Keeping your BHV organisation up to date: what to arrange, record and practise as an employer

What is BHV and what must you arrange as an employer?

BHV responders are employees who step in first during an emergency, until the emergency services arrive. Their tasks are first aid for accidents, limiting and fighting fires, limiting the consequences of accidents, and raising the alarm and evacuating everyone present. A responder can be trained for all tasks or for part of them, as long as the organisation as a whole covers all tasks.

As an employer you are obliged to arrange BHV properly and to appoint at least one responder. This covers training and equipment for your responders, standing contacts with external emergency services and informing your employees about how BHV works. If you fall short, the Dutch Labour Authority can step in. Your RI&E is the starting point: it shows which provisions are needed and which residual risks remain.

How many BHV responders do you need?

The law sets no fixed number of BHV responders. Online you find rules of thumb with a number per headcount, but they have no legal basis. You derive the number from your RI&E and from realistic scenarios: what happens in case of fire or an accident in your building? Look at the number of people present, how self-reliant they are and how long the emergency services need to arrive.

One requirement is fixed: for as long as people are working, enough BHV cover must be available. So allow for shift work, evening and weekend work, illness and holiday. In a small company the owner can act as a responder personally, provided a replacement is ready for the times the owner is away.

Setting up a BHV organisation: tasks, roles and presence

Record who does what, on paper and in practice. Make sure that every part of the business, every floor and every shift has someone who can step in, and choose people who are rarely absent. Preferably make the role voluntary, because according to the Dutch Labour Authority compulsory involvement usually works out less well. These are roles you can distinguish:

• Coordinator or head of BHV: maintains the plan, list, drills and improvement points and is the contact for management.
• Responders per site, department or shift, with defined tasks: first aid, firefighting, evacuation or a combination.
• Deputies for every responder, including for the owner if the owner is a responder.
• A fixed place where the alarm comes in, such as reception or a control room, that knows which responders are present and who receives the emergency services.
• Someone responsible for equipment and checks, such as extinguishers, first aid supplies and escape route signs.

Keeping BHV training up to date: first aid, firefighting, evacuation and refreshers

BHV responders must be trained for the tasks they are given: first aid, firefighting and evacuation. The law does not name a prescribed course or diploma, but you must be able to show that the training fits the risks of your organisation. Many employers choose a recognised training provider and have company-specific situations included in the training.

Knowledge does not stay up to standard by itself. The Dutch Labour Authority states on its website that BHV responders should receive refresher training every year. Many BHV diplomas, such as those of the NIBHV, are therefore valid for one year from the date of issue and are extended with an annual refresher. Check the issue date and validity on each diploma, and ask your training provider what applies if a diploma has expired.

BHV plan and evacuation plan: how to show that it works

In practice you record BHV in an emergency plan, BHV plan or evacuation plan: who does what, how is the alarm raised, where is the assembly point and how do you know who is present? A large or complex building with many people calls for a more detailed plan than a small office. Also make it known to employees who are not responders, to hired-in staff and, where needed, to visitors.

Only by practising do you find out whether the plan holds up. In an inspection the Dutch Labour Authority looks at practice: do employees know the evacuation plan, has every responder taken part at least once, is a building (or part of it) actually evacuated, and does this happen regularly? As a rule of thumb it uses one evacuation drill per year. Write down for each drill what you did and what came out of it, and discuss it. If your building has an environmental permit or a use notification, also check what it says.

What do you keep in a BHV register?

A register does not have to be large, but it must be current. Keep at least the following information in one fixed place, so that you do not have to search during an inspection, an audit or an incident. Appoint one person to manage the register and agree how often it is reviewed:

• Responders with name, tasks, site or shift, diploma, issue date, valid until and deputy
• The appointment of each responder, for example with an appointment letter
• Planning of presence per day or shift, including holidays and illness
• Drills with date, type, participants, findings and improvement actions
• Equipment such as extinguishers, first aid supplies, an AED if there is one, alarm and communication means, with location and date of the last and next check
• Floor plans with escape routes and assembly point, and the current emergency plan
• Agreements with external emergency services and with other users of the building
• Improvement points from drills and incidents, with an owner and a deadline

Example of a simple BHV register (illustrative)

Below is a simple example in list form. The names, dates and numbers are made up and serve only as an illustration; adapt them to your situation. The example shows how you can see at a glance what expires soon, where a deputy is missing and which improvement point is still open.

• Responder: employee A, workshop, day shift. Tasks: first aid and firefighting. Diploma issued on 12 March 2026, valid until 12 March 2027. Deputy: employee D.
• Responder: employee B, office, ground floor and first floor. Tasks: evacuation and first aid. Diploma valid until 20 November 2026. Status: expires within two months, schedule the refresher now.
• Responder: employee C, warehouse, early shift. Tasks: firefighting and evacuation. Diploma expired on 1 September 2026. Status: not deployable until the refresher is done; until then employee E takes over the tasks.
• Presence in a holiday week: only one responder is present in the early shift. Action: roster a second responder.
• Drill: partial evacuation on 14 May 2026 with 24 participants. Finding: an emergency exit near the warehouse was blocked by pallets. Improvement action: keep the exit clear and check weekly, owner facilities, deadline 30 June 2026, completed.
• Equipment: powder extinguisher at the warehouse entrance and first aid kit in the canteen. The last and next check are recorded per item in the register.

BHV on projects and at client sites

If you work on a building site or at a client, you remain responsible for the BHV of your own people and align it with the other parties there. On a building site the lead usually lies with the executing party, often the main contractor. The health and safety plan and the number of people on site determine what BHV is needed.

If your team carries out maintenance in a client's building, you align your BHV with the BHV of that location. Make sure your people know beforehand where the escape route, the alarm and the assembly point are and who the BHV contact is. The LMRA just before work starts is a good moment to check that.

Common mistakes: expired certificates, holiday periods and drills without evaluation

Most BHV problems do not arise when setting it up, but when keeping it up to date. A BHV organisation that is correct on paper can be incomplete on an ordinary Tuesday in August. These are the mistakes that occur most often in practice:

• Expired certificates that nobody notices, because expiry dates are not recorded centrally
• Too few responders during holiday periods and in evening, night and weekend shifts
• A drill without evaluation or without follow-up of the findings
• A BHV plan that has not been updated after a renovation, relocation or new layout
• Employees who are not responders and do not know how to raise the alarm or where the assembly point is
• Responders who have been appointed, but work at a different site from where they are needed
• Extinguishers and first aid supplies that are not checked or replenished
• A missing deputy for the owner or the coordinator

How BrydgeOne supports this

BrydgeOne has no separate module for the BHV plan; you keep the plan and drill reports as a document. It does help with people and their competence, and with collecting evidence. It does not guarantee that you comply with the law. In Certificate management you set a fixed validity period and warning period per type, such as BHV. The matrix shows per employee whether the certificate is valid, expires soon, has expired or is required but missing. Administrators receive a notification and, for a personal certificate, the employee receives a push message.

With Training you plan classroom sessions and refreshers with participants, trainer and costs, and on the day itself you record attendance and signatures on the tablet. You can record an evacuation drill as a session this way. The Skills matrix compares employees with the required training and certificates per job function and schedules missing or expired training in one go.