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What would you consider to be a major incident?
Posted: Fri Apr 02, 2021 1:31 pm
by sakura999
I'm soon going to have an interview for a compliance role, and I'm dreading the question about what's the biggest crises I've dealt with because I'm not sure I've had to really handle many crises. So, I was just wondering what you guys would consider a major incident based on your own experience?
By the way, as an aside, does anyone have any tips to prepare for scenarios questions? Sometimes, I can be a bit slow with those. Thank you for your help!
Re: What would you consider to be a major incident?
Posted: Fri Apr 02, 2021 1:52 pm
by Messy
Blimey, there is a 'how long is a bit of string?' question!!
For a small firm with a workforce of 6, a bought of flu might be a major incident, whereas an IT issue might be more easily solved
But Amazon would be in a huge crisis if their IT fell over, yet have continued to grow during the pandemic, despite staffing issues
My employers have a huge commitment to crisis planning and have a team of 8 staff in our crisis management team. They plan, communicate and exercise local plans. They maintain databases, inspect and advise and train senior managers who are used as a Crisis Management Team during an incident
Real events have included utility shoutouts downs (power, water and sewage), IT failures, fires, hazmat issues and storm damage. The last year has required additional staff to be bought in to manage covid work - probably the biggest incident we have ever dealt with
Have a look at this guys blog to get an idea of the work our team does
https://blog.softexpert.com/en/develop- ... ment-plan/
Re: What would you consider to be a major incident?
Posted: Tue Apr 06, 2021 12:42 am
by stephen1974
Talk about SIMP's Serious Incident Managment Policy (Pack, Procedure, Plan, insert what ever P you like). Essentially a procedure to be enacted in the event of a serious incident that states who does what and when and includes a phone tree of who has to call who. This isnt just for low level management but goes all the way up to directors and includes contacting external bodies like the environment agency etc, what to do if the press show up, contacting consultants, legal teams and so on and so on.
What makes a Serious incident should be defined in that pack and could be a variety of things and not all of them have to result in an injury. Significant loss of business is a serious incident. Something that compromises a service level agreement could be considerd a serious incident. HR issues could be considered serious incidents.
Some of the incidents I've dealth with:
Heart Attack(s) 1 death 1 recovery
Injury that resulted in having to close the business whilst it was dealt with.
Equipment failure that resulted in closing the business breaking SLA with the local authority,
Ceiling Collapse.
Fire.
Gas Leak.
Sexual Assault allegation.
Missing Child.
Suspected Child Abuse.
Break Ins.
Theft by employees (significant sums of money)
Theft by robbery.
Bomb Threats.
The incident itself isnt that important, its having procedures in place to deal with it, ie, the SIMP.
Re: What would you consider to be a major incident?
Posted: Tue Apr 06, 2021 4:26 pm
by billinom8s
i forgot my missus birthday once - that was a major crisis followed by an industrial sized incident that required a thorough investigation. Responsibility for the error was pinned down to one individual who was educated as to the importance of keeping detailed records going forward.
I'm pleased to announce they have a 100% conformance record since the event.
Re: What would you consider to be a major incident?
Posted: Wed Apr 07, 2021 10:02 pm
by sakura999
Hi all,
Your responses have been really useful and informative! Thank you so much for taking the time to answer me
Re: What would you consider to be a major incident?
Posted: Wed Apr 07, 2021 10:03 pm
by sakura999
stephen1974 wrote: ↑Tue Apr 06, 2021 12:42 am
Talk about SIMP's Serious Incident Managment Policy (Pack, Procedure, Plan, insert what ever P you like). Essentially a procedure to be enacted in the event of a serious incident that states who does what and when and includes a phone tree of who has to call who. This isnt just for low level management but goes all the way up to directors and includes contacting external bodies like the environment agency etc, what to do if the press show up, contacting consultants, legal teams and so on and so on.
What makes a Serious incident should be defined in that pack and could be a variety of things and not all of them have to result in an injury. Significant loss of business is a serious incident. Something that compromises a service level agreement could be considerd a serious incident. HR issues could be considered serious incidents.
Some of the incidents I've dealth with:
Heart Attack(s) 1 death 1 recovery
Injury that resulted in having to close the business whilst it was dealt with.
Equipment failure that resulted in closing the business breaking SLA with the local authority,
Ceiling Collapse.
Fire.
Gas Leak.
Sexual Assault allegation.
Missing Child.
Suspected Child Abuse.
Break Ins.
Theft by employees (significant sums of money)
Theft by robbery.
Bomb Threats.
The incident itself isnt that important, its having procedures in place to deal with it, ie, the SIMP.
My God, you've seen it all!!
But I agree with you; an incident becomes a major problem is there are no procedures in place.
Re: What would you consider to be a major incident?
Posted: Thu Apr 08, 2021 2:22 pm
by witsd
Just to point out that Stephen's experiences aren't that strange, I could add:
Two fires + dozens of false alarm evacuations.
Two deaths due to heart failure, one stroke, one anaphylactic shock.
Two accidental sprinkler activations.
One flood by damaged external water main.
One child suspected of pricking themselves with a syringe.
One sheet of 2' by 8' plate glass falling five floors onto a pedestrian walkway.
One vehicle collision.
Multiple thefts by employees.
Two riots.
Four total failures of refrigeration, costing around £30-40K each time.
All in one M&S, over a ten year period.
Re: What would you consider to be a major incident?
Posted: Thu Apr 08, 2021 10:15 pm
by sakura999
witsd wrote: ↑Thu Apr 08, 2021 2:22 pm
Just to point out that Stephen's experiences aren't that strange, I could add:
Two fires + dozens of false alarm evacuations.
Two deaths due to heart failure, one stroke, one anaphylactic shock.
Two accidental sprinkler activations.
One flood by damaged external water main.
One child suspected of pricking themselves with a syringe.
One sheet of 2' by 8' plate glass falling five floors onto a pedestrian walkway.
One vehicle collision.
Multiple thefts by employees.
Two riots.
Four total failures of refrigeration, costing around £30-40K each time.
All in one M&S, over a ten year period.
What's your industry? If you don't mind me asking, how did you deal with the deaths? Did you have to prove that it wasn't due to the work being carried out that the staff passed away? And what about the refrigeration failure? £30-40k is a lot of money!
I guess that the longer your work in H&S, the stranger the events you will come across.
Re: What would you consider to be a major incident?
Posted: Thu Apr 08, 2021 11:28 pm
by witsd
That was all from when I was doing H&S in a branch of Marks and Spencer.
The deaths and stroke were all customers, and all were fairly old. Thankfully the worst that ever happened to a member of staff were non-life-threatening head injuries and similar.
With the deaths, the ambulance staff were careful not to pronounce the people dead until they were off site, which I believe helped a lot with the paperwork - in fact, most of my time afterwards was spent making sure that the first aiders involved were properly looked after.
With the fridges, it was utter, utter chaos, despite the company obviously being large enough and well insured enough to take that hit.
Re: What would you consider to be a major incident?
Posted: Fri Apr 09, 2021 10:26 am
by Blackstone
witsd wrote: ↑Thu Apr 08, 2021 11:28 pm
That was all from when I was doing H&S in a branch of Marks and Spencer.
The deaths and stroke were all customers, and all were fairly old. Thankfully the worst that ever happened to a member of staff were non-life-threatening head injuries and similar.
With the deaths, the ambulance staff were careful not to pronounce the people dead until they were off site, which I believe helped a lot with the paperwork - in fact, most of my time afterwards was spent making sure that the first aiders involved were properly looked after.
With the fridges, it was utter, utter chaos, despite the company obviously being large enough and well insured enough to take that hit.
I used to work for one of the companies that supplied refrigeration to M&S (and other supermarkets). Refrigeration companies worst nightmare to hear a whole store has gone down. Queue a race against time to get contractors and engineers to site!
Re: What would you consider to be a major incident?
Posted: Fri Apr 09, 2021 3:58 pm
by witsd
Blackstone wrote: ↑Fri Apr 09, 2021 10:26 amI used to work for one of the companies that supplied refrigeration to M&S (and other supermarkets). Refrigeration companies worst nightmare to hear a whole store has gone down. Queue a race against time to get contractors and engineers to site!
During one situation where an engineer had visited, said everything was okay and left, followed by a major failure a few hours later we actually had the refrigeration company's boss' son turn up in person on his motorcycle.
Was certainly entertaining to see the top tier management panicking for once.
Re: What would you consider to be a major incident?
Posted: Sat Apr 10, 2021 8:45 pm
by sakura999
witsd wrote: ↑Fri Apr 09, 2021 3:58 pm
Blackstone wrote: ↑Fri Apr 09, 2021 10:26 amI used to work for one of the companies that supplied refrigeration to M&S (and other supermarkets). Refrigeration companies worst nightmare to hear a whole store has gone down. Queue a race against time to get contractors and engineers to site!
During one situation where an engineer had visited, said everything was okay and left, followed by a major failure a few hours later we actually had the refrigeration company's boss' son turn up in person on his motorcycle.
Was certainly entertaining to see the top tier management panicking for once.
Even the mighty get humbled when safety is involved!