Business Continuity Planning

When's the last time you dusted off, reviewed and updated your business continuity plan? Many of you will answer never or several years ago. If you haven't done so in the last year, you definitely need to be doing it now so you can be confident in it if you have to use it. Do all your employees know about it and what their roles are, even the new employees? We thought not. Soon we will turn back the clocks and we should be tuning up our plans as well.

Creating, updating, and testing your plan are all critical to responding successfully to a natural disaster or other business disruption. (Item #1)   A common cause of failure to implement BCM successfully is a lack of people with the right level of knowledge and skills, and the purpose of planning and delivering a business continuity training and awareness campaign is to avoid that pitfall. (Item #2)   Lack of water could present serious challenges to an organization, especially one that operates in an area where access is scarce. (Item #3)

These seven elements are essential parts of any effective business continuity strategy. (Item #4)   If you set aside time once or twice a year to review your plans, you can identify new risks and monitor the effectiveness of your current risk management strategies. (Item #5)   Institute a prep-at-home program at work… ensure your employees are personally prepared at home for a crisis. (Item #6)

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