by Joy Dike, PhD

If you’ve been following along with us over the course of the past few weeks, you’ve thought about some of the stranger (and less likely) situations that may arise in an emergency situation. To review, we’ve talked about:

• Servers and electrical distribution equipment
• Food spoilage
• Lease issues
• Paper files, laptops, and desktops
• Active shooters
• Lockdown situations

 
Hopefully your business will never encounter these problems. Hopefully your business will be successful and carry on thriving for many years to come. But you need to do a Business Impact Analysis and you need to create a Business Continuity Plan. It’s just good business sense.
 
Please, when you create, write, review, or update your business impact analysis and your business continuity plan, don’t forget about these unusual situations. You can’t answer questions like these by sitting down for 20 minutes and brainstorming what you’d do. You can’t just “wing it” and hope everything works out. You need to have professionals who are experts in business continuity planning help you write a business impact analysis and create a business continuity plan.
 
You also need to write an Emergency Action Plan so that your business is prepared for what to do during an emergency. In light of recent national and world events, this is more important than ever before to have a risk assessment done and create an Emergency Action Plan. Continue following us as we move on to discussing Emergency Management Plans and why you also probably suck at writing one of those.

by Joy Dike, PhD

After Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy, many office buildings were flooded. Flooding is bad. Flooding with seawater? Even worse. You want to know why? Because a lot of these office buildings had all of their servers and electrical distribution equipment in the basement. With all of your systems located in the basement, a flooded basement becomes more like a business crisis. Also? After 6 months of no power getting to these units, batteries start to leak toxic gases. A bad situation became even worse.
 
Now we’re not saying that your business continuity plan or business impact analysis can do anything to prevent or account for something like this. If you have a business continuity plan, it surely covers dealing with the aftermath of a natural disaster like a hurricane. The issue with these particular hurricanes wasn’t that the buildings themselves were structurally damaged. The issue was that tenants couldn’t move back in for over 6 months because the electrical equipment in the basement was a hazard, and it needed to be cleaned up, replaced, remediated, etc.
 
A business continuity plan that covers just the bare bones of IT (like Mr. Smith works remotely, Mr. Grey works at home, Ms. Franks is on call, and Mr. Boot moves to the Chicago office) isn’t going to cut it here. These people may be out of the office for half a year. They may need new computers, phones, supplies. They need a place to work for the next 6 months. Do your business continuity plan and business impact analysis take extended evacuations into account? The IT aspect of your business continuity plan and business impact analysis needs to go beyond which of your IT guys works from home after a hurricane.  
 
Continue to follow us as we wrap up this extended discussion about business continuity plans and business impact analyses. Hopefully you have realized that there are unusual situations that most business continuity plans and business impact analyses don’t take into account.

by Joy Dike, PhD

​Consider the following situation: A major hurricane comes through your city and devastates part of the city and you will need to move out of your building for a number of months. Hopefully you have a business impact analysis and a business continuity plan that cover the situation where employees can work remotely and business can continue apace during this time. Great. You’re on the right track.
 
Now consider this: Your lease dictates that you still pay rent on your business space, even when you’re not occupying the space. Even when NO ONE is occupying space in the building. Even when they building is off limits for 6 months. We’ve seen this happen after Hurricane Sandy.
 
Have you examined and reviewed your lease recently? Do your business impact analysis and your business continuity plan say anything about the cost associated with moving office for 6 months? Does it say anything about paying rent during this period?
 
We are not suggesting you need to re-negotiate your lease. What we are suggesting is that you need to include your lease and associated costs in your business impact analysis and your business continuity plan. Don’t’ forget about these things.
 
Continue to follow us as we discuss other unusual situations that you probably haven’t thought about when it comes to your business impact analysis and your business continuity plan.

by Joy Dike, PhD

But what if your employees need to evacuate the building or can’t get to work because of a natural disaster. They leave their laptops there. Their desktop computers are left too. They leave their paper files on their desks. Maybe you’ve even been diligent enough to send your paper files to a records management or document storage company. That’s great. But people have current papers on their desks. Current files on their computers.
 
If you can’t get back in to your building for an extended period of time, even if it’s just a week or two, what is your plan for your data and papers that have been left in the office? Papers and laptops and desktops and phones are all safe and will be there when you’re able to get back in the building, but what do you do for the week or two or more when no one is allowed to access the building?
 
What if you’re out of the building for 6 months? You have to buy your employees new laptops, desktops, phone lines. Maybe your business impact analysis and/or business continuity plan covers these types of costs. It should. And if it does, good for you. But also make sure that you’ve got some plan for how you will deal with people having to set up new computers, retrieve files, emails, client contacts, current contracts, projects, and documents. You get the point. This is the type of situation where, unless you’ve lived through it, you don’t even think to include something like this in a business impact analysis and/or business continuity plan.
 
Continue to follow us to reflect on other issues you’ve probably never considered for your business impact analysis and business continuity plan.

by Joy Dike, PhD

Major remediation needs to be completed in the building, and your company is actually running quite smoothly in remote locations (because you had a solid business continuity plan in place before the disaster). Great!

Four weeks later the building is back in working order and people start to move back in. What is that smell?! Have you ever thought about what happens to foodstuff during a month-long period without electricity? Yup, all those apples on people’s desks are rotten. All those sandwiches in the refrigerator (that hasn’t had power for a month) are now beyond recognition. All those cookies and cakes that people brought in for the holiday season? Homes for ants now.
 
This scenario may seem absurd, but believe us, we have seen this first hand, and it is something you would never think of until you step back in to that office, open your desk drawer, and cringe at the rotten banana that’s been there for 28 days.
 
When you write and review your business impact analysis and your business continuity plan, you need to think about the process for moving back in to your building after an extended period. Over the next few days we’ll look at some other issues that result when you don’t plan ahead for moving back in to your building.
 
Continue to follow us as we talk more about making sure your business impact analysis and your business continuity plan are rock solid. 
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by Joy Dike, PhD

​You might think: How does this scenario fit in with my business continuity plan or my business impact analysis? It might not if the lockdown lasts for an hour or so. But what if your employees can’t get to work that day because transit and streets are closed? You might lose an entire day of business because of this. If your business is small, maybe one lost day isn’t a big deal to you. More likely though, an entire day of lost business will deal a blow to your company.
 
What if the explosion was terrorism related? What if city officials tell you that you can’t move back in to your building for a few days or a few weeks?
 
A scenario involving city lockdown (or even major disruption on public transport) is something you might want to consider for your business impact analysis or business continuity plan.
If employees can’t get to work because the city is on lockdown, it probably doesn’t mean that they can’t work from home. Don’t simply give everyone a free pass because of something beyond your control that doesn’t even directly affect your building or company. If you have contingencies in place in your business continuity plan and your business impact analysis for events like this, you won’t be scrambling trying to keep your business going in a situation like this.
 
Continue to follow us for more scenarios you’ve probably never thought of when writing or reviewing your business continuity plan and your business impact analysis. 

by Joy Dike, PhD

An Emergency Management Plan that includes a contingency for active shooter is a good idea. Actually, it’s a great idea. But what about the time period after an event like an active shooter? What is your plan for media relations? How do you communicate with your employees? Your customers and clients? Hospitals? News stations? Who talks to the dozens of reporters who show up onsite? Who talks to the dozens of people calling looking for their loved ones? What is your plan for employee mental health and wellbeing after a traumatic event? Employees may understandably need some time off work; they may need to talk to mental health professionals; they may need reassurances that they are, in fact, safe while at work.
 
What is your plan? How do you deal with the loss of business that happens in the hours and days after a tragedy like an active shooter? Your Emergency Management Plan should have policies and procedures in place for the time during a potential active shooter, but your business continuity plan should have policies and procedures in place for the hours, days, and even weeks following an active shooter event.
 
Continue to follow us for more scenarios your business continuity plan and business impact analysis probably don’t (but should) include.