Put a Business Continuity Plan in Place

8/12/2021 (Permalink)

Create a business continuity plan for your business.

Create a Business Continuity Plan

A continuity plan helps businesses remain operational during natural disasters, such as flooding. With approved plans in place, North Aurora, IL, businesses may receive premium discounts from their insurance companies. In some cases, business continuity allows otherwise unacceptable risks to qualify for insurance. With the right plan in place, day-to-day operations may continue, and the repercussions can be kept to a minimum.

Considering Benefits of the Plan

Other benefits of having this type of plan in place include:

• Increased customer confidence
  
• Decreased risk of injury or death
  
• A competitive edge
  
• Security of the supply chain and order fulfilment
  
• Business resilience
  
• Reduced financial losses
  
  

A business continuity plan establishes the steps and procedures administrators and employees should follow when major disruptions occur, including natural disasters

and man-made attacks on the business. The plan covers steps to take for the protection of human resources, inventory, and assets. Before it’s possible to establish a plan, it is necessary to identify areas of vulnerability and potential loss.

Creating a Continuity Plan

The first step in creating an effective plan is to identify the scope of the potential disaster. The second step is to identify crucial business areas and vital functions. The next step is outlining links between those areas and functions, giving special attention to functions that may suffer when one area of business is disrupted. The fourth step of this process is to determine how long it is acceptable for any critical functions to go down. Finally, put together the plan for maintaining core business operations during the course of flooding, snow storms, or burst pipes and a plan for bringing the business fully back into operation as storm damage and losses are assessed.

Testing the Plan

After creating the plan, it’s necessary to run a simulation to establish whether the plan fulfills its purpose. It’s best to put the plan through a challenging series of tests to improve the level of preparation. Most experts recommend testing two to four times a year. Work with commercial restoration businesses to develop a plan that keeps your business operational.