5 Steps for Building a Business Continuity Plan

Step #2 – Identify Your Critical Functions And Create Recovery Plans For Each

Once you understand the risks, the next step is to focus on the impact those risks might have on your business. To do this, list all critical functions your business requires to maintain and deliver its products or services. Then, examine how each possible risk could impact each function.  

After determining a function that could be impacted by one of the risks: 

1. Build a recovery plan for that function. This plan might involve creating backups of crucial data, enabling employees to work remotely, or maintaining a secondary business location or backup hardware inventory. 
2. Repeat this process for each critical function.  
3. Identify the risk level it faces and what you’ll need to have in place for swift operation recovery in case of an unexpected incident.  

Step #3 – Define Emergency Role 

Your employees are also a vital component of your response to an emergency. And often, your people’s rapid actions enable you to put your plans in place. With this in mind, spend some time assigning your key staff members roles for each potential situation you’ve identified. Define who will be an emergency coordinator and what they need to do in this position. 

Sometimes, preparing for emergencies requires training your staff members to obtain specific licenses. Your plan might also include protocols for employee relocation, especially if your business has several establishments. The main point here is that your staff needs to know what to do when an emergency arises within your company.

Step #4 – Document Your Plan 

A Business Continuity Plan can’t be effective if it only resides in the leader’s head. After all, one possibility of a disaster is losing the leader due to an accident or something else. Therefore, you must document your Business Continuity Plan so others can access and follow it when needed. Make sure to store the Business Continuity Plan in a secure off-site location to reduce the risk of losing or damaging the plan in the event of a disaster.  

Step #5 – Regularly Test Your Business Continuity Plan 

No situation is static, and new issues will cause you to revisit your Business Continuity Plan. That’s why it’s vital to ensure that the Continuity Plan remains consistent with current risks and the capacity of the business. It’s worth developing an emergency preparedness team that regularly revisits your Business Continuity Plan. You should also test the Continuity Plan for its consistency whenever a significant change occurs in your Industry, such as introducing new regulations. Perform regular tests to reveal gaps in the plan.