Business Continuity and Planning
A business continuity plan is a written document outlining how your business will operate during an emergency.
Your organization should have documented information on:
- Which business functions are prioritized for recovery during an emergency
- Essential operations: each should have a prevention, maintenance, and recovery plan
- Impact of potential loss of each operation on business continuity (from low to critical)
- The list of core personnel including home addresses and contact information
Step One
Conduct a business impact analysis (click here for template).
The worksheet should be completed by business function and process managers to determine:
The operational and financial impacts directly resulting from the emergency
The tipping point in time serious impact to your business will occur
Step Two
Organize a business continuity team.
-Identify time-sensitive or critical business functions and processes and the resources that support them
- Identify, document and implement to recover critical business functions and processes.
Step Three
Complete business continuity plan (template and further explanation here), and make plans for recovery.
-Be sure to conduct trainings and mock-emergency tests of your plan
-Include specific IT Disaster Recovery Planning
Federal Guidebooks For Emergency Planning
Other Items to Consider
Partnership or reciprocal agreements can be arranged with other businesses or organizations that can support each other in the event of a disaster or other suspension of normal business.
Manual workarounds; it may be time to go to taking orders via pen and paper instead of an online system, for instance!
Bringing in temp employees, especially if they are out of work due to other businesses pausing operations.