On discussing the issue with many Scottish Companies
it surprising how few have given any thought as to how the organisation
would recover from a major disaster such as a Fire, Flood, Bomb Damage,
Product Contamination.
The reasons for this vary but in the main come down to either lack
of time or just poor management.
A disaster plan will vary greatly from company to company both in terms of size and complexity. As a bare minimum a company should prepare a "Disaster Pack" for its senior staff detailing Staff to be contacted
In preparing a more involved plan it is best to sit
down with the senior staff and form a "Disaster Group" who will
take control of the issue. They would then Brain Storm the various disasters
which could effect the company and produce specific plans on how best
to minimise their effect on trading. Issues such as Where could we continue
to trade from ? How would we communicate ? Who should we inform ? What
business could we outsource ?
Do we require assistance in managing Public Relations issues ?
Few companies address these issues but a well organised company could recover from a loss much quicker than one with no plan whatsoever. We saw this first hand last year with the large flood claims of April. Client Records were lost, Stock could not be replaced quickly enough, Insurance Cover was insufficient in terms of indemnity periods. In general management just underestimated the impact on trading.
The message is simple Plan Now before it happens. Don't be left floundering after the event.
Click
here for downloadable disaster recovery plan (Microsoft Word Document)
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