Six Key Business Continuity Activities for 2011

The New Year is underway, and Attainium would like to call to your attention to the following six activities that could help you survive a disruption to your organization. We have provided links to several of our 2010 newsletter issues (in case you missed them) that offer more help on these six key activities:

1. Get a plan or update your old one
2. Develop emergency plans for any meetings or events that you plan, produce, or host
3. Assess your risk for 2011
4. Exercise your plan
5. Make sure everyone knows about the plan
6. Have you checked your emergency supplies lately?

1. Get a plan or update your old one

Don't have a plan? Have your original plan that's never been updated? Then 2011 is the year to make sure you either create a business continuity plan or update your old one. Remember that many insurance companies are now requiring that you have a plan, so it behooves you to get busy on one. Also, if you have not updated your plan, you may find that you have outdated information or key people who are no longer around (among other things). For more information on business continuity plans, please see our previous newsletters at:
https://www.attainium.net/newsbriefs/2010-05-12-BC-Newsbriefs.html      and
https://www.attainium.net/newsbriefs/2010-02-17-BC-Newsbriefs.html

2. Develop emergency plans for any meetings, conventions, events, tradeshows, etc. that you plan, produce or host

Don't assume that the venue/facility has plans for disruptions that occur during your meetings. They probably have a plan, but it may not cover all your risks. To protect your organization, you really need to develop a separate plan for events, customized for each event as necessary. Your reputation could be at stake if you don't. You can read more about these plans in our previous newsletter at:
https://www.attainium.net/newsbriefs/2010-12-08-BC-Newsbriefs.html

3. Assess your risk for 2011

If you've never done a risk assessment, now is the time to start. And if you did one more than a year ago, it is certainly time to re-assess your risk. As things change in your organization or with your major vendors or in the economy, your risks also may change. Make sure you know your current risks so you can factor them into your planning. Find help for risk assessments in this edition of the newsletter:
https://www.attainium.net/newsbriefs/2010-03-10-BC-Newsbriefs.html

4. Exercise your plan.

All we can say is, wouldn't you feel better KNOWING your plan will work than HOPING it does? The way to know is to test your plan. Do a full exercise at least once a year and conduct tests of various parts of the plan more often if necessary. You simply can't take a chance that things won't work as planned. Help for testing and exercising is available in these newsletter issues:
https://www.attainium.net/newsbriefs/2010-12-01-BC-Newsbriefs.html      and
https://www.attainium.net/newsbriefs/2010-09-01-BC-Newsbriefs.html

5. Make sure everyone knows about the plan.

Increase your staff's awareness of your plan - does everyone know how to access it, what their role is, who is in charge, etc? If not, you really need to put all employees through a staff awareness program. It won't take long; even an hour will help raise awareness. Also, remember that employees come and go, so doing an awareness session once a quarter will help ensure that everyone knows what to do if a disruption occurs. More information about employees and business continuity can be found here:
https://www.attainium.net/newsbriefs/2010-05-05-BC-Newsbriefs.html

6. Have you checked your emergency supplies lately?

We have had several issues of the newsletter that talked about what you need on hand to survive a shelter-in-place situation or other disruption. If you haven't yet created a stockpile of supplies, make 2011 the year in which you get fully prepared. You can get more information and find some suppliers of such goods in these 2010 newsletter issues:
https://www.attainium.net/newsbriefs/2010-11-10-BC-Newsbriefs.html      and
https://www.attainium.net/newsbriefs/2010-03-03-BC-Newsbriefs.html