Tips For Developing A Business Continuity Plan
Developing a business continuity plan can seem overwhelming and it is often difficult to determine where to start, who to involve and what first steps should be. ALIGNED strongly encourages engaging one of our Advocates in the process as we can assist and or connect you with a certified business continuity professional that is right for your organization. However, the following has been provided to offer some guidance and insight into developing Business Continuity Plan. Below are some of the basic components of a business continuity plan to provide a sense of some key things which should be included and that you can start developing.
3 Key Sections For Every Business Continuity Plan:
1. Executive Summary
The executive summary gives management a brief overview of: the purpose of the plan; the facility’s emergency management policy; authorities and responsibilities of key personnel; the types of emergencies that could occur; and where response operations will be managed.
2. Emergency Management Elements
This section of the plan briefly describes your approach to the core elements of emergency management, which are: Communications, life safety, property protection, community outreach, recovery and restoration, and administration and logistics.
These elements are the foundation for the emergency procedures that your facility will follow to protect personnel and equipment, and resume operations.
3. Emergency Response Procedures
The procedures spell out how the facility will respond to emergencies. Whenever possible, develop them as a series of checklists that can be quickly accessed by senior management, department heads, response personnel and employees.
Determine what actions would be necessary to:
- Assess the situation;
- Protect employees, customers, visitors, equipment, vital records and other assets, particularly during the first three days; and
- Get the business back up and running.
Specific procedures might be needed for any number of situations such as fires, floods, bomb threats or tornadoes, and for such functions as:
- Warning employees and customers
- Communicating with personnel and community responders
- Conducting an evacuation and accounting for all persons in the facility
- Managing response activities
- Activating and operating an emergency operations centre
- Fighting fires
- Shutting down operations
- Protecting vital records
- Restoring operations
To learn about developing a business continuity plan for your organization speak to an ALIGNED Insurance Advocate or connect with us at www.alignedinsurance.com
