Run Hide Fight

Do you know what those three action verbs are referring to? No, that’s not a playground game.

Those three verbs are what may save your life when an Active Shooter is in your vicinity. They are what the FBI and DHS recommend as to how to respond in that type of situation. If you didn’t immediately know what they were, then someone in your organization has not trained your fellow employees for this type of incident.

But, wait. Whose responsibility is it to train your organization’s employees? Most companies recognize Active Shooter as one of their top threats but they have not prepared for this scenario. So as Business Continuity professionals, should you take a wait and see attitude – wait for Human Resources to add a mandatory brief video to their training programs and hope that this will be enough? Obviously not.

As a Business Continuity professional, you have plans in place to deal with managing risks. But did you consider an Active Shooter?

What happens if there is an Active Shooter? Do the employees know what to do?
Do you have an actionable continuity plan for each of your locations should this occur? Statistics state that Active Shooter incidents only last 10-15 minutes, often before law enforcement can arrive. But the incident will affect your employees and your organization long after law enforcement has left.
Will your organization be able to handle Social Media during such an incident? News will spread quickly and it needs to be managed. It will be on Facebook and Twitter almost instantly, long before it lands on TV news.

You need to take the responsibility for ensuring that your company is prepared for major disasters and other risks and this is no different. So what should you do? At a minimum:

Train the Employees – DHS and the FBI have many materials to assist in educating both you and your organization. To get you started, download the DHS Active Shooter Pocket Card. If they are not already doing so, engage HR in this endeavor.
Prepare Active Shooter scenario Emergency Action Plans and BC Plans for each location within your organization.
Be cognizant of existing social media policies and procedures and add the relevant information to your plans and exercises.
Add Active Shooter scenario inputs to your existing exercise program and as always: Test. Test. Test.