Why Plan?
A business continuity plan can help ensure that your business’s critical operations are not disrupted after a disaster, such as a fire, hurricane, ice storm, earthquake or catastrophic flooding.
Critical Questions
To develop and test a business continuity plan, Public Safety Canada recommends you ask the following questions:
- How severe are potential threats? Which situations require proactive planning? What scenarios require documented follow-up activities?
- What does your business insurance cover? Are there any loss situations that are over-insured, underinsured or uninsured?
- Who will back up your key personnel? Does your triage contact information include landline, email and cellular phone numbers?
- How will you notify your staff when you activate the plan? How will you communicate with your employees, customers and suppliers during and after a disaster?
- Do you have an alternative site to meet your office and/or information technology needs? Are these locations easily accessible by public transit? Are workers able to telecommute?
- Who will keep your business continuity plan? Do they have a copy of the plan at home?
- What counselling services will the human resources department be able to access after an emotionally charged event?
- How frequently does IT test backups and preventive measures?
5 Elements of a Business Continuity Plan
The Government of Canada recognizes that it is in the best interests of every business to consider that even a low-probability event can occur. The Public Safety Canada publication A Guide To Business Continuity Planning, offers ideas for creating a plan, what to be aware of in the event of a business interruption and links to additional resources. When developing a plan, it encourages business owners to consider:
- Governance. Assign individuals the responsibility of maintaining and activating the plan.
- Business impact analysis. Know how services are interrelated and be aware of internal and external interdependencies.
- Plans, measures and arrangements for business continuity. Short- and long-term recovery capabilities can help keep critical operations running.
- Readiness procedures. Training and run-through scenario exercises will prepare you and your team members for the event of an emergency.
- Quality assurance techniques. Ensure the plan covers everything from the initial response, to managing an incident, communications and operations management, and recovery and restoration.
Your insurance representative is a helpful resource when assessing risk management activities that your organization can undertake to reduce or eliminate identified risks.