Disasters come in many forms. We just had Tropical Storm Emily roll through. Due to bridge construction the Outer Banks in North Carolina have been without power for days because the power lines were accidentally cut, forcing thousands to evacuate.
This was a good opportunity to dust off your disaster prep plans to see it they need any adjustments. What did you say? "I don't have a plan in place"
Up to 40% of businesses affected by a natural or human-caused disaster never reopen.
We are rolling out a series of articles to address the different aspects of a disaster preparedness and continuity plan for your business.
The areas we will cover are:
- Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment
- Business Emergency Response Plan
- Continuity of Operation Plan
- Disaster Recovery Plan
Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment
To plan for recovery you must understand what risks threaten your organization and employees. This week we will identify hazard and asses the risks.
First we need to identify your critical business functions before we can put together a plan to protect them. A good form to use can be found on this site. Remember that an asset can be people, property or information.
While there are many types of threats, the majority of threats that you may want to use for this plan development are man-made, natural, and epidemiological. The SBA created a form to assess internal risks. It is located here.
As small business owners, many of us subcontract out various aspects of our business. Some of these subcontractors, such as Island Computer Consulting, may perform a mission critical roll in the day to day operations of your business as well as recovery operations in the event of a disaster. It is important to determine your vendors’ ability to continue service despite any sort of interruption in normal operations. This could include the ability to respond during an interruption to your organization or within its own organization. It is important to complete this assessment for each of your critical vendors so you can understand the level of risk that each poses and plan for alternatives in the event of a recovery. Please fill out the form located here.
Summary
Take aways from this article are to review and address the issues on these planing tools: