractors, and providing for
emergency shelter.

14

Week 5: Facility Emergency Preparedness

• Concept of Operation
• The concept of operation is a statement of how an emergency is handled
from start to finish.
• It is stated in sufficient detail to ensure appropriate action.
• After normal work hours, the security office will be the first to receive
notification of an emergency, in that officers patrol buildings and can
physically detect a problem, alarm systems (fire and environmental)
terminate at the security office, and individuals detecting an emergency call
the security.

15

5
 11/19/2021

Week 5: Facility Emergency Preparedness

• Communications
• One last but most important issue is the subject of communications.
• Assume that your normal communications systems will be inoperable.
• This needs to be a consideration in the location and equipping of your command
operations center and your facility emergency operations center. Also consider
that, when local but widespread disasters occur, cell phone systems are
overloaded and of little use.

16

Week 5: Facility Emergency Preparedness

Chapter 15:
Command, Control and Communications

17

Week 5: Facility Emergency Preparedness

• Pulse Points
• Response during an emergency is dependent on several factors.
• One key factor is consistency.
• Organization policies and procedures provide the consistency to support the
organization's overall emergency plan.
• There should be a seamless transition from the normal day-to-day activity to the
emergency response.
• In some large organizations there are separate positions for a facility manager,
emergency manager, and security manager.
• In smaller organizations, these roles are filled by the same person, who is usually
the facility manager.

18

6
 11/19/2021

Week 5: Facility Emergency Preparedness

• Pulse Points
• Emergency preparedness is a function of planning wherein life safety and
property protection are the main goals.
• Without planning, direction, and control there would be chaos.
• Next are important facility management (FM) functions that must be considered
and carried out when developing the organization's emergency preparedness
plan.

19

Week 5: Facility Emergency Preparedness

• Chain of Command
• When an emergency involves the facility or physical infrastructure of an
organization, then the facility manager is normally the individual with onsite
responsibility for life safety and property protection (either by virtue of the
position or by designation from the emergency manager).
• This is normally true until a local government executive (i.e., the authority having
jurisdiction [AHJ]) arrives on the scene and assumes the authority.
• This can also be delegated by the AHJ to the facility manager or emergency
manager.
• Whatever the case, there should be a written protocol established.
• It should outline the broad, overall responsibilities of the facility manager and the
organization's relationship with the AHJ.

20

Week 5: Facility Emergency Preparedness

• Chain of Command
• In most cases, the local jurisdiction is responsible for this step, but it is an important
step and should be requested if not forthcoming.
• Government-to-government or private-to-government coordination during crises is
both difficult and critical.
• This is because there are issues such as police powers and condemnation involved,
and the more issues that can be resolved in advance, the better.
• Components that should be covered include:
1. Access to facilities (e.g., keys)
2. Available resources and services that can be provided (e.g., facility plans)
3. Annual facility tours and joint training (e.g., drills)
4. Individual and organization actions (i.e., who assumes control and when)
5. Protocol signatures by AHJ and organization facility manager.

21

7
 11/19/2021

Week 5: Facility Emergency Preparedness

• Control
• The responsibility for control at the scene of an emergency rests with the security
manager, with support provided by facilities management.
• Within a hospital environment the same responsibility exists (i.e., the security
manager has the responsibility for initial control of emergency scenes).
• Generally, the AHJ takes control upon arriving at the site.
• In the United States, emergency management is a cooperative effort among
federal, state, and local governments and the private sector.
• This charge is in accordance with the 1979 creation of the Federal Emergency
Management Agency (FEMA).
• Federal, state, and local agencies have the responsibility to protect the public.

22

Week 5: Facility Emergency Preparedness

• Control
• Correspondingly, private sector organizations have the responsibility to protect
employees and the general public from possible hazards by ensuring safety in
manufacturing and industrial practices.
• Also they must comply with all pertinent safety requirements and laws.
• Governments in each country have different philosophies and capabilities, and
organizational plans must reflect this.
• In some cases, local facility managers may well find themselves pretty much on
their own.

23

Week 5: Facility Emergency Preparedness

• Command Operation Center

• Generally, the organization will have a command center or emergency
operations center if the emergency is large enough and impacts the entire
organization.
• This is a central location where various departments (e.g., human resources,
legal counsel, information technology, risk management, financial affairs, public
affairs, security, production management, and FM) will station representatives
who will staff the center on a 24-hour basis.
• In large facility organizations, the facility department should have its own
emergency operations center where all related activities can be coordinated.

24

8
 11/19/2021

Week 5: Facility Emergency Preparedness

• Structure of a Facility Emergency Operations Center.

25

Week 5: Facility Emergency Preparedness

• Functions of the FEOC

26

Week 5: Facility Emergency Preparedness

• Functions of the FEOC Cont.

27

9
 11/19/2021

Week 5: Facility Emergency Preparedness

• Facility Manager Responsibilities

• The number one responsibility is always safety of individuals, and number two is
protection of property!
• As the individual responsible for facility emergency preparedness, the facility
manager is the advisor to the emergency manager, a senior vice president, and, in
some cases, the CEO or president of the organization.
• In this position, the facility manager must be astute and tactful enough to make
recommendations in such a way that they are not perceived as threatening.
• Do the background research, develop the options, and make the recommendations
in such a way that the supervisor still feels in control.
• Always keep in mind the welfare of the organization and the employees, and,
through caring and competence, cultivate trust!

28

Week 5: Facility Emergency Preparedness

• Emergency and Security Manager Responsibilities

• During an emergency, security of the facility or the site is probably one of the
most difficult undertakings.
• Security is the responsibility of the security manager, but in a crisis, his or her
resources will be stretched thin, and our assistance may be required to provide
physical barriers (where the security manager cannot place security officers).
• In many organizations, physical security is part of the responsibilities of the
facility manager.

29

Week 5: Facility Emergency Preparedness

• Communications
• The communications plan should cover both internal and external
communications.
• Before any information is disseminated, however, it must first be vetted through
the leadership of the organization.
• In general, the facility manager seeks to maximize internal communication but
minimize external communication.
• External communications should be handled by those authorized by the CEO to
speak for the organization.

30

10
 11/19/2021

Week 5: Facility Emergency Preparedness

• Communications
• There must be agreement on what information will be provided.
• Information should be disseminated from one central organization spokesperson
in order to minimize confusion, and it should be done according to an internally
established priority.
• A good communications plan will go a long way to stifle rumors and incorrect
information, minimize negative media exposure, and maintain the organization's
positive image.

31

EM 01542 Facilities Management

Week 5
Facility Security Management and Emergency Preparedness

Chapter 14: Planning, Definitions, and Threat Assessment

Chapter 15: Command, Control and Communications

Alejandro Rodriguez, D.Eng.

32

32

11