Business Continuity Planning - Developing your Plan
Businesses that do not have a Business Continuity Plan in place and are affected by a disruption have only a 50% chance of survival. Many will go out of business within 12 months of it happening.
Don't become a statistic. Develop your own business continuity plan!
The size, scale and nature of your organisation will dictate how comprehensive your plan needs to be. There are many self-assessment tools available to help you gauge how prepared you are. The further information page lists these sources of this information.
Your plan should include contingency arrangements for scenarios such as:
- Loss or unavailability of premises and the implications of temporarily relocating your business
- Loss of staff, or staff taking on an unfamiliar role within the organisation
- Finding new suppliers or contractors
- Loss of specialist resources or technology
- Loss of communications or important data and the implications of not backing up this data and where any alternative may be obtained
- Loss of critical equipment
Life cycle
This illustration shows the development of a business continuity plan:
©The Business Continuity Institute 2002
Further details regarding the life cycle can be found by on the further information page.
Workshops
The Emergency & Safety Team hosts interactive workshops to help you develop your organisation's business continuity arrangements and to assess risk and write your plan. The workshops run periodically on a demand-led basis. The objectives of the workshop include:
- Recognising local risks that could disrupt your business
- Developing and conducting a risk assessment
- Developing a business continuity plan, including:
- Prioritising critical functions or services
- Reviewing timescales for the reinstatement of functions or services
- Identifying key roles and accommodation requirements
- Reviewing internal and external dependencies
- Identifying potential costs and impact of non-reinstatement
Contact us to register your interest for a future workshop.
Tel (01709) 823877
Email emergency-safety@rotherham.gov.uk
Bailey House,
Rawmarsh Road,
Rotherham
S60 1TD
Leaflet
This leaflet provides practical support and a useful toolkit to develop your business continuity arrangements: Planning for the Unexpected
Interactive CD
We have developed an interactive CD packed with useful information and resources to help you develop your business continuity arrangements. To find out more about the benefits of the CD and how to obtain a copy, see the Business Survival Flyer.
Planning for specific emergencies
Business Continuity is important to ensure that an organisation can maintain the delivery of their essential services or products. Guides have been developed to help planning for specific emergencies, such as an influenza pandemic or disruption to fuel supplies. The guides are available from the Preparing for Emergencies website.
Pandemic influenza
Advice to Staff on Planning for Pandemic Influenza
Pandemic Influenza Checklist for Businesses
BCM for fuel shortages
Guidance - Business Continuity Management for Fuel Shortages
Business Continuity Management for Fuel Shortages - Guidance for Organisation
BCM toolkit
How Prepared are You? Business Continuity Management Toolkit