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By Diane S. May, MBA,
CPA
We’ve all seen
it in the news…devastating floods and earthquakes. Tornados.
Terrorist attacks. Maybe it
happened in our town, in our state. Or
maybe it happened abroad. We live in an
age of global news, with access to more information than at any other time in
history. We need to embrace the
knowledge we are privy to and use it to prepare ourselves, because disaster CAN
happen to us. There are no excuses for burying
our heads in the sand; no excuses for procrastination. For the sake of our employees, our
policyholders, our claimants and our business partners, we need to be prepared.
How does your company stack up in terms of
disaster preparedness? Do you have a
predetermined plan of action in the event your facilities are damaged or
destroyed? Is this plan updated and
tested at least annually? Does your
company periodically require its entire management team to read the plan so they
remain familiar with plan contents? Disaster
can strike at any time, often without warning. Your company must be able to react quickly to preserve employees’
safety and to take those steps critical to assessing and recovering from loss or
damage of personnel, premises, equipment, information media, and communications
systems.
Here are just a few of the many facets of a well designed disaster recovery plan:
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Identification of members of the disaster
recovery team
-
Names, addresses, phone numbers, and
emergency contacts for all employees
-
Evacuation and security measures necessary
to protect employees' safety
-
Steps for determining the safety and
whereabouts of employees, including those who are traveling or
working from home
-
Steps for communicating with employees who
might be scattered or unable to report to work
-
Steps for communicating with policyholders
and claimants
-
Contact information for those business
partners essential to recovery, such as banks, insurance agents
and third party administrators
-
Prearranged alternate work site(s) in the
event the company's facilities are damaged or destroyed, or in
the event access to the premises is unavailable
-
Identification of personnel authorized to
take charge in case key managers are lost, injured or otherwise
unavailable at the time of the crisis
-
Identification of a skeleton crew of
critical company personnel necessary to resume operations at the
alternate work site(s)
-
Steps for temporarily resuming operations
at the alternate work site(s), including a copy of the company's
policies and procedures manual
-
Restoration of essential business systems,
including a current and complete set of documentation for all
operating systems and application software
-
Restoration of interrupted communication
services including telephone, fax, mail, internet and email
As you can see, a good disaster recovery plan entails much more than
system backup and restoration, although these are crucial components
of the plan; your IT department must continually monitor hardware
and software requirements to keep your plan up to date. But an equally important aspect of a well planned and
documented disaster recovery plan is that it enables company
personnel to act decisively at a time when the stress and disruption
of a disaster might adversely affect memory, emotions and judgment.
At least one copy of the disaster recovery plan should be stored in a
secure, offsite location. Ideally, each member of the management team should have remote access to an
electronic version of the plan and readily know how to locate it. The plan should be reviewed, updated, and tested at least
annually. This will allow disaster recovery team members to assess the continued
appropriateness of the plan and to become familiar with implementing
each step so they can act more quickly and decisively at the time of
the disaster. As an added benefit, each time you review the plan take that opportunity
to reassess the adequacy of your company’s property and business
interruption insurance coverages.
Odds are that you will never have to initiate disaster recovery
procedures. But isn’t it nice to know you are prepared? After all, that’s what our business is all about…
safeguarding ourselves and others against the unexpected.
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