Last year many of us watched the worst hurricane season on record as Hurricanes Katrina and Rita destroyed thousands of businesses and homes. Now into the 2006 hurricane season, scientists warn that this year may be even worse. While the Greater Richmond area is affected by the occasional hurricane, it is also just as likely to experience thunderstorms, tornados, and extensive power outages. This can mean bad news for businesses with tight profit margins and high availability demands. Therefore, it is important for you to be prepared.
Family Comes First
If employees are worried about their families, they will not be able to give the business the attention required to allow it to resume operations after an incident. Encourage your employees to have family emergency plans that include communications, childcare, alternate shelter, food, water and other emergency supplies. If employees know their families are taken care of, they are more likely to come to work and help you to get your business operational.
It is also important to make sure your business is covered. Does your plan cover how to deal with associates if your office is unusable? What will your company do if many of your employees are injured or have to take an extended absence? Can you still maintain your critical operations with a significant reduction in staff?
Develop a Plan
Do you know what you would do if you lost power for several hours or days? How would your business continue? If you couldn’t get back into your office, would you have the information available to bounce back? Think through the likely scenarios that could impact your business and develop a plan to deal with those scenarios. Document important contacts such as employees, suppliers, customers, etc. — these are key people to getting your operations running and making a profit. Back up your systems and take the backups off site. Prioritize your business processes or functions to resume the most critical first. Figure out how you would run your company from another location. Make sure others know the plan and their responsibilities within it as well.
Test Your PlansYou bought the generator last year after all the storms and the power outages. You have gas still sitting there ready to go if you have an outage. Have you tested the generator? Is the fuel still good? It is great that you have mitigated the risk of a power outage, unless it doesn’t work. Processes that you have put in place to resume your business must be tested to ensure their viability. Testing the plans you have established ensures the plan will actually work when you need it.
Maintain Your Plan
Has your business changed? Have you added any new suppliers? Remember that your plan needs to be updated as your business changes. Take out your call lists and make sure they are up-to-date for employees, customers and suppliers. Take a look at your plans at least annually and make sure that they still support your business.
The continuance of your business is up to you. The plans you put in place will determine how quickly you resume or whether you stay in business once an event occurs. Take action now to ensure your business survival.
Continuity First is a business resilience firm that assists clients in preparing for the unexpected and providing the ability to bounce back from business disruptions and disasters. By integrating the disciplines of Disaster Recovery, Business Continuity Management, Crisis Management, Security and Privacy, Continuity First ensures that the people, processes and technologies necessary to bounce back from a natural or manmade disruption or disaster are in place.
This article originally appeared in the Greater Richmond Chamber of Commerce Chamber Currents montly newletter. Article reprinted with the permission of the author.
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