A Business Continuity plan is a plan that outlines the instructions and procedures that a company must follow when a disaster strikes to protect a business. Disasters hit businesses in many different ways. Find out what you need to know here as we down pack the essentials.
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When Does a Business Continuity Plan Come to Play?
Business Continuity plans come in handy when an unpredictable disaster occurs. As mentioned earlier, disasters take many forms. For example, in Australia, we’re prone to natural disasters such as bushfires, floods and earthquakes. In light of the technological revolution unfolding before us, business disruption has become more complicated. We’re now seeing an increase in the number of cyberattacks. Cyberattacks have the capacity to massively infiltrate systems and are very out of our control when they do occur. This is why you need a business continuity plan. In order to make sure that your company is well-equipped to survive the storm, you’ll want to keep reading about why this matters and what you can do. Bear in mind that a business continuity plan is different to an emergency action plan and a recovery plan.
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How to Get Started
In preparing your business continuity plan, there’s a few important details you should include. You’ll want to focus on risk management, what your critical areas of business are (what you want to protect) and planning for the worst case scenario. There’s no one size fits all when it comes to making the right continuity plan for your business. Here’s a summary of what we believe you should consider including:
1. Risk Management
A huge part of ensuring your business can bounce back when something detrimental happens is risk management. You should consider including a risk management table in your plan. This will allow you to assess risks that threaten your business and can help you mitigate these risks and contingencies. Examples of risks include:
- Natural disasters such as floods, storms, bushfires and drought;
- Terrorism, theft and data or cyberattacks; and
- Internal business risks including high staff turnover.
2. Critical Areas of Business
Critical areas of business refer to the areas of business you want to protect. These are things that would be a massive loss to the business if they were to fail or be destroyed. Should this occur, it’s recommended that these critical business areas are identified and listed in your business continuity plan. Additionally, you want to look at how you can reduce certain areas from failing and this is crucial in the new COVID-19 ‘normal’ we’re living in now.
3. Worst Case Scenario Planning
Based on your top 3 to 5 critical business areas that you’ve identified, it’s time to start planning for the worst case scenario. This is different to an actual emergency plan like a fire evacuation. Think of this as what’s the worst case business scenario that you want to avoid. Then develop those hypothetical scenarios. Why is this necessary? Because preparing for the worst can give of an idea of what to do when areas of business fail and what resources you may need to recover. Resources can be physical objects or they can even be people within the company or organisation. You may want to refer to your insurance policies as well to cover all bases if the worst case scenario does occur. This includes property and infrastructure which may also be vulnerable to damage.
4. Strategies Beyond the Office
Generally speaking, a lot of corporate business operate within an office or office-like setting. But should a disaster occur that may drive you and your staff out of the office, there needs to be a Plan B. You may also want to consider having a temporary office accomodation for your staff and attach these options to your plan. You’ll want to strategise how you can keep business as usual. More commonly now, we’re seeing the transition to working from home to facilitate a virtual office experience. If you’re a retail business, you may want to consider switching to e-commerce and conducting business online. These are just a few strategies you may want to consider when the office can’t be accessed for whatever reason.
5. Business and Skill Retention
Lastly, including a business and skill retention section in your plan is absolutely crucial. Keep a record of your staff and any training they may need to adapt to the changed business circumstances. You’ll want to include their name, job title and expected turnover for that specific job position. Ensure to record each employee’s strengths and weaknesses by having their resume easily accessible within the plan. The goal of this is to document how you’ll maintain their skills, ensure responsibilities are correctly allocated and how you will effectively and regularly, communicate this with your staff. This also goes hand in hand with protecting such data and having a backup of all this information cannot be stressed enough. While there’s no ‘one size fits all’, these steps are crucial to be wary of.
Final Thoughts
Your business continuity plan should be flexible to change if you want to continue business as usual. If you’re unsure of how to get started, you can contact us today to help you come up with the right business plan for you. As experts in legal disruption, we understand that change isn’t easy and are here to help.
