We all know that emergencies will happen. It's not a matter of if but when. A sewer line backs up, a suspicious powder shows up in the mail room, a natural gas leak is detected or an individual vital to the organization is no longer available. These are some very real scenarios that have a serious impact on your daily routines. In order to minimize the impact and properly respond to these situations, you must have a plan in place.
Ready.gov suggests a Continuity of Operations Planning or COOP. A COOP is a document that sets guidelines to ensure you can function, both internally and externally, and so determines staff, materials, procedures and equipment that are absolutely necessary to keep you operating.
To create a COOP you must…
- Create a business flowchart to help with the rest of the COOP process.
- Identify critical operations.
- Be sure you can meet business requirements (e.g. payroll, critical decision making, etc.)
- Establish a succession of management. Be sure this list includes multiple locations in case of an area specific disaster.
These are some of the many suggestions offered at the Ready.gov website. I would strongly suggest you review this resource to ensure you are prepared.
TeamWORKS offers software and services to help prepare for such events. FacilitiesMap is a software and service that puts your CAD drawings on the web and links to various databases to ensure everyone can get to the data they need to make critical decisions.
We are all too familiar with stories of lockdowns and breakdowns as a result of the acts of individuals or nature. We all know that this will at some point happen within our own organization. Be prepared!
Thanks,
Craig
No comments:
Post a Comment