| Need To Be Tested |
| Written by Joseph Roux | |
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Your business may have had a business continuity plan for days…months…years—but has it ever been tested? If you’ve never tested the plan, how do you know it’s going to work? How do you know that all the employee training done on the subject has sunk in and they know where they put the BCP or Business Continuity Plan. If you haven’t trained your employees, you’ve got a different problem. You need to do that first. The managers aren’t the only ones who need to know the plan. All the employees need to know the basics of what is expected of them if there is an ice storm or the main offices or store can’t be used. Testing the plan will show you what you forgot, what you don’t have dialed in that you need to add to the list. Setting Up A TestThe test shouldn’t happen in a disaster. You need to run a test and see what you need to do differently. If you uncover problems and make major changes, run the test again a few months later to see if the changes take care of the problems. Once you’ve got it all figured out, set a date for an annual test. This will ensure you look at the plan and add and subtract personnel and telephone numbers before you need to use them.Pick a day; this shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone. Let everyone know what’s going to happen, not just your employees, but your vendors, customers and contractors. Then on the chosen morning, act as if your office or store has been destroyed and utilize the planned contingency site. If you have toll-free numbers, make sure you’ve arranged with your communications vendor to switch the calls to the off-site location on a temporary basis. Make Appropriate ChangesMake sure you have a meeting to discuss the success or failure of the plan the next day. No matter how much you’ve pre-planned an event; there are still things you won’t have foreseen. There will be problems outside your control that run the scale of scenarios, from the copy machine at the business service center being broken, to the hotel you plan to use as a contingency site being full because of a convention. How you deal with these problems will better prepare you for the next time.Make sure you have procedures in place that will allow you to keep the plan updated. Set a specific review time and day every quarter or semi-annually. Once the plan is updated, make sure the copies are all replaced with the updated document. Train BackupsMake sure you have a backup for each critical person on the Business Continuity Plan. People can be on vacation or sick, and you will need someone else to step in. Extend this backup list to include vendors. If you only have one number to call for you communications vendor and the contact is out of the state, your entire plan can fail. Get an escalation list for your critical vendors. Critical vendors might include long distance vendors, telephone and computer equipment vendors and software vendors. It might also include specific suppliers.Basic Elements to Include In Your BCPTake a look at your plan. Did you include a contingency for the owner or CEO of the company not being available to make executive decisions? Whether on vacation or ill, make sure if the top boss isn’t around that you know who is in charge.In a crisis situation, you need to communicate with everyone. Have you thought of how you can get timely information out to different lists? Do you have a list of those employees that have texting capability on their phones? Can you set up a group list for texting? Have you considered setting up off-site voice mail boxes that are utilized for information only? Set one for employees to give them a status, and one for customers, etc. However you manage it, don’t forget to include communication in the BCP. SummaryIt’s difficult to plan for everything. But if you’ve thought of almost everything and have built some flexibility into your plan, you’ll be ahead of the game. Talk to other business owners and see if the local business community has developed programs to address these issues. Your telecommunications and data vendors should have plans for that part of the business. It is important to keep up with changes in the industry. If telecommuting is part of your BCP, you’ll find web solutions to assist with this part of the plan.With just a little thought, you can be prepared to get your business through the ice storms and the fires in front of it. |
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