CAER Technologies - CAER Blog , Business Continuity

The 8 Key Mistakes That Can Cripple Your Business Continuity Plan

Thu, 24 Nov 2022 14:56:00 +0000

The only way to continue your operations in case of setbacks is to enforce a well-thought-out business continuity plan. However, you'll need to avoid several mistakes when developing your strategy.

Your operations may seem efficient and failproof, but the reality is that obstacles can happen at any time. Whether you’ve lost a major client or can’t achieve good team dynamics, it’s essential to keep going.

That’s where your business continuity plan (BCP) comes into play.

Your BCP outlines how your company will continue its operations during unplanned service disruptions. It’s more detailed than disaster recovery plans and features contingencies for processes, human resources, assets, and partners. It can also include checklists for equipment and supplies, data backups, and information on emergency responders.

The contents may vary, but a BCP can help you overcome various issues and re-establish productivity to meet critical needs. However, the only way to reap the benefits of your BCP is to avoid making mistakes in the development stage.

This article will outline the biggest mistakes you need to avoid when creating your business continuity plan.

THE 8 MISTAKES

MISTAKE #1 - DISREGARDING YOUR EMPLOYEES

Organizations who want to get back on track after an unexpected incident should focus on the needs of their employees when devising a BCP. Otherwise, they may be running serious safety risks.

So, plan for every situation that can affect your employees during disruptions. The list includes emergency communication protocols, evacuation routes, and many other key details. In doing so, you’ll ensure your team has all they need to weather the storm.

Moreover, discuss the plan with your staff and elicit their input in critical safety matters. You can also tell them you’ll be there for support if a crisis takes place. This gives them peace of mind, knowing their leader cares about them.

MISTAKE #2 - NOT CONSIDERING SMALL DETAILS

After creating a general BCP, many enterprises fail to think about specific details that ensure they can execute their plan. This is a huge mistake, as it can result in loss of data.

The minor points you should incorporate into your BCP include logistical considerations, such as technology and medical aid support.

For example, informing your medical providers about the plan is crucial because it enables them to make their arrangements on time. You should also tell your key personnel who to contact if they need medical assistance during accidents. Another great idea is to determine how your team can access data securely if they can’t make it to their office.

Taking the smallest details into account can protect your data and even save your staff’s lives. Therefore, don’t leave the development to chance – go through the BCP regularly to make sure it’s effective and up to date.

MISTAKE #3 - FAILURE TO SHOW YOUR STAFF HOW THE PLAN WORKS

While many leaders brood on downtime, they often fail to demonstrate to their team members how to execute the plan and minimize productivity decrease.

As previously indicated, your employees are integral to the efficacy of your BCP. And the only way to perform their roles correctly is to become well-versed in the plan.

To ensure this, explain how the staff should respond during crises. Tell them how to handle their clients if your systems go down. Don’t forget about the location and schedules that will be effective while the main office is off-limits.

The final part is to have your team practice these tasks so they can complete them more easily when disasters strike.

MISTAKE #4 - PRIORITIZING OPERATIONAL CONTINUITY OVER TEAM SAFETY

When accidents occur, it’s understandable why business owners focus on assessing the effects on their business. Nevertheless, considering operational continuity only and neglecting your staff’s safety and well-being can have dire consequences.

Your people are crucial to executing your BCP appropriately, so check on them first. Data plans that nobody can facilitate are useless, regardless of their effectiveness.

You have to make sure your staff is safe and reachable after a crisis. The crisis management task force should be able to contact them easily and see if they can help them.

This will help guarantee your team can bounce back after an accident and go back to work quickly.

MISTAKE #5 - HAVING IMPROPER TECH SOLUTIONS

Waiting for natural disasters to strike before establishing toll-free hotlines for your employees is a huge mistake. Likewise, failure to set up data backups might render your systems useless in case of data breaches.

If you have no proper technology to mitigate accidents, you could be exposing your business to higher risks, revenue loss, and prolonged downtime.

To avert this, consult technology specialists or your IT sector to verify your system has all features and components that can keep your networks intact. Such a system should allow you to streamline communications, minimize downtime, and secure your workloads.

MISTAKE #6 - ONLY ONE PERSON MANAGES THE PLAN

Developing a BCP all by yourself is possible, but it’s also more prone to error. A much better approach is to gather people across all your departments to account for all contingencies. Otherwise, you’ll restrict your team’s insight into all the processes and risks under your plan.

Forming a BCP management team that involves multiple functions and departments offers a company-wide perspective to your planning. This diversity can help resolve problems and streamline your strategy.

MISTAKE #7 - USING BROAD GENERALIZATIONS

Continuity plans with broad generalizations often lead to uncertainty and confusion. A BCP needs to be concise and, if possible, explain each detail in short steps. Such forms enable anyone to understand the directions and visualize their roles.

MISTAKE #8 - SKIPPING RISK ASSESSMENT

Risk assessments are a critical step that must take place before developing your BCP. As the name suggests, they can help you discover the potential risks in your area.

Depending on the size of your organization, location, and activities, your company faces different risks. For example, there’s no need to plan for disaster recovery after a hurricane if your region isn’t prone to them. It would only increase your costs and waste time.

DON'T LET YOUR OPERATIONS GRIND TO A HALT

A detailed BCP goes a long way in improving your response to disasters. Avoiding the above-mentioned mistakes will put you on the right track and help your staff cope with new conditions more easily.

If you need help in creating your BCP, give us a call today. You can have an obligation-free chat with a CAER Technician to determine how we can help you.

Article used with permission from The Technology Press

The Five Steps for Creating a Business Continuity Plan

Thu, 01 Sep 2022 14:09:00 +0000

How will your business respond when faced with an unexpected situation? With a business continuity plan, you'll know exactly what steps to take.

Leading a small business is a challenging endeavor.

According to a January 2021 article published by Entrepreneur, 20% of small businesses fail within their first year of operation. And a staggering 50% fail within five years.

There are many potential issues for these failures, ranging from cash flow problems to leadership challenges. But one of the key issues revolves around a company’s ability to deal with the unexpected.

When a situation doesn’t play out in your favor, how does your business respond?

If you don’t have an answer, you place yourself at risk of adding to the above statistics. The good news is that a business continuity plan (BCP) is the ideal leadership tool that will help you prepare for the unexpected.

WHAT IS A BUSINESS CONTINUITY PLAN?

BCPs are a set of predefined protocols and strategies that define how your business will respond in the case of a disaster or emergency. Think of it as a collection of backup plans that tell you exactly what you need to do when the worst happens.

A BCP should encompass every aspect of your organization, from your tech departments to what happens with human resources and your key assets. It should also contain a list of protocols that define how you respond in the event of any of the following situations:

•Natural disasters

•Equipment failures

•Financial or cash flow issues

•Man-made disasters

The goal of any BCP is to ensure the high availability of required resources, thus enabling continuous operation and disaster recovery following an emergency.

They’re important because failure to plan can prove extremely costly. According to figures shared by IBM, infrastructure failures cost businesses an average of $100,000 per hour. A good BCP mitigates these costs by minimizing the effects of these failures on the business.

THE FIVE STEPS FOR BUILDING A BCP

Now that you understand the importance of having a BCP, it’s time to create one for your business. Follow these steps to ensure your BCP is as comprehensive as possible.

STEP #1 - PERFORM IN-DEPTH RISK ASSESSMENTS

Start by creating a list of every possible risk that your business may face. This list should include risks related to all of the following areas:

•Industry

•Geographical

•Trends and Market Movements

•Stakeholders

•Employees

•Business Infrastructure

Once you have completed your list, work through it to prioritize the risks based on their likelihood of impacting your business.

For example, a company based in an area that’s prone to natural disasters, such as earthquakes or hurricanes, may place a higher priority on this risk than they would issues related to stakeholders.

Your prioritized list tells you which issues to focus on first when creating your BCP.

STEP #2 - IDENTIFY CRITICAL FUNCTIONS AND CREATE RECOVERY PLANS FOR EACH

Once you understand the risks, it’s time to focus on the impact that those risks coming to fruition might have on the business.

To do this, create a list of the critical functions your business needs to be able to undertake to deliver its products or services. Then, examine how each potential risk could impact each function.

When you find a function that would get affected by one of the risks, build a recovery plan for that function. This plan may involve creating backups of crucial data, enabling employees to work from home, or maintaining a secondary location or backup hardware stock.

Repeat this process for each critical function, identifying the level of risk it faces and what you need to have in place to ensure swift recovery of the function in the event of an incident.

STEP #3 - DEFINE EMERGENCY ROLES

Your employees are just as important in your response to an emergency as your recovery plans. And often, it’s the rapid action of your people that enables you to put your plans in place.

With this in mind, spend some time assigning roles to key staff members for each potential situation you’ve identified. Define who will act as an emergency coordinator and what they will need to do in this position.

In some cases, preparing for emergencies may require you to train staff members or obtain specific licenses. Your plan may also include protocols for staff reallocation, especially if your business has multiple locations.

The main point here is that your people need to know what they have to do when an emergency situation occurs in your company.

STEP #4 - DOCUMENT YOUR PLAN

No BCP can be effective if it resides solely in the leader’s head. After all, one of the issues identified may be the loss of the leader to an accident or something else.

As such, you must document your BCP so that others can access and follow it when needed. Make sure to store the BCP in a secure off-site location, as this reduces the risk of the plan being lost or damaged in the event of a disaster.

STEP #5 - TEST THE BCP REGULARLY

No situation is static and new issues will appear that cause you to revisit your BCP. That’s why it’s important to ensure that the BCP remains consistent with the current risks and capacity of the business at all times.

It’s worth creating an emergency preparedness team that revisits the BCP regularly.

You should also test the BCP for its consistency whenever a significant change occurs in your industry, such as the introduction of new regulations. Perform regular tests to identify gaps in the plan.

A BCP PROTECTS YOUR BUSINESS

Business leadership involves more than the ability to build and inspire teams. You also need to focus on protecting your business so that your teams are capable of doing what you need them to do in any situation.

That’s what a BCP allows you to do.

A good BCP defines every protocol to follow in the event of an emergency. By building one, you put yourself in a better position to lead your business through any crisis.

Of course, building a BCP is not simple, especially for smaller businesses that have limited resources. That's where we come in. If you’d like help with building yours or wish to discuss any other aspect of business leadership, give CAER Technologies a call today.

Article used with permission from The Technology Press