In this lesson, you will learn about
the EOC Management Staff positions, their responsibilities, and how they
support the EOC's response effort.
Management Staff
The EOC's Management Staff is made of the the EOC Incident Manager or
EOC Director who has overall responsibility and accountability for the
EOC, a Deputy Incident Manager/Director if required, and three Officer
roles which can be assigned to assume responsibility for specific
management functions.
💡 Did You Know?
Each
organisation may use slightly different EOC position titles. Consist
titles help to support inter-agency communication but are not essential.
If you are unsure, confirm suitable titles before sending messages. In
this course we will use EOC Manager and EOC Director interchangeably, as
they are two common titles for the senior manager or leader of an EOC.
EOC Incident Manager/EOC Director
The
EOC Incident Manager has overall responsibility and authority for the
EOC, and they supervise the Management Staff and General Staff. Their
job is to ensure the EOC runs efficiently by supporting personnel and
addressing the overall incident needs of the organization. With the
input and support of the EOC Management Team, they ensure objectives are
set for each operational period and that personnel are enabled to
address these priorities. It's
the Incident Managers role to keep the policy or executive group
informed about the incident and clear on how they may best support the
response efforts. If
the EOC starts expanding, the Incident Manager may appoint a Deputy who
will focus on the EOC’s internal activities. This frees up the Incident
Manager so they can focus more on external and stakeholder matters It's
important for the EOC Incident Manager to have a solid understanding of
emergency management practices in the organization. They also need to
know how to effectively guide the EOC team in addressing operational
challenges and the overall requirements of the emergency.
EOC Manager/Director
Key Responsibilities
1. Assumes overall EOC responsibility and authority.
2. Supervises Management Staff and General Staff.
3. Ensures efficient and effective operation of the EOC.
4. Ensures objectives are set and acted upon for each operational period.
5. Assumes responsibilities of unassigned management team positions.
6. Liaises with and takes direction from the Executive/Policy Group (or higher level EOC).
Deputy EOC Manager/Director
Key Responsibilities
1. Assumes duties of the EOC Manager/Director in their absence.
2. Supports and facilitates effective communication and collaboration among EOC personnel.
3. Focuses on the internal management and leadership of EOC personnel, in coordination with the EOC Manager/Director.
4. Ensures appropriate EOC management systems are established and functioning.
5. Conducts briefings and facilitates EOC meetings as required.
Safety Officer
Key Responsibilities
1. Ensures implementation of appropriate EOC safety measures and worker care practices.
2. Liaises with Safety Officers from other EOC and levels of response to identify common concerns and actions.
3. Ensures appropriate EOC security measures have been established to protect personnel.
4. Monitor safety and risk management practices with site/field operations.
5. Provide advice/direction on health and safety issues.
6. Investigates accidents and close calls in coordination with established Health and Safety practices.
7. Monitor situations for risk exposures and ascertain probabilities and potential consequences.
8. In collaboration with EOC Management Team, exercise authority to halt unsafe operations.
Liaison Officer
Key Responsibilities
1. Ensures procedures are in place for working and communicating with agency representatives.
2. Requests outside agency EOC representatives when required by EOC Management Team.
3. Maintain a point of contact for representatives from other agencies in the EOC.
4. Liaises with relevant operation/coordination centres or agencies/departments not represented in EOC.
5. Assists and advise the EOC Management Team relative to external agencies and organizations.
6. Assists EOC Manager/Director to ensure procedures are in place for communicating with government officials.
7. Liaises
with government and non-government agencies, other EOCs, and
State/Provincial and Federal organizations to share information.
Information Officer
Key Responsibilities
1. Coordinates all public information, media relations and internal information methods for the EOC.
2. Ensures public/stakeholders within affected area receives complete, accurate, and consistent information.
3. Established or attends Joint Information Centre (JIC) as applicable.
4. Coordinates media releases with other affected agencies and organizations.
5. Develops format for news conferences, media releases, and briefings, in conjunction with the EOC Manager/Director.
6. Monitors all media sources and corrects inaccuracies when needed.
7. Liaises with Information Officers at other EOCs, sites/field operations, and external agencies.
The
Information Officer role often needs to expand to a team of personnel
working on various aspects of information. When this happens, the
function will be led by a "Senior Information Officer" with various
units to support specific tasks, such as public information, media
relations, internal communications, and social media.
If a Management Staff position is not assigned, the EOC Manager/Director
needs to assume the responsibilities of the unassigned function(s).
Summary
1. The EOC Manager/Director assumes overall EOC responsibility and
authority, and may appoints a deputy to support internal personnel
management.
2. The EOC Management Staff includes officer functions for Liaison, Safety and Information.
3. The Safety Officer oversees and advises on overall health, safety and risk management matters.
4. The Liaison Officer engages and establishes relationships with outside agencies and organizations.
5. The Information Officer and their team, coordinate public information
including social media, maintain media relations, ensure suitable
internal agency communications.
