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jennielouises  
#1 Posted : 03 June 2021 09:17:43(UTC)
Rank: Forum user
jennielouises

Our company is planning to be fully flexible with where people work when we reopen on 21st June so that means we can't guarantee who will be in the office on what day. We know for sure the office managers will be in 5 days a week but they will obviously have holiday etc. I'm at a loss as to what to do about fire marshals and first aiders. The office managers will be trained but there could be up to 60 people in the office. I originally thought about training everyone, which is fine, but then we need to make sure someone takes overall responsibility if the fire drill went off etc. When the office manager is there it will be them but, as I said, they may be off on holiday or off sick. Has anyone else come across this issue and thought of a way around it?

achrn  
#2 Posted : 03 June 2021 11:52:22(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
achrn

We have about 150 staff in our biggest office, over three floors and a lot of meeting rooms. 

I've seen the 'train everyone' argument advanced, buit don't believe it works for fire wardens - if everyone is checking that everyone is evacuating and checking rooms, then no-one is evacuating, they are all sweeping.  I just don't see it working.

For first aiders I think we will need about twice as many as we've previously had.  I think completely flexible whim-based attendance doesn't work foir first aiders (i.e. it simply won't be possible for employees to wake up in the morning and make a decision then whether they will go to the office or not).  If you have a core of people that are in most of the time, you'll simply need to arrange cover for when they aren't in (and if someone is covering an office manager's holiday, they'll need to go into the office).  Your emergency fallback for first aiders is to have some designated individuals - but that would be a last resort if your planned cover is sick or involved in a traffic accident on the way to work or something.

I think fire wardens are a bit more difficult.  We rely on designated individuals sweeping areas, and when the  individual is away someone else covers their area (we have about 25% more 'understudies' trained to provide this extra cover).  You need to schedule holidays, but we require people to book and get approval for holiday anyway - fire wardens simply need to get director approval for their leave and also arrange an understudy.  I think we will need something similar, but with two or maybe even three fire wardens for each area effectively on a rota (so Zippy does Monday and Thursday, Bungle does Tuesday, and George does Wednesday and Friday, or whatever).  I think each fire warden will be getting cheaper training than previously - we used to send them all to actually use an extinguisher on a fire, but if we have three times as many I think maybe even e-learning plus mentoring from an 'old hand'.

jennielouises  
#3 Posted : 03 June 2021 13:36:05(UTC)
Rank: Forum user
jennielouises

That's the issue, we won't have a core list of people in the office. The only person who will be there most of the time is the office manager and we can't just have them as the fire marshal. We have three buildings between 3k and 5k sq ft. The first aiders aren't as much of an issue actually, it's the fire marshals. As you say, training everyone won't work. I just can't work out what to do when we don't have 'core' people attending the office

Kate  
#4 Posted : 03 June 2021 14:30:44(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
Kate

Training everyone can work if you combine it with a method for deciding who is "It" on a given day or when the alarm happens to go off.

A method I've used for deciding who is "It" is hanging up a hi-viz vest at a visible point and declaring the first person to pick it up to be "It".

I'm not claiming it was 100% reliable but it's not completely unrealistic with adequate training and communication.

You could even offer a reward for being "It" to incentivise people to do it.

thanks 2 users thanked Kate for this useful post.
Dazzling Puddock on 03/06/2021(UTC), adpcea on 13/07/2021(UTC)
nic168  
#5 Posted : 10 June 2021 18:16:48(UTC)
Rank: Super forum user
nic168

Kate ssuggested method is the one we tried, the key is to incentivise your Fire warden. Many places recognise First aiders with a bonus or bounty but the role of fire warden uis rarely retreated in the same way.

We always had trouble getting enough volunteers, dread to think what it will be like now. 

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