Starting the process of creating a disaster plan can be daunting, and companies often aren’t sure where to begin. Here are a few concrete tips for helping you get off on the right foot.
Build a Team
Build a team to create your plan. No one person knows everything about your business, so create a team of key people who will make sure you are addressing all the critical elements. Your planning team will ensure that every facet of your business process is represented. The team can help the planning by providing both the “big picture” of your operations as well as the critical details of your business that must be considered. Remember, every minute that your doors are closed creates an opportunity for your competitor to step in and take a bite into your market share. After a disaster can be too late to identify your decision gaps.
Get Management Buy-in
Executive support of the planning team must be communicated to the entire organization, ensuring that everyone knows this is a priority and that the team’s subject matter experts (SMEs) are allowed some time away from their everyday tasks to work on the planning. Team members need not be away from their normal responsibilities full-time, but it’s important that they spend time working together to accomplish their goals. Executives also will need to develop a realistic timeline for plan completion. This will help keep the planning process on track, facilitate the achievement of desired results (a final disaster plan), and promote forward movement on preparing the business where it is not ready.
If you need help engaging your executives in the process, you may just need to learn to “speak their language.” The Small Business Administration (SBA) has prepared the following webinar with some useful tips.
Keep it Simple
Keep your disaster plan simple. It should be easy for employees to follow and not too costly to maintain or update. Larger or more complex companies may have more complex plans, but much of the information in the plan can be reduced to checklists for tracking what has been done and next steps that need to be taken. Checklists help employees respond better in a disaster because they help reduce employee stress, which can affect their ability to think and respond appropriately.
Plans should also be user-friendly, without a lot of jargon. Make the plan and supporting documents easy to navigate and logical, ensuring that employees can easily understand what the priorities are and the actions they need to take.
Your plan will outline how your company is going to protect your operations, people, equipment, data, and brand, ensuring that your company is as prepared as possible for the hazards it is most likely to face. Each section will share how to protect these key aspects of your business.