Disaster Planning: What About Post-Event Recovery?
Disaster planningthat doesn’t incorporate business continuity is incomplete. The value of business continuity is providing reassurance to employees, clients, and other third party stakeholders that leadership is accountable and responsible for safeguarding the institution. Business continuity provides strong evidence that the leadership has incorporated a strategic direction to safeguard life safety, determined risk mitigation, identified actionable steps to continue operations and protect the revenue and reputation of the organization.
The Value of Business Continuity Planning:
trust and reliance
safeguarding and placing a high value on the lives of employees, clients, visitors
engagement with the community
Crisis and Emergency: Getting the Terminology Correct
Does your team tend to use the terms “crisis” and “emergency” interchangeably? Does your Crisis Plan clearly delineate what events are classified as crises or emergencies?
Using these terms interchangeably and without proper definition tends to blunt their impact. Let’s add “disruption” to the list and define each.
Disruption: not life-threatening; can impact reputation and revenue
Emergency: life threatening; potential loss of major assets
Crisis: catastrophic consequences to life, reputation, revenue
Understanding the differences in these scenarios, and establishing definitions, thresholds, and triggers for these scenarios can help improve your business continuity plan.