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Active assailant events can happen anywhere – schools, businesses of all types, and even on a sunny, seaside boardwalk crowded with tourists, which happened in Hollywood, Fla., on May 29. Such attacks come in many forms and can involve weapons such as guns, explosive devices and vehicles.

David Hosier, senior risk management consultant at Oswald, and Kyle Rogers, senior war and terrorism underwriter at Markel Insurance Co., presented the final installment of a three-part webinar series on active assailant events hosted by Oswald. The webinar series focused on prevention, response and recovery.

Whether the violence occurs in a business or nearby, those in close proximity are impacted. Planning ahead can help ease the effect on employees and your business, as well as determine how quickly your business recovers.

First: Create an incident management team based on the principles of the incident command system, which is a team of people dedicated to planning ahead and overseeing recovery after an active assailant event. This team will work with insurers, law enforcement, counselors and others with the goal of minimizing the impact to the business.

Second: Know what to expect.

Your business will be shut down for at least a short period of time while law enforcement conducts necessary investigations. Longer-term disruption could occur if your building is significantly damaged, technology has stopped working, or your employees are unable or not ready to return to work.

Employees and their families may need counseling to reduce any traumatic effects. Employees also might need time to recover and calm their fears before coming back to work.

In the short term, customers might not be eager to come back to your business and may choose to take their business elsewhere, especially if service is lacking.

Over the long term, your business could face lawsuits from people and other businesses affected.

Third: Create a business continuity plan to ensure you can continue to serve your customers in the immediate time following an active assailant event. Think of it as a Plan B.

With active assailant events on the rise and becoming more intense, all organizations should consider insurance to make sure they can survive the attack.

Oswald can assess your risk of an active assailant event, help you plan ahead, and will find the right coverage to ensure your organization can weather such an event with minimal disruption and cost.

For more information, contact David Hosier here or at 513-800-2885.