Evacuation planning is an essential part of contingency and crisis response planning, enabling company security and safety responses to be implemented quickly and effectively. Evacuation plans may be components of a fuller Business Continuity Management Plan – supporting business continuity and recovery during manmade or natural crisis events. Evacuations are singular events in that they can affect individuals or large numbers of the company’s staff, and have implications beyond the emergency event itself. Evacuations can be minor events, or large scale. They may involve a temporary withdrawal from a project area, or a permanent withdrawal from a nation or region. Evacuation scenarios present a threat to both company staff and physical assets, and have the potential to escalate rapidly in terms of risk profile.

RSM Consulting has considerable experience in planning for and assisting with evacuations worldwide. RSM Consulting will provide companies Evacuation Plans that are based at two levels, the corporate level with overarching management guidelines and requirements, and the field level with granular level details at both the country and project or site levels. Dependant upon the situation, an Evacuation Plan will involve participation at every level and a clear understanding of the roles, responsibilities, protocols and procedures within a company is essential for an effective plan to be carried out.

• Strategic Evacuation: The leveraging of intelligence resources which enables companies to forecast risk events or factors that may make it possible for project management to undertake effective actions prior to a situation deteriorating. This enables strategic, rather than tactical, decision making while the company is not dealing with an emergency situation. Strategic measures might include reducing a footprint or profile in order to avoid the requirement to evacuate, or pre-positioning resources in order to support a possible withdrawal from an area or region.

• Tactical Evacuation: A tactical evacuation is the rapid withdrawal of personnel following an unpredicted event, or a rapid escalation in risk. A tactical evacuation is an emergency withdrawal and extraction of personnel, assets and materials from an affected area. Unlike the strategic evacuation, a tactical evacuation may not be staged and may result in a complete withdrawal in one lift, rather than a succession of measured evacuation stages.

RSM Consulting will ensure Evacuation Plans can be kept current and can be used by successive managers. RSM Consulting also supports the development of Recovery Plans, an aspect of the evacuation which supports the company’s ability to recover business operations and return to work. We offer a tier of services to meet small linear tasks, medium sized projects and complex and dynamic risk consulting requirements. Each service can be tailored to meet the needs of a unique company requirement.