Emergency planning for businesses

As a business, your day-to-day working practices are vulnerable to the effects of emergencies that occur around you but could also be affected by internal disruption such as staff illness, your building becoming inaccessible, or essential suppliers failing to deliver on their contractual arrangements to you.

80% of organisations without a business continuity plan or contingency arrangements close within 18 months of an event affecting them.

Your organisation/company doesn't have to be one of these. Business Continuity is simply a process of identifying and addressing the risks you may face and putting into place a simple process and plan for responding to either an internal or external disruption. Business Continuity is about self-survival of your organisation.

Business Continuity Management (BCM) is a step-by-step process

• Understanding your business - what are its strengths and weaknesses? What risks and challenges does it face?
• Develop BCM strategies How will you react to a disruption?
• Develop a BCM response Create a simple response plan or process and identify simple resources you may need to respond
• Develop a BCM culture Show your staff the need for BCM and how your organisation can respond constructively, get them on board with the idea
• Train, exercise, maintain and audit Test and check the plan and processes you create to respond to the disruption. Will they work? If so, how effectively?