The Incident Command System for Businesses: A Plain-English Guide

When a crisis hits, the hardest problem is often not the hazard itself but the coordination. Who decides? Who talks to the fire department? Who is ordering the rental generators, and who is tracking what they cost? Without a structure, the loudest voice or the most senior title tends to run everything, and important work falls through the gaps.

The Incident Command System (ICS) is the structure U.S. emergency responders use to answer those questions. FEMA describes it as a standardized approach to the command, control and coordination of on-scene incident management. It is not only for fire departments. The National Incident Management System (NIMS), which includes ICS, guides all levels of government, nongovernmental organizations and the private sector.

This guide explains the core ideas of ICS in plain English and shows how a business can scale them down to fit its size.

Why a business should care

Ready.gov, the federal preparedness site, recommends that businesses have an incident management system. It notes that ICS can be used by businesses to work together with public agencies during emergencies, and that private sector businesses should be familiar with the fundamental concepts of incident command and coordinate planning with local public emergency services.

There is a practical reason, too. Ready.gov notes that NIMS, which includes ICS, is used as the standard for emergency management by all public agencies in the United States. If your team already understands terms like Incident Commander or Safety Officer, you can plug into their structure quickly instead of learning it on the spot.

The five functional areas

NIMS describes five major functional areas in ICS, staffed as needed for a given incident: Command, Operations, Planning, Logistics, and Finance/Administration.

• Command sets objectives and priorities and has overall responsibility for the incident.
• Operations carries out the tactical work to meet those objectives.
• Planning collects and evaluates information, tracks resources, runs planning meetings and keeps incident documents.
• Logistics provides support such as facilities, transportation, supplies, food, communications and IT equipment.
• Finance/Administration records personnel time, handles contracts and claims, and tracks incident costs.

A key rule makes this workable for small teams: these functions default to the Incident Commander until a section chief is assigned. In a small incident, one person may cover all five. As the incident grows, the commander hands off functions one at a time.

The Command Staff

NIMS describes three Command Staff positions that typically report directly to the Incident Commander:

• The Public Information Officer (PIO) gathers, verifies and shares information with the public, media and other audiences. NIMS notes that the Incident Commander approves the release of incident-related information and that all PIOs should speak "with one voice."
• The Safety Officer monitors operations and advises on the health and safety of incident personnel, and can stop or prevent unsafe acts.
• The Liaison Officer is the point of contact for representatives of other agencies and organizations, including private sector organizations, that are not part of a Unified Command.

In a business, the PIO might be your communications lead, the Safety Officer your facilities or environmental health and safety manager, and the Liaison Officer whoever works with outside agencies, landlords or key customers.

The principles that make it work

NIMS lists a set of management characteristics that form the foundation of ICS. Several translate directly to business use:

• Common terminology. Standard names for roles, resources and facilities reduce confusion, especially when several organizations work together.
• Modular organization. The structure expands or shrinks to fit the incident's size and complexity.
• Management by objectives. Leaders set specific, measurable objectives, assign work to meet them and document results.
• Incident action planning. Every incident should have an action plan, though not every one needs to be written down. Written plans become more important as an incident lasts longer or grows more complex.
• Manageable span of control. NIMS calls one supervisor to five subordinates the optimal ratio, while noting it is a guideline and real incidents often need different ratios.
• Unity of command. Each person reports to only one supervisor, which reduces conflicting directions.
• Establishment and transfer of command. Command is set up clearly at the start, and any handoff includes a briefing and notice to everyone involved.

Unity of command is easy to break under pressure. Senior executives naturally want to help, but if they give instructions directly to front-line staff, they bypass the person running the response. A good habit is for executives to route their requests through the Incident Commander.

Scaling ICS to a small or midsize business

Ready.gov notes that how a business uses ICS depends on its size and complexity. Functions and roles may be assigned to several people, or a few people may take on multiple responsibilities.

For example, imagine a 25-person landscaping company whose main yard floods overnight. The owner acts as Incident Commander. The office manager handles Planning and Finance: tracking which equipment is damaged, logging calls and saving receipts. A crew lead runs Operations, moving trucks to higher ground and checking job sites. Logistics, such as renting pumps and finding temporary storage, stays with the owner by default, and the owner also serves as the PIO, sending one update to staff and customers each morning. Five functions, three people, and everyone knows who decides what.

Write these assignments into your emergency plan with backups for each role. Incidents do not wait for the right person to be in the office.

Ready.gov also describes an emergency operations center (EOC) as a physical location, such as a conference room, or a virtual one, such as a telephone conference call, used to support emergency response, business continuity and crisis communications. It recommends activating the EOC for major incidents that cause significant property damage or potential or actual business disruption.

It also recommends a primary EOC at the main facility and a secondary option, such as another company site, a temporary facility or a teleconference bridge. For a small business, a practical secondary option can be a standing video meeting link that everyone on the response team already has.

When the incident involves more than one organization

When no single organization has the authority or resources to manage an incident alone, NIMS describes Unified Command. There is no single commander; instead, the participating organizations jointly set objectives, while each keeps its own authority and responsibility for its people and resources.

Unified Command is designed for agencies and jurisdictions that share authority over an incident, but the idea is useful for incidents you share with others, such as an outage that affects you, a landlord and a key supplier. Agree on joint objectives, a single plan and one schedule of updates.

Getting started

FEMA offers an online introductory course, IS-100.C, Introduction to the Incident Command System. Its course page lists a length of two hours and no prerequisites. Having your response team take it before a crisis gives everyone a shared vocabulary. You can practice the roles in a short drill, then review what you learn; our guide to after-action reviews explains how.

Key takeaways

• ICS is FEMA's standard structure for managing incidents, and NIMS guides the private sector as well as government.
• The five functions are Command, Operations, Planning, Logistics and Finance/Administration, and they default to the commander until assigned.
• The Command Staff includes a Public Information Officer, a Safety Officer and a Liaison Officer.
• Unity of command, clear handoffs and a manageable span of control prevent most coordination failures.
• Small businesses can cover all functions with a few people, as long as roles and backups are named in advance.

Sources

• FEMA, National Incident Management System, Third Edition (October 2017)
• FEMA, National Incident Management System overview page
• Ready.gov (U.S. Department of Homeland Security), Incident Management
• FEMA, IS-100.C: Introduction to the Incident Command System, ICS 100 (course overview)