Business continuity planning is about identifying and evaluating your risks to your operational activity and then planning ahead so that you can recover and keep running as smoothly as possible following an emergency.
Appendix L of the Emergency Action Plan template guides you through three steps of continuity planning:
1. Review and identification of critical activities and resources.
2. Working out how long you can continue to operate without these.
3. Development of contingency plans and identification of any further actions needed.
In considering the above it may be helpful to think about responses under different scenarios for example:
· loss of building
· loss of staff
· loss of IT (data and communications)
· loss of utilities (heat, power, etc.).
Further, keep in mind questions like:
· what is the minimal level of service acceptable?
· what alternatives are available?
· do certain resources/systems become critical at specific times of the year?
· is there anything that can be done now to mitigate risks?
Finally, ensure you can reach staff in an emergency at short notice (see Emergency communications) and that staff are aware of alternative working arrangements in the event of an emergency.
A sample continuity plan is available for you to adapt for your own institution.