The 5 Essentials for Every Business Disaster Plan

The completion of a disaster plan is a critical step in your company's overall emergency management program. It provides the operational framework and overall strategy for any response to a disaster or business interruption.

How do you know if your disaster plan is sufficient? There are quite a few elements to an effective plan, but I can identify 5 elements that have proven time and again as being the most important.

1. Impact Analysis

A Business Impact Analysis essentially answers the "What if" question in a disaster plan. It examines vulnerabilities, and establishes the running assumptions upon which a company's response will be based. It will give the general overview of a company's operations and the implications of certain threats if they were to strike.  

The creation of the impact analysis is a critical step, and yet I have found that it is so often ignored. This is an invitation for disaster (so to speak) because it is the foundation for the entire disaster program. This is the reason it should be constructed by a Certified Business Continuity Planner, and updated annually.  

2. Training Schedule

Any plan, no matter how well written, is worthless without training. I see this time and again with institutions that have the "Rolls Royce" of disaster plans, but either inadequate or absent training plans. Put simply, neglecting to train essentially dooms the plan to failure.

So make sure every employee is trained! From the CEO to the interns, everyone should know the plan, and be aware of your company's expectations. Of course, not everyone should be trained on the same topics, and not everyone needs to know every page of the plan. So tailor it to your workforce size and your industry so that you receive sufficient coverage.  





3. Testing Schedule

Once your company has a solid plan in place with saturated training, the plan must be tested to examine weaknesses and strengths. All response agencies (fire, police, EMS) go through dozens of hours of exercises every year. Outside of a disaster or an acute, company-wide emergency, there is no way to test the plan except through the crucible of an well-organized exercise!

The test doesn't have to be an all-day marathon of your entire workforce running around and pretending the building is on fire; there are many options available. Some can be department specific; others can be a discussion with the major stakeholders sitting around a table with a moderator running a scenario.

4. Communication Plan

If your employees and leadership don't know what's going on during a disaster, you have the genesis of a very serious problem. It significantly affects your response, and makes recovery of an operation nearly impossible.

I was once hired to run a multi-state response program for a large engineering firm with roughly 20 sites along the Gulf Coast during hurricane season, with employees performing a myriad of jobs. First thing I did after I got contracted was write the communication plan. Second thing I did was get in my car and drive to each site, and explained the communication plan to every eyeball and ear in that operation. I showed them the phone numbers (primary and alternate), and made sure every cell phone had them programmed. Then I explained the backup system and how it would work. And sure enough, we got through the season with very few problems.

5. Improvement Schedule

One of the funniest experiences I ever had as an emergency manager was when I was contracted by a company to audit their disaster plan. They told me that the plan was pretty old, and they felt as though it was time to get it updated. So, the first thing I did was that I called all the numbers on the emergency contact list. Within an hour I discovered that all 14 people listed were already retired! Then, I later discovered the person who had written the document had passed away 4 years earlier!

Every plan should have a complete annual audit and monthly improvement schedule so that everything from the Impact Analysis to the Training, Testing and Communications Plan is examined thoroughly. This will continue to ensure your plan is doing what it was meant to do!

Conclusion

These five elements at least provide a baseline standard to which you can judge your company’s disaster plan. While there are, of course, other necessary elements, if it doesn’t have at least these 5, I am almost certain that during a disaster, the plan will not work to your company’s expectations.

phardy
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