4 Steps for Creating a Business Continuity Plan

8/31/2020 (Permalink)

Business continuity plan

Four Steps To Creating An Effective Plan

A business continuity plan is used to plan ahead in case disaster strikes. Creating a good plan can help keep your business operational even after a flood. By analyzing your business processes and planning for what could happen in a disaster, you can decrease the impact on your company. There are four steps to creating an effective plan.

1. Conduct a Business Impact Analysis
Begin the process by identifying critical business functions. Ask yourself what processes and resources support those functions, what the impact would be of losing those functions, and at what point in time the loss would begin to occur.

2. Identify Critical Business Functions and Processes
Rate the processes and functions you identified in your business impact analysis. Use your analysis to determine what areas are critical to your business and which ones you could get by without.

3. Create Your Business Continuity Plan
Your plan should revolve around the critical business functions and processes you identified in the previous step. Focus your efforts on the most critical and work your way down the list. Determine which safeguards will help for each process or function. Safeguards may include action items like tying down certain items, sending people home to work remotely, or transferring your computer systems over to an offsite location.

4. Test the Plan and Train Your Employees
The best way to know if an emergency response plan is effective is to try it out. When you do a walkthrough with your employees, you may find that a step or two is missing. Update the document and then try again. Once the plan plays out the way you want it to, train the rest of your employees on what should be done in case of an emergency.
Although a good business continuity plan can minimize the impact of an emergency on your business operations, damage to your building can still occur. If you have experienced water damage in Adobe Hills, AZ, call a professional water remediation company for help.