All companies need to prepare a recovery plan to cover disasters such as theft, fraud, sabotage, fire, IT/utility failures, hostile attacks and extreme flooding. Although such events may seem unlikely, they are not inconceivable, and experience from our member helpline has suggested that, although BWF members work hard to minimise the risks to their business, they are not immune to theft, IT failure, fire or other such events largely outside of their control. The safety of staff and the business's ability to recover from a major setback can be greatly assisted by having a carefully considered plan to respond to such a setback.
What key precautions could be taken?
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Identify staff with first aid or other medical training
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Maintain the latest contact details on all employees including temporary workers and work experience students
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Valuable documents that are easily damaged should be sorted in reinforced boxes. Important electronic documents should be securely backed-up. A clear desk policy could be enforced as paper files are a fire hazard
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Identify which applications are critical to the business and which applications could be put on hold for a period of time without causing long term damage
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Prepare an inventory of all business equipment, procedures, activities, skills and the intellectual capital of the organisation
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Identify an alternate temporary business site to locate personnel well away from the main building and ensure that it is not served by the same utility companies or communication company as the main building
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Prepare a list of key operations and set daily and weekly time scales for the recovery of these operations
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Ensure that employees understand that if existing premises are severely damaged a different work location identified in the recovery plan will need to be operational
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Prepare an internal emergency communications plan
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Develop an external communications strategy.
