Preparing your business
Unplanned disruptive incidents such as fire, terrorism or severe
weather can cause serious interruption to business operations and
the wider community.
Every year many businesses suffer major disruption and many
never recover. The Chartered Management Institute's Business
Continuity Management Survey 2008 indicated that up to 43-per-cent
of businesses surveyed suffered disruptive events in the previous
12 months.
Past experience from major incidents in the UK shows that
organisations that have business continuity arrangements in place
are more likely to stay in business and recover more quickly than
those that don't.
Why prepare for emergencies?
Because it makes real business sense.
Emergencies can disrupt businesses, affecting profits and
operations. This is bad for employees, shareholders, customers and
the local community. If you want to stay in business after
disaster strikes you need to undertake some careful pre-planning.
You will find that it is quick, easy and inexpensive to create a
business continuity plan.
You can also use it as a selling point - a proven resilience and
business continuity programme will distinguish you from your
competitors.
There is no 'one size fits all' solution to business continuity
planning although regardless of size the basic process is the
same.
Preparing a Business Continuity Plan
All businesses should prepare themselves for emergencies and
develop business continuity plans. This may help organisations to
stay in business and recover more quickly if serious disruption
occurs.
You should think about the parts of your business that are
crucial in keeping it going.
Establish what your customers expect from you and what you need
to be able to provide. Identify the business relationships within
your organisation and those with your suppliers and customers.
Think about the possible risks to your business, how likely they
are to happen and what impact they will have on you.
Keep your business continuity plan simple so that it can be
easily understood by everyone.
Your plan should include the following
elements:
- Use simple language that will be easily understood
- Identify who is responsible for doing what
- Use easy-to-follow checklists
- List your priorities to identify which tasks need to be dealt
with first and which tasks can be left until later
- Keep your plan up to date. Make sure you have a method to
update it if personnel, locations or risks change
- Plan for worst case scenarios
- Make sure all employees are involved in the plan through
awareness-raising, participation and training
- Rehearse your plan and make sure you update it if the rehearsal
identifies any improvements