Business Emergencies and Interruptions
How to Write a Disaster Recovery Plan
Response times, procedures and standard company-wide practices around natural and human created disasters are addressed and clearly defined and explained in effective recovery plans. The strength of a disaster recovery plan can influence a company’s long-term health should a significant business interruption occur. Following are key areas to include in a recovery plan that is suitable for small, medium and large size companies.
Stress Confidentiality of Disaster Recovery Plan
Write a brief confidentiality statement noting that the disaster recovery plan is intended for company employees only and is not to be distributed outside the company. To ensure that the plan is only distributed to necessary persons, create and insert a distribution list with the name of each person who will receive the plan, the name of the person’s department, the version of the plan the person is to receive and the date that the person was sent the plan. Update the distribution list as changes to personnel occur.
Gain Management Statement and Approval for the Plan
Include a statement of approval for the recovery plan from senior management. Craft a senior management statement that clearly states that the company’s senior management team is committed to supporting the company’s disaster recovery and restoration process and plan. More so, include clearly defined objectives for the plan with the management statement and approval. Focus on recovery time objectives, recovery point objectives and critical business initiative dates. For example, if the company is a shipping firm and June through August are peak months, include clear workarounds and alternative business steps the company will use to meet shipping needs during this critical period. Make sure that senior managers sign the statement and insert the statement at the start of the plan.
Identify Disaster Evacuation Procedures and Alternate Work Locations
Set up a standard location for employees to meet at, be accounted for and given further instructions on how to proceed during the disaster. Work with the company’s real estate department to identify alternate work locations in the event that standard business offices or equipment are unusable during a disaster. Ensure that most critical employees have alternate location office space and technology access. Write the specific location including street, city and state into the recovery plan and distribute to impacted employees so that everyone knows where to report during a disaster.
State Organizational Roles and Responsibilities
Define roles and responsibilities by departments and teams. Assign people to work on the management team and regularly assess the status of the disaster and make decisions on next steps until the company is fully functioning again. Write regular meeting times that are to be held via conference calls or in-person at a designated emergency management team hub into the plan. Include all conference call telephone numbers and pass codes as well as the exact building and office location for the team hub in the plan.
Identify team members who will assess the extinct of the disaster. Ensure that members of the company’s security and facilities department are on the disaster assessment team. Additionally, write in the names, telephone and cell phone numbers, street addresses and emails for local city-wide emergency departments including fire, police and medical emergency teams to have the data on hand should your company need the assistance of local external emergency teams to respond to a disaster.
Create Business Disaster Plan Restoration Process
Assign people to work on the recovery liaison and the restoration teams so that active steps are taken throughout the disaster to completely restore pertinent functions such as technology, business credit card records, updated business insurance records, office space and customer files to fully recover the business as soon as possible. Prioritize and address how the company will respond to items such as transferring business functions from alternate work locations back to the primary business site, contact customers and let them know that business has fully resumed at the primary business site and returning leased or rented equipment and technology
Draft a Quality Assurance Schedule
Write steps into the disaster recovery plan that identifies who will lead the review of the plan and regularly test the viability of the disaster recovery plan. Identify how often the plan will be reviewed and updated as changes occur throughout the company. Write in test dates, training for all employees by department around disaster recovery including evacuation procedures and conduct physical testing of technology systems at designated alternate work locations. Keep a record of all tests conducted and insert the record into the back of the plan.
Strengthen Business Insurance By Building and Maintaining Contact List
Use human resources databases to store, record and update the name and contact information for all employees at the company and all external clients that the company does business with including consultants and external business partners. Build in dates to test the accuracy of the contract information via call tree tests. Regularly update contact information as needed.
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