As we have seen from recent news reports, natural disasters can impact a business overnight. From hotels and stores damaged by tsunamis, or destroyed by hurricanes, your business can be at risk. Similarly, a power outage or fire are just as destructive to your business. While these occurrences cannot be prevented, having a disaster plan will help you get back to business faster. After all, time is money, and the longer your business is down, the more money you will stand to lose.
Try Working From Home For a Day
If you are normally based completely in an office with your team, then it can be a good test or experiment to work from home for a day. How much can you get done when you’re out of your formal office? It can be a good indicator of how much work you may or may not need to do, to get yourself planning for an emergency. The same can be said of your employees. Be sure to consider how much work would be lost if the work system was blocked by their firewall at home.
Have Back Ups
Having back ups is a good idea for your business. Look for practical backup solutions, like commercial generators for the office in case of a power outage. In addition, you could back up information and data on USBs and portable hard drives. Consider coming up with a plan on which documents are crucial to your business. During an emergency, it will be difficult to remember everything you need. Having it all written down will save you time and frustration.
Designate Leaders
Be sure to designate leaders with specific roles during an emergency to help reduce panic. When an emergency happens, you need the cool and level headed team members to take a lead. Whether it is a fire, natural disaster, or a power outage, panic will ultimately set in. Many people in the office will be able to cope, and some won’t. Train them on the emergency and disaster plans that you have established for the office.
Insurance
Most successful businesses already have insurance in place. If you don’t have any, this should be one of your first tasks. It can make a difference in how well you are able to get the business back up and running after an emergency. And at the end of the day, it can mean the difference between profit and loss.
Practice Emergency Plans
While it may take time away from productivity, practicing an emergency plan is essential. They don’t need to be practiced all that often, but practice makes perfect, right? So if you have a large team that you would need to evacuate in an emergency situation, then you need to know everyone knows what they should be doing and how they can get out safely. So every few months is a good idea, especially if you have new staff or a high turnover of staff. Have a list of people in the building, as well as emergency contact numbers, that you can just quickly grab at short notice.
In an ideal world you will never have to use these things that you have put in place. But things can happen quickly, so it really is best to be prepared. Make some emergency plans by thinking of an absolute worst case scenario (at least a few that could be likely), and go from there.
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