Departmental readiness

Although supplies are important, the planning around building kits is even more beneficial to creating an internal culture of readiness. Start a conversation with faculty and staff, and encourage them to think in a holistic way about office preparedness.

Departmental readiness is a faculty or department’s ability to respond effectively to disruptions or emergencies that impact its core functions.

Here are key things to consider when preparing for an emergency:

• Keep an emergency phone list (including a paper copy!)
• Know your team’s meeting location and check-in process
• Understand your emergency roles and responsibilities
• Secure critical documents and backups of essential data.

While there are no policies or legislation requiring faculties or departments to practice workplace preparedness, everyone should have a personal emergency kit at home and at work. If an emergency happens while at work, plan to make every effort to get home. Include items in your work emergency kit to support your plan.

It’s also worth noting that while First Aid kits are no longer required in every department, it is important to still have basic first aid supplies in your emergency kit.

Emergencies at work

Emergencies at UBC may require you to evacuate or shelter in place. In all situations, safety should be your top priority. Here’s how to stay safe:

• Call 911 and/or Campus Security (604-822-2222) if you witness an event
• Rely on trusted sources for information:
  • UBC Safe Vancouver App notifications
  • Provincial Emergency Alerts
  • UBC.ca and official channels
• Follow instructions from first responders and university safety teams
• Know your building’s evacuation routes
• If leaving, take essential items (keys, phone, wallet, laptop) only if safe to do so
• Check in with your supervisor or team at your designated muster point

Remember: If you leave UBC devices in an unsecure location, report it to security@ubc.ca or call the IT Service Centre at 604-822-6141.

Continuity planning

Emergencies can disrupt UBC’s teaching, research, and operations. Continuity planning helps ensure that critical university services, such as teaching, research, and operations can continue for an extended period following an emergency or threat. This period may range from a few hours to several days, weeks, or even months.

UBC’s activities often rely on specialized equipment, supplies, support services, and the expertise of our people. A breakdown or disruption in any of these areas can significantly impact academic, research, or operational activities. Prolonged failures may pose risks to human safety or cause significant harm to campus infrastructure and services.

Continuity planning helps minimize certain exposures to risks that may impact the recovery and resumption process, including:

• The number of critical decisions required following a disaster or severe disruption
• Single point of failure conditions within a unit
• Reliance on specific individuals or teams to lead recovery process and efforts
• Limited availability of staff with necessary skills to affect the recovery
• The need to create, test, or modify procedures, programs or systems during recovery
• The potential loss of data or transactions, recognizing that the loss of some transactions may be inevitable

Under UBC Policy SC10, Disaster Management, service units are responsible for conducting or delivering critical services to the university under the following conditions:

• Workforce disruption, where there are insufficient trained and skilled personnel available
• Workplace disruption, such as disruption of a business entity (office, teaching facilities, utilities)
• Disruption of IT services, where interruptions impact access to IT systems or platforms
• Supply chain disruption, where external issues affect the availability of critical products or services (external supplier, service provider, utility or logistic disruption)

Templates for continuity planning

UBC’s activities fall into three main areas—academic, operational, and research. Please use the templates below to guide your continuity planning efforts:

For questions or concerns, please email ready.ubc@ubc.ca.