A business continuity plan outlines the instructions and procedures a business should follow after a natural disaster or disruptive event so it can resume its operations. Events like floods and fires can interrupt your business practices, so it’s essential to have a plan in place to handle these situations and effectively get back to work.
Business Continuity Planning vs. Disaster Recovery Planning
An effective business continuity plan helps a company continue its overall operations after a catastrophe, while a disaster recovery plan focuses on reviving a business’s IT-related functions.
When to Use a Business Continuity Plan
Creating a business continuity plan before you need it can help you prepare for the unexpected. It helps you be proactive so you don’t have to devise a plan amidst a disaster.
Once your continuity plan is in place, you may need to implement it during disasters like:
- Cyberattacks
- Natural disasters like hurricanes, earthquakes, tornados, and floods
- Major IT or internet disruptions
- Pandemics or health crises
- Supply chain disruptions
- Man-made disasters or times of social unrest
While a business plan guides your company’s everyday operations, a business continuity plan helps you resume company activities after severe disturbances.
Benefits of a Business Continuity Plan
Explore the benefits of a business continuity plan for your company:
Better Decision-Making
A BCP offers a structured framework for employees to make decisions during high-stress situations. Clear protocols and communication methods help your business continuity management team make rational decisions, which can promote confidence and encourage action among employees.
A More Efficient Return to Normal Business Operations
A BCP could make the difference between continued operations and further turmoil in an emergency. Returning to business operations quickly can prevent customers from seeking out competing businesses.
A business continuity plan template makes planning for contingencies in various scenarios easy and addresses the most critical roles and responsibilities necessary for keeping your company running.
Above all, a BCP limits confusion during critical situations and orients employees to the primary focus.
Increased Employee Safety
BCPs prioritize employees’ safety and well-being during emergencies. These plans include guidelines for remote work so employees don’t have to be near the disaster site. They also contain protocols for communicating with one another and evacuating plans in case a disaster happens during work hours.
A Reduction in Lost Time and Revenue
Unmitigated disruptions can financially weaken an organization quickly. Business continuity plans account for all factors necessary for continued operations. The more effort you put into planning, the more time and money you can save.
So, ensure a reliable backup plan for essential systems and enable remote access to customer, product, and company data to keep the revenue stream flowing.
Ability to Quickly Implement IT Fixes
Natural and manufactured disasters typically involve system disruptions. To remain functional, build redundancy into your critical systems. This proactivity will allow you to implement essential fixes to hardware and software assets.
Increased Organizational Resilience
A BCP prepares a company to encounter any challenges it may face. It lets the company’s employees adapt strategies as necessary and work towards continuous improvements, allowing the company to experience long-term success no matter the obstacles it encounters.
Different Types of Business Continuity Plans
While a business continuity plan can cover various recovery strategies for specific events, it prioritizes one event. Explore some of the types of business continuity plans:
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Emergency Response Plans
- Scope: Emphasize the restoration of normal business activities.
- Objective: To prepare for an unforeseen emergency.
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IT Disaster Recovery Plans
- Scope: Focus on the recovery of IT data, systems, and infrastructure.
- Objective: To reduce downtime and data loss by quickly restoring IT services if they go down.
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Crisis Communication Plans
- Scope: Address communication methods and strategies after a crisis.
- Objective: To provide clear and timely communication to internal and external stakeholders, ensuring the accurate sharing of information.
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Supply Chain Continuity Plans
- Scope: Involve the supply chain’s continuity, including procurement, manufacturing, and distribution.
- Objective: To limit supply chain disruptions and maintain the availability of services and goods.
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Facility Continuity Plans
- Scope: Address the continuity of physical facilities, including warehouses, manufacturing plants, and offices.
- Objective: To ensure the availability of operational facilities or other locations during critical events.
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Employee Continuity Plans
- Scope: Focus on employees’ well-being and safety.
- Objective: To maintain workforce availability and set up guidelines for remote work if possible.
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Third-Party Continuity Plans
- Scope: Involve continuity plans for key third-party parties, including partners, suppliers, and vendors.
- Objective: To account for the company’s dependencies on external parties and minimize associated disruptions.
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Regulatory Compliance Plans
- Scope: Address regulatory requirements relating to business continuity.
- Objective: To ensure compliance with industry standards and legal regulations.
Activities to Complete Before Writing a Business Continuity Plan
Explore some activities to complete before writing a business continuity plan so you can create a more effective document:
1. Decide on a Writing Team
Decide on a team to write the plan. Find employees knowledgeable about various business processes so they can assign tasks accordingly.
Ask for employees’ input to create control and command teams. Appoint several people to be in charge during a crisis so they can have one another’s support. Establish a clear chain of command to minimize arguments and promote efficiency.
Nominate a team leader and a backup team leader for each department within your company. Consider recruiting third-party representatives to assist with coordinating specific activities during disasters.
2. Conduct Critical Function Analysis
Analyze your company’s critical business functions and determine which functions it can and can’t exist without. This will help you more easily determine what to prioritize in an emergency.
Determine how losing these functions across different departments might impact external and internal operations.
3. Analyze Potential Risks
Analyze potential risks depending on the nature of your business. Specific threats might be more imminent than others, so you can create visual representations, such as risk maps, to show the relationship between the impact and likelihood of your proposed risks.
From here, you can pinpoint high-priority risks that will require immediate attention.
4. Determine the Plan’s Scope
Determine whether the plan applies to specific departments, one location, or your entire company. Then, determine what resources and critical functions you must maintain to implement the plan successfully.
5. Brainstorm Recovery Procedures
Use your risk assessment and critical function analysis to brainstorm how your team should react to a business disruption. Think about the timing for what must occur before, during, and after the business continuity planning process.
