It’s easy to assume everyone knows where the emergency exits are at your facility and how employees should proceed if an evacuation needs to take place, but people fall to the level of their training when the pressure is on.
This is why it is useful to practice the OSHA Find 4 emergency evacuation scavenger hunt as it helps break the routine aspect of covering emergency situations.
Engaging The Team
The Find 4 scavenger hunt is a simple exercise where team members must identify their exit route, evacuation obstacles, helpful resources and assembly points.
Part of what makes the Find 4 scavenger hunt practical is that it requires employees to physically walk their evacuation route. Instead of discussing theoretically where to go, team members can show whether they know where their nearest exit is and what their alternatives are if the first one is inaccessible.
The other key element of the scavenger hunt is prompting employees to consider when conditions aren’t ideal and what possible obstacles may exist in your facility. Encourage team members to think critically about their route options rather than memorizing a single route.
Even though many of your field staff may spend a minimal amount of time at your office, this doesn’t mean they should be excluded from this exercise, as there is no guarantee they won’t be onsite when an emergency occurs.
While the Find 4 scavenger hunt may assume you’re working with a traditional office building, it’s a good idea to also conduct it for other parts of your facility as well. If you have a warehouse, greenhouse or mechanic shop, make sure employees are familiar with their exit routes in these areas, as well as any potential obstacles.
Stress to your staff that this scavenger hunt is not a race to see who can complete the form the fastest. Instead, this should be about observing, practicing and reviewing the current evacuation plan. One option is to reward the team member or group that comes up with the best observation or improvement suggestion.
Don’t Skip the Debrief
After your team members have completed the scavenger hunt either as groups or individuals, gather everyone afterward to discuss what was discovered.
Questions you can ask during this period include:
- What surprised you?
- Was anything confusing?
- If your normal exit was blocked, did you immediately know where to go?
- What could slow an evacuation?
- Did you know where emergency resources were located?
- Was the assembly point obvious?
- How confident are you that everyone could be accounted for?
- What should we change?
Based on employees’ responses to these questions, you can determine whether there are areas for improvement. For instance, one part of the building may lack clear exit signage or equipment may be staged dangerously close to chemicals or other fire hazards.
Once you make these updates, recognize the employees who helped make a positive change. While, hopefully, a hazard prompting an evacuation will never occur at your location, it’s best to train your team well so they know how to get out, what obstacles they might encounter, what emergency resources are available, and where they need to go afterward.
