Is your Business prepared for an Emergency?
Introduction
If you’re from Texas, you know the weather here can be unpredictable with a capital P. That’s right, a capital P.
If unpredictable weather, category 3,4 or 5 hurricanes, torrential rain and flooding, COVID-19, and rolling blackouts, have taught us anything, its that is every business no matter how big or small should have some sort of continuity plan. I am not referring to just any kind of emergency plan. I am referring to the type of plan that dictates what actions a company will take if certain grave circumstances or grave emergency would to knock on our doors. We truly don’t know what could have as the world, the climate, and world of work continues to change everyday.
How do I prepare a Continuity Plan?
If you don’t already have it, gain senior-level buy-in. By not having appropriate support, there is a good chance your plan will not make proper traction. When you get a free moment, draft a list of key players you can partner with on the project. Key players may include department heads, managers, and leads, who can see the road through the clouds. In another free moment, plan a meeting with the assembled team to discuss the importance of this plan and how they fit into this process.
In most large companies, our cousin, the IT department, typically spearheads this task as there are generally many IT-related “what-ifs” that need to be addressed. One in particular would be your company’s server and or mainframe. Should a big enough storm knock out the power and or cause the worst power surge in history, wiping out all of your inventory, raw data, and financials, what would you do? Hopefully IT has already covered this with an automatic back-up process, but have you verified. Have you completed a quick audit?
Emergency Preparedness is a real. The realist of not being prepared is also a real thing. According to the National Safety Council, September is sponsored by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). FEMA, a sub-agency of the Department of Homeland Security, mission is “to help people before, during and after disasters”. This is extremely important to note because lives can be saved, and disasters can be lessened if employers have:
Correct and accurate knowledge available to share with employees; so employees can share knowledge with family and friends.
Access to training that can also be shared with employees, so again, learned information can be shared with loved ones.
The FEMA declared focus month is “serves a reminder of natural and man-made disaster and hit and affect countless lives at anytime” says, FEMA. If you’ve never navigated to the the FEMA website, I employ to do to do. The website is filled with links providing information on funding for government agencies, training facilities, and nonprofits that assist in providing training or some operation toward disaster preparedness, recovery, and or emergency management services. FEMA’s website also includes a link to a Continuity Resource Toolkit (CRT). The link to the CRT provides open access to a nifty continuity assessment document in the form of an Excel workbook that includes information on the overview, initiating process, Building processes, Maintaining, and Summary.
The final tab of the document, “Summary,” (if completed correctly, will reflect the scoring of all sections mentioned in the initiating and maintaining accounts. Essentially, this document can assist organizations in assessing readiness in the aspects of organizational continuity. While September seems to remind us to be prepared, we should train, inspire, and motivate compel teams to The last tab in the document, titled "Summary", reflects the score of all the sections mentioned in the "Initiating" and "Maintaining" tabs. This document can assist organizations in assessing their readiness in terms of organizational continuity. Although September is the month to remind us to be prepared, we should train, inspire, and motivate teams to drive business continuity. Here's a helpful challenge!drive business continuity.
Here is a helpful challenge!
To drive the importance of safety and emergency preparedness to our clients and future clients, we would like to engage you in a MDT scavenger hunt. Comment below!
Where is the aforementioned file link located on the MDT site?
You may submit your answers in the comment section below. The blog reader who comments on the correct location of the file first wins the free gift.
