BRIAN Brookes, BHIB’s in-house Risk Manager, has prepared his Top Ten Tips for successful Business Continuity Planning, whatever your business or sector. How many of these form part of your Business Continuity Plan?
1. Plan for the effects of an accident, not the cause. At the time of crisis what happens may well be more important than what causes it.
2. Remember that prevention is better than cure.
3. Test systems, exercise plans and rehearse the people involved on a regular basis. Maintain the plans by keeping them up to date, build in a regular review of your plan.
4. Back up data regularly and store copies off site in a secure place. Practise restoring the data in an IT system outside your own to ensure that it works. Some insurers provide access to an online IT data back-up and recovery service – check with us to check whether your policy can assist.
5. Ensure that important paper documents, such as contracts and employee information are protected. Make copies and use fire resistant and waterproof storage.
6. Keep a list of contact details for your staff, customers, suppliers and insurance broker off-site so that you can contact them if you do not have access to your usual premises. Review these regularly.
7. Be clear about what your insurances cover and what they don’t. Keep copies of the relevant policies off-site so that you know immediately what to do in the event of an incident.
8. Have an emergency pack which will include your business recovery plan, key telephone numbers, as well as a first aid kit, torch, spare keys, cash, credit card, stationery etc.
9. Make arrangements for a temporary base – you may not be able to operate out of your existing premises for weeks or even months. Look at external companies that specialise in assisting with business recoveries.
10. Make an inventory of equipment, materials, products and any other assets to give you an overview of the business. This will make it easier to work out losses and identify gaps in core resources after an incident. Even consider making a walk through video of your premises or, at the very least, take photographs annually.
If you have any questions or would like any advice relating to Risk Management, you can speak to Brian directly by calling 0330 0240606 or emailing