Prepare your business for flooding
With a number of flood warnings already in place across Worcestershire, and more expected, businesses at risk need to be prepared. Here are some top tips if you haven’t got steps and procedures already in place:
- Create a flood plan: preparation is key – be sure that your business has a comprehensive flood plan that includes the following crucial considerations:
- A list of all important contacts, such as building services, suppliers and evacuation contacts for your employees. In addition, consider using Floodline, which allows you to receive flood warnings from the government.
- A detailed map that highlights the location of important property, protective materials and service shut-off points.
- An outline of basic strategies for protecting your organisation’s property, keeping your employees safe, preventing business disruption and establishing effective recovery efforts.
- Checklists of procedures for staff to follow during a flood.
- Assess your risks: apart from the flood itself, natural disasters can create a domino effect of other issues occurring within your business if you aren’t prepared:
- Implement mitigation measures to ensure that additional risks are under control during a flood. This could include locking windows and doors, making sure any workplace chemicals, oils or other hazardous substances are stored safely and will not contaminate the floodwater, having backup plans for broken supply chains and potentially finding another location to continue key business operations during a flood.
- Keep your employees in mind: make sure your employees know what to do in the event of a flood:
- You can help prepare them by providing flood safety information in employee manuals and flood safety training. Similarly decide how the business will function if employees can’t get in due to flooded roads or rail tracks.
Duncan Sutcliffe, director, Sutcliffe & Co Insurance Brokers, added: “As with all business risks there is of course insurance that can help your business if it is affected by flooding and we strongly recommend you discuss this with your insurance broker. However, insurance should be an added level of security for the business, and not used in place of having procedures and plans to mitigate any impact an emergency, such as flooding, can have.”
If you find your insurance broker is unable to help you with flood insurance for your commercial property, or premium is prohibitive, then get in touch with us as we may be able to help: 01905 21681