Disaster Preparedness Planning

June 3, 2015

Disaster Preparedness Planning

Businesses can do much to prepare for the impact of the many hazards they face in today’s world including natural hazards like floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes and widespread serious illness such as the Ebola virus pandemic. Human-caused hazards include accidents, acts of violence by people and acts of terrorism. Examples of technology-related hazards are the failure or malfunction of systems, equipment or software.

It is important to plan for a disaster well in advance of an actual disaster in order to mitigate your losses.

Below are five basic steps in developing a preparedness program:

  1. Program Management
  • Organize, develop and administer your preparedness program
  • Identify regulations that establish minimum requirements for your program and your particular area
  1. Planning
  • Gather information about hazards and assess risks for your area
  • Conduct a business impact analysis (BIA)
  • Examine ways to prevent hazards and reduce risks
  1. Implementation
  • Write a preparedness plan addressing:
  • Resource management
  • Emergency response
  • Crisis communications
  • Business continuity
  • Information technology
  • Employee/Guest assistance
  • Incident management
  • Training
  1. Testing and Exercises
  • Test and evaluate your plan
  • Define different types of exercises
  • Learn how to conduct exercises
  • Use exercise results to evaluate the effectiveness of the plan
  1. Program Improvement
  • Identify when the preparedness program needs to be reviewed
  • Discover methods to evaluate the preparedness program
  • Utilize the review to make necessary changes and plan improvements

Contact us for more detail on any area. We will highlight different aspects of “Disaster Preparedness Planning” in future blogs and newsletters.

The Armstrong Company Insurance Consultants  (License #0440075)