These were very public examples, but what about the ones we never hear about? What about the risk of day-to-day wear-and-tear on employees?

According to recent data 22 million Americans work evening shifts, night shifts, rotating shifts, or another irregular type of schedule. These potentially sleep deprived workers are more likely to think and move more slowly, decreasing productivity. The likelihood of accidents, however, is increased, as evidenced by the estimated cost to American businesses of $18 billion a year!

Numerous reports in science journals have also shown higher health risks for shift workers. Shift work forces circadian rhythm—defined as a daily cycle of activity observed in many living organisms, including humans—into misalignment. One study correlated shift work with “sleep disorders, cardiovascular disease, peptic ulcer, metabolic syndrome, breast cancer, and undesirable pregnancy outcome.” Another report determined that starting shift work at an early age can disturb melatonin secretion and increase proinflammatory response, and may lead to a greater occurrence of multiple sclerosis. In yet another study, when rodents were subjected to circadian rhythm disruption, which simulated shift hours, they suffered more metabolic disorders, such as obesity and diabetes

Of course many industries—airlines, hospitals, security, etc—need around-the-clock workers. So what can be done to reduce risk and better ensure safety? First thing’s first: be aware of the problem and erase the stigma of the sleepy worker. Employers and employees can have meetings to talk about ways to prevent fatigue and increase safety.

How can employers help? By providing a quiet area for breaks or short naps. Discourage overtime because it will most likely lead to even more tired employees who will be more likely to fall asleep or have an accident. Encourage car pools, public transportation, or taxis to lessen the risk of car accidents due to sleepy workers driving home in a sleep-deprived state. Employers can encourage employees to try a buddy system. Two or more employees can keep an eye on each other, keep each other awake and alert.

Employers can also encourage workers to make sleep a priority. Employees should go to sleep as soon as they get home. With the help of family or friends, they should keep the environment quiet, wear eye masks and ear plugs to ensure a good “night’s” sleep.

Fatigued workers are unsafe workers. Employers can improve the workplace for shift workers with a few changes—breaks, work buddies, cots for naps, simple awareness of the problem—to decrease fatigue and increase safety.

Planning for a disaster is not always easy, and employees at small businesses often wear many hats – so it can be a challenge to find the time. Some companies need to be struck with an extended power outage or flood to realize the necessity of disaster preparedness planning.

The first priority for most companies is backing up their computer and IT networks, but the human side of disaster  planning is equally important.

Evacuation plans will save lives, even for those businesses with a handful of employees. If employees don’t know where the exits are and a fire strikes, an employee could wind up in a dangerous situation that could easily have been avoided.

What is your company’s disaster plan? A good plan will have the following components:

• Communication and coordination. Does your company have a plan for who will communicate to internal and external publics? How will employees know what to do?
• Emergency responses should be practiced and drilled, so that when lightning strikes, everyone knows how to proceed.
• Supplies like water, blankets and high energy snacks should be tucked away where employees can reach them in the event of extended emergency situations.
• Evacuation should be orderly and rehearsed. Even a small company can identify all of the exits and designate how people should leave in the event of a disaster.
• Another area that small businesses struggle with is bench strength in key positions.  Cross-training staff to fill in different roles is always a good idea and also helps to grow employee knowledge and loyalty.

Another mistake small companies can make is to put off even a small plan; instead waiting until they have the time to produce the perfect plan. Even a small plan that is well-executed – like taking five minutes at a staff meeting to make sure everyone knows where all of the exits are – is better than no plan at all.

Just like wearing a helmet before a bicycle crash, we doubt you are ever going to say, “I wish we hadn’t spent time creating that preparedness plan.” When the day arrives that it’s needed, you will always feel good that a plan is in place.

In Indiana, right before the band Sugarland was ready to play, severe winds struck the stage and it fell into the crowd. While safety precautions are not always possible, take notice next time before you head over to a playoff game or large concert, or even an event in your child’s auditorium. Stop and craft an emergency exit strategy so that you can be prepared for anything.

As you get situated in your section inside a large building, identify the exits. How would you leave in an emergency? Make sure you have a clear picture in your mind outlining the alternative exits that are possible, and go over this emergency safety plan with anyone attending the event with you. Research tells us that if a person has a “mental plan” for escaping a crisis event, that person has almost a 50 percent better chance of surviving without serious injury.

Of course, the first response would typically be to exit the same way you came in. However, that is not always the best move when exiting in a crisis situation. Take some time when you first arrive at an event to figure out the best emergency exits, and then figure out how you will get away from the building or area from those new exits (if you came in a different way). So, figure out not only how you would leave, but then how you would get oriented outside of the building.

Once you have an emergency plan in place, relax and enjoy the show!

The above incident is considered a “near miss” – a miscue that could have potentially caused an injury or property damage. When you experience a near miss that could have resulted in a workplace injury or a miscue in individual or organizational performance, how do you and your team react? A near miss is a solid opportunity to become more aware of your work environment and practices and, potentially, to discover how to contribute to process improvements, as well as workplace safety.

You can train your entire team to make the best of a near miss opportunity. When employees feel empowered to point out a near miss – and perhaps even receive recognition or a pat on the back for doing so – this practice will likely prevent future injuries and may contribute to improved operational performance. The tendency might be to resist calling attention to a near miss, since it can be perceived as a negative “blip” on the safety or performance track record of your company or team.

For solid practices in near miss investigation, determine the root cause of the incident. Introduce how a recurrence can be avoided. Determine whether employees may benefit from training regarding the new practices. Focus on prevention.

When called to the scene of a near miss, if you are a manager or team leader, you want to identify witnesses to see whether the description of the incident can be captured from the eyes of different observers. Interview everyone involved. Be careful not to lay blame, especially during the interview process.

If the near miss involves a safety issue, take pictures of the scene so that you can document what might need to be done to prevent future issues.

Develop a cultural approach to look at near misses in the light of “What can we learn? How can we prevent future incidences? What can we change? How can we improve our practices?” Effectively using near miss opportunities is a good way to “fall forward.”

In the near future, it’s likely your business will be threatened by a critical event that could dramatically impact operations.  Because disasters don’t happen regularly, they are often overlooked until it’s too late.  Organizations that plan in advance often make it through the crisis while those that don’t suffer serious consequences.

The Washington Emergency Management Division, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) disaster officials offer a list of suggestions to help businesses assess the risk of a natural disaster and take action. They include:

• Perform a risk analysis of the most likely type of disaster. If you’re not sure whether your business is at risk from natural hazards, check with local officials, city engineers or planning and zoning administrators.
• Protecting your business from natural disasters involves a variety of actions, from inspecting and maintaining your buildings to installing protective devices. Most of these actions, especially those that affect the structure of your buildings or their utility systems, should be carried out by qualified and licensed maintenance staff or professionals.
• Develop an emergency plan. Assign employees specific tasks. Practice these assignments.
• Simulate events that will help you fine-tune these plans.
• Develop a recovery plan that includes employee contact numbers, alternate operating locations, and backup suppliers.
• Keep tax and payroll records, records of inventory and essential information at an alternate site.
• Protect your data. If computers are vital to your business, back up your system. Make copies of essential information and store the disks in a safe place, preferably off-site.
• Store minimal inventory. Maintain three to five days’ inventory on hand to reduce potential loss.
• Elevate or relocate. Raise computers above the flood level and move them away from large windows. Move heavy and fragile objects to low shelves.
• Develop a working relationship with emergency management agencies, local law enforcement, fire departments and building officials.

Business continuity planning is a common practice for most organizations today.  As indicated in the tips above, it goes beyond simply ensuring that technical systems are backed up off-site and establishing redundancies.  It encompasses the entire organization from IT to Human Resources.

As experts in workforce/business continuity and disaster response, we frequently find that organizations do not have adequate plans to deal with two key areas of disaster planning and response: getting people out of the building in a disaster, and accurately accounting for individuals who are safe, injured or missing.

While evacuation plans are common, many employees still can’t find the nearest exit to their office. We know from 9/11 that this can contribute to needless deaths and injuries during an evacuation.  We would also add the following tips to the government’s checklist:

• Have an evacuation plan in place and walk the routes.
• Identify employees who have obvious mobility challenges, as well as employees who have less-obvious challenges such as those with osteoarthritis, workers who recently had surgery and/or hearing impaired people.
• Once employees exit the building, have them assemble at least 100 yards away.
• Have a system in place for accounting for employees accurately and quickly. Use this information to inform first responders to assist in any rescue efforts.

The SBA also provides assistance after a disaster to businesses, homeowners, renters, personal property owners, or activated military reservists. For more information, visit http://www.sba.gov/content/disaster-preparedness.

Writer Robin Gaddum recently shared Murphy’s Three Laws of Business Continuity. The First Law is generally well known and accepted: “If it can go wrong, it will go wrong.”

This reminds us of the importance of risk assessment and the value of investment in risk prevention.

Murphy’s Second Law is less well-known, but is widely appreciated based upon individual experience: “If it cannot possibly go wrong, it will still go wrong!”

However hard we try and however much we invest in risk prevention we never completely identify and eliminate all risks. Law No. 2 reminds us of the need for a business continuity plan, a last-ditch deference to enable recovery in the aftermath of the most improbable and unforeseen event.

Murphy’s Third Law is a cold reminder of the fact that “Bad Stuff Happens” and we will have to deal with the impact: “In real life, puppies die… Get over it.”

When disasters occur, in spite of all of our planning and preparation there is always an impact, Gaddum notes. If we didn’t feel an impact, then it wouldn’t be a disaster!

As longtime experts in disaster response, we have weathered some catastrophic events over the years and have provided support and guidance to our clients who experience such events. While we repeatedly drill and rehearse how to respond to these disasters, unexpected circumstances can arise that no one could have predicted.

To somebody new to the industry or process, this can be overwhelming and downright scary. But seasoned professionals recognize that there are no sure-fire recipes for success: every crisis is different.  While it may seem like wasted time to prepare for a disaster, it’s more important than ever. Through repeatedly practicing our response when a crisis occurs, we build “muscle memory” to help shape our reactions to better respond to unexpected situations. Further, no matter how good a response is or how well prepared an organization, the fact is that bad things happen in a disaster; there will be casualties or fatalities that could not have been prevented—no matter how hard we try.

However, having a plan in place helps an organization and its employees become more resilient, which will ultimately make the investment of money and time well spent.

Earlier this year, a gunman critically injured a doctor at Johns Hopkins Hospital, then killed himself and his mother. In another incident, a man who was unhappy with a relative’s treatment killed a nurse and another employee in a Georgia hospital, before being shot himself. In late 2010, an emergency nurse told CNN that she’d been scratched, bitten, spat on, and struck across the face so hard that her jaw broke.

Welcome to another day in the life of the healthcare workplace.

By its very nature, a hospital setting is a pressure-cooker environment – triggered by mental illness, drugs, alcohol abuse and mounting frustration from patients, some of whom may wait for hours to be treated by an overburdened system.

As a result, healthcare institutions are confronting a steadily increasing number of physical assaults that pose a unique danger to healthcare workers. As one might guess, most incidents take place in the emergency room setting. CNN reported a survey last year that revealed over half of all ER nurses had been physically and verbally assaulted on the job.

While the violence is not likely to improve soon, hospitals can adopt strategies to reduce violence and help prevent their employees from becoming victims. NIOSH (the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health) recommends the following steps:

- Develop emergency signaling, alarms, and monitoring systems.

- Install security devices such as metal detectors to prevent armed people from entering the hospital.

- Design the triage area and other public areas to minimize the risk of assault: provide staff restrooms and emergency exits, install enclosed nurses’ stations and reception areas with bullet-resistant and shatter-proof glass enclosures.

- Arrange furniture and other objects to minimize their use as weapons.

- Design staffing patterns to prevent personnel from working alone.

- Restrict the movement of the public in hospitals by card-controlled access.

Other good suggestions: establish a system for alerting security personnel when violence is threatened, and train employees to recognize and manage violent situations and resolve conflicts.

Equally important is knowing what to do if an employee becomes the victim of violence:

- Have the manager check in with the employee to ask how they can be supportive and make them feel safe.

- Allow employees to go home or continue their shift, whichever they choose.  If they decide to go home, urge them to contact a friend or family member for support so they’re not alone.

- Be prepared for a wide range of reactions — people respond differently to trauma.

- Assess how the employee is responding to the incident and determine the need for on-site counseling. Give an employee the option of counseling, but don’t require it.

- Check in with the employee over the following days and weeks to ensure they are coping.

When comparing their current plans against best practices in the industry, many organizations realize that evacuation planning is more than just conducting an annual fire drill or posting a map of available exits. As experts in the human aspects of disaster readiness and response, we’ve compiled a list of evacuation best practices, and those come down to four essential elements. After reading our list, can you think of others?

1. Secure leader support for evacuation planning, and communicate this to all employees. The best way to raise employee awareness of the importance of evacuation planning is to have the strong and visible backing of senior management. The CEO’s endorsement, communicated to every employee, as well as his or her direct and visible participation in training and drills, helps put the walk into the talk.

2. Walk the evacuation routes. When told to evacuate a facility, most people will try to exit the same way they entered. This is basic human nature. If on an upper floor, most folks understand the need to avoid elevators, but will still use the stairway closest to the elevator. To ensure the most expedient and safest departure, employees and their guests need to be assigned the exit closest to their work area, and then walk the route to ensure there are no hazards. Walking the evacuation routes has two valuable benefits:

• Establishing familiarity with all alternative escape routes; and
• Ensuring that no hazards are present.

3. Ensure that plans for disabled employees are in place.

Regardless of regulatory requirements, many organizations neglect developing and testing an evacuation plan for employees with special needs. Minimally, keep a list of all employees who have special challenges, develop a “buddy system” to provide them with assistance and practice evacuating these colleagues.

4. Have accurate floor plans available for first responders. Remember that first responders are entering an unfamiliar building, one that may be filled with smoke or debris. Also, they may need to retrieve colleagues who were last seen in specific locations. Providing a facility map is a valuable tool in assisting these public safety professionals in saving lives and effectively managing the crisis.

If you can think of other essential steps for safely evacuating employees, we’d love to hear from you. After all, there are always exceptions to rules and each organization can face unique challenges in this regard.

For reasons that remain a bit murky, when some of us get into a machine — in this case an automobile — we start acting like one. We find ourselves in a curious reality that mixes human interaction with the brain’s sense of suddenly being “Iron Man.” Suddenly, the courtesies and tolerance that often characterize face-to-face interactions disappear, and too many of us begin relating to each other like things instead of persons.

According to AAA, over 60% of drivers admit having lost their temper behind the wheel, and over 85% report having been a victim of road rage or aggressive driving. What to do?

If you tend to be an aggressive or angry driver, try this:

• If you feel yourself getting steamed, take a moment to visualize how you would look if you were acting this way in public outside of your car. Not attractive.
• Remember that all drivers make mistakes, including you, and resist the impulse to “teach someone a lesson.”
• Lead by example. Drive in a manner you wish others would follow, but don’t insist that they do (it will only make you more angry).
• Don’t rush. Studies show that hurrying is a primary catalyst for anger. Leave early enough that you have extra time to compensate for heavy traffic, challenging weather or other delays.

If you are the target of an aggressive driver or road rage, try this:

• Avoid eye contact and don’t retaliate against any insulting hand gestures.
• If you made a driving error, try giving a wave that says “I’m sorry.” Smile.
• Do not challenge the person by speeding up or, if they are tailgating, slowing down.
• If the driver’s actions are endangering you or others and you can read his or her license plate or identify the make and color of the vehicle, call 911 as soon as you safely can.
• If the driver seems to be targeting you and won’t disengage, drive to a police or fire station, or another very public area. Call 911 for assistance.

Bottom Line: According to AAA, at least 1,500 people are injured or killed each year by aggressive drivers. Do your best to avoid being part of the problem, on either end.

Research reported by the Association for Psychological Science and published in the journal Psychological Science in the Public Interest, shows that the majority of employees who suffer workplace trauma recover fully within a few months or, in extreme cases, years. However, about 30% will exhibit emotional dysfunction at a significant level that, if left untreated, can become chronic.

Basically, this and other research suggests that individuals respond emotionally to disasters or traumatic events in very diverse ways. Some victims will heal without any mental health intervention. Others will require assistance in the form of “psychological first aid.” But what form should this “first aid” take?

Many organizations rely on CISD in this regard, sometimes encouraging or even requiring employees who have been traumatized to participate in individual or group “debriefings” designed to help them express their feelings and “process” the emotional impact of their experiences. However, research shows that certain individuals who participate in a CISD can actually increase their odds of developing PTSD or other emotional challenges.

Employees who respond adversely to CISD often have a coping style that involves “out of sight, out of mind.” They effectively put the event behind them and move on, sometimes fairly rapidly. However, if they are compelled to participate in a CISD, there is increased risk that the mental images and emotional responses associated with the traumatic event will be reinforced in their minds, essentially “locking in” these painful and disturbing memories.

Consequently, organizations should never require their employees to participate in a CISD. Instead, they should emphasize that each individual exercise her or his own judgment and intuition in deciding whether to attend a debriefing. If an employee seems uncertain, simply asking, “Do you feel like talking about it or not?” may help him or her make the best decision. It is important that no peer or managerial pressure be applied in these situations.

Bottom Line: If your employees suffer a traumatic event, it’s good to offer them access to CISD. However, there should be no requirement or pressure that they participate. Individual employee preferences should be respected and affirmed.