Guides

When the alarm sounds, you need to know — fast and accurately — who is on site and whether everyone got out. Here is how to run a roll-call that actually works, and where a paper register falls down.

Before a contractor sets foot on site they should understand the risks, the rules and what to do in an emergency — and you should have a record that they did. Here is a checklist to build your induction from.

A short, clear visitor sign-in policy sets expectations, protects people’s privacy and helps you meet your health-and-safety duties. Here is what a good one covers.

A trial evacuation is the only way to find out whether your evacuation plan works before you need it to. Here is how to plan one, run it, time it, and get something useful out of it — as opposed to a corridor full of people waiting to go back to their desks.

What a fire warden needs to know, to have, and to do — before the alarm, during an evacuation, and after the all-clear. Print it, keep it with your warden pack, or work through it once a year with the people who hold the role.

Some New Zealand buildings need an approved evacuation scheme, and the people running them are often unclear on what that actually means in practice. Here is the shape of it — what a scheme covers, who needs one, and where a sign-in system fits.

The paper sign-in book at reception looks like an evacuation list. It is not one, and the ways it fails are predictable enough to name. Here they are, in the order they will bite you.