Disaster recovery planning is an important aspect of business preparedness. Having a plan in place will save your business precious time and hassle in the wake of a disaster. Follow these steps to restore your operations faster.
Instructions
1. Identify key personnel within your business to form your plan. Key people should include decision makers, financial associates, customer representatives, communications team members and information technology personnel. Your plan will include information on operational requirements, communications, financing, resources and key business documentation.
2. Create a tiered operational plan that starts with to restore essential operations immediately after a disaster. With the essential operations being your foundation, build on to the plan with secondary and tertiary operations as appropriate.
3. List resource requirements for establishing your operations. Identify external partners such as a business continuity provider, data backup services and a temporary workforce service that can assist in business restoration.
4. Formulate a communications plan and identify key communicators who hold the responsibility of contacting customers, vendors, partners, investors, creditors and the media. One leading communicator should disseminate communications to others to present one message and reduce possible confusion that may occur post-disaster.
5. Include copies of important business documents such as insurance policies, leases, equipment rentals, equipment purchases, inventory records, personnel files, facility maps, hazardous material storage and key contact information. Use all of these documents as supporting appendices to your plan.
6. Locate existing plans such as evacuation routes or local emergency management plans that affect your business. Incorporate this information into your disaster recovery plan, consulting with local officials to ensure you comply with laws.
7. Document and maintain records of your plan both onsite and offsite using a data storage center. Train your employees on the disaster recovery plan and know implement the plan should a disaster occur.
