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Stop Confusing Emergency Response with Business Continuity

Imagine the following:

You are sitting in your office when you hear the fire alarm go off. You sigh, look around to see if anyone else is leaving, logout of your computer, and head toward the exit. Once outside, you see the problem: smoke is streaming from an upper office window. People on the sidewalk are taking photos, messaging family members and offering reassurance that they are ok. The fire department has pulled up and ambulances arrive to assist the wounded. It takes an hour for the fire to be located and put out, the building is cleared and the injured are taken to the hospital. It is obvious that no one is going back inside to work today. The question is, what happens tomorrow? Or the next day? What about next week?

A lot of businesses have trouble sorting out the difference between Emergency Response and Business Continuity when an incident occurs.

This is why organizations should plan in advance to:

  • Identify and understand the difference,
  • Know what emergency response services expect of them, and
  • Be able to explain the steps taken to stakeholders.

Emergency Response vs Business Continuity

In a nutshell, Emergency Response focuses on the safety and protection of life, assets, and the environment. On the other hand, Business Continuity focuses on continuing the critical operations of the business until it can return back to normal.

Many organizations use an Incident Flow Chart, similar to the one shown in Figure 1 below, to help them through the Emergency Response steps and decide whether or not to activate their Business Continuity Plan (BCP).

flow chart

Emergency Response steps are all of the steps that take place from the time the incident occurs up to the point where the ERMT chooses to declare a disaster (the second diamond shape in Figure 1 – Incident Flow Chart). Only when a disaster is declared can the BCP be activated.

Declaring a Disaster

Some organizations might choose to declare immediately given the extent of the damage that is evident. Others might wait for 24 hours to gather more information before making this decision. Regardless of when that decision occurs, there should be a previously identified standard that describes the guidelines for choosing to activate, or not activate, the BCP. It is important to remember that while Emergency Response and Business Continuity are two different things, it is possible that some Emergency Response steps will be carried out at the same time as some Business Continuity steps, depending on the incident.

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Emergency Response Plan

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The actions taken in the initial minutes of an emergency are critical. Prompt action and warnings can save lives, minimize physical damage to structures and property, and allow for better resilience. Every business should develop and implement an emergency plan for protecting employees, contractors and visitors.

Developing an Emergency Plan

Developing an emergency plan begins with an understanding of what can happen. Consider the following actions when reviewing your risk assessment and considering the performance objectives that you established for your program.

  • Assess what resources are available for incident stabilization. Consider  internal resources and external resources , including public emergency services and contractors.
  • Document available resources. Determine whether external resources have the information they would need to handle an emergency. If not, determine what information is required and be sure to document that information in your plan.
  • Prepare emergency procedures for foreseeable hazards and threats.

Plans should define the most appropriate protective action for each hazard to ensure the safety of employees and others within the building.

  • Determine how you will warn building occupants to take protective action.
  • Develop protocols and procedures to alert first responders including public emergency services, trained employees and management.
  • Identify how you will  communicate with management and employees  during and following an emergency.

10 Steps for Developing the Emergency Response Plan

  • Review performance objectives for the program.
  • Review hazard or threat scenarios identified during the  risk assessment .
  • Assess the availability and capabilities of  resources  for incident stabilization including people, systems and equipment available within your business and from external sources.
  • Talk with public emergency services (e.g., fire, police and emergency medical services) to determine their response time to your facility, knowledge of your facility and its hazards and their capabilities to stabilize an emergency at your facility.
  • Determine if there are any regulations pertaining to emergency planning at your facility; address applicable regulations in the plan.
  • Develop protective actions for life safety (evacuation, shelter, shelter-in-place, lockdown).
  • Develop hazard and threat-specific emergency procedures using the  Emergency Response Plan for Businesses .
  • Coordinate emergency planning with public emergency services to stabilize incidents involving the hazards at your facility.
  • Train personnel  so they can fulfill their roles and responsibilities.
  • Facilitate  exercises  to practice your plan.

Emergency Planning Resources

Pre-Incident Planning

  • Fire Service Features of Buildings and Fire Protection Systems  - U.S. Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) Publication 3256-07N
  • Standard on Pre-Incident Planning  - National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 1620

Protective Actions for Life Safety

  • Evacuation Planning Matrix  – OSHA
  • Evacuation Plans and Procedures eTool  - OSHA
  • Design Guidance for Shelters and Safe Rooms

Last Updated: 12/22/2023

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Understanding emergency, contingency and business continuity plans

Examining the nuances between business continuity planning, disaster recovery and resilience..

I am often asked the difference between emergency, contingency and business continuity plans? The answer is that the very act of working through the process of planning for unwanted events, whatever they may be, is the most important factor. However, there are key nuances between each which, if not addressed, can seriously jeopardise businesses ability to operate.

Unequivocally, emergency plans are required where we need a response by one or more of the emergency services. Emergencies, by definition, are events which tend to happen quickly, rapidly getting worse e.g. a small unchallenged fire, can grow significantly. However, on invocation of the plan, the situation stabilises and then sees a gradual improvement.

Contingency plans are similar, where the event happens suddenly and can get rapidly worse. However, they do not require the attendance of the emergency services e.g. IT outages. Examples where a contingency plan could be required include, but not limited to:

  • loss of power
  • industrial action
  • loss of IT.

Similarly, the event stabilises and gradually improves. However, both of these examples last a relatively short time span; possibly a few hours or in the worst cases, days. Rarely do we see protracted emergencies or crises. Conversely, the recovery time for business as usual to be restored, can be weeks, months or even years. Yet, much time is spent planning for ephemeral emergency or crisis events and relatively little time on recovery. This incongruous nature of planning, can lead to the potential long term damage of the business.

Disasters    

The 1980s was known as the ‘decade of disaster’. The second half of the eighties was a particularly catastrophic period in the UK, with incidents such as those shown in table 1:

business continuity plan emergency response

The main concern around that period was that emergency planning legislation dated back to the Emergency Powers Act 1920. Emergency planning in the UK was focused on the cold war, concerning a nuclear attack. Following cessation of the cold war, the planning assumptions had to be changed immeasurably to address more modern day risks e.g. terrorism, climate change and the increased use of IT.

The Civil Contingencies Act 2004 replaced the outdated legislation and for the first time, legislation put a mandatory requirement on emergency responders to take account of business continuity to ensure that the emergency services could keep functioning when faced with unwanted events such as flooding of their premises. Moreover, the legislation also put statutory requirements on local authorities to provide guidance to local businesses on business continuity, especially small to medium enterprises.

This was an important aspect as, it is widely reported that following the Irish Republican Army (IRA) bombing in Manchester in 1996, around half of the businesses who did not have suitable plans in place, failed to exist within the following twelve months. Consequently, business continuity planning is a vitally important aspect of running any business, no matter how large or small.

In 2018 there were two unrelated major fires in Glasgow city centre which directly affected businesses in close proximity to the premises. The state of the structural integrity of the buildings meant that exclusion zones around the premises completely stopped access for the business owners and their customers for a protracted period.  

Where an individual is personally impacted they can clearly see this as a disaster. This is especially so where there is death within friends and family. However, the word disaster is often maligned e.g. ‘my hair is a disaster’ or ‘my dinner party was a complete disaster’ so when is a disaster actually a disaster? A disaster is a very personal thing!

The ‘Bradford Disaster Scale’ is utilised to determine when an event is officially a disaster. However, this is rarely used and in the world of 24/7 worldwide news coverage, it is the media who tend to declare when an event or incident is a disaster. This is not based on any algorithm or other model, but sensationalism, in an attempt to sell more newspapers.

Therefore, if we look back in history and even in more recent times, we find it littered with examples of organisations who failed to plan for the unexpected and ended up going out of business. The trick, obviously, is to convert what we know (hindsight), into what could potentially happen in the future (foresight) and to plan accordingly on what could potentially happen.

Clearly, only an emergency can lead to a disaster; however, not all events are designated as a disaster. Therefore, there is a need to identify the risks to the business – what can go wrong, how can it go wrong and what will happen if it does go wrong. Indeed, we can also argue that something seen as a risk to one person or organisation may indeed be an opportunity for others. Those businesses who plan accordingly, can readily identify the business opportunities open to them.

Resilience is an interesting turn of phrase which has become increasingly more used in modernity. We have heard the word utilised a great deal more over the past decade, by organisations such as the BBC News channels.

Therefore, what does ‘resilience’ mean and why is it becoming more widely used? A useful working definition taken from the English Oxford Living Dictionary is ‘the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; the ability of a substance or object to spring back into shape (elasticity)’. We can, therefore, deduce, that resilience and business continuity planning are intrinsically linked and that careful planning and preparation can assist in achieving a resilient organisation.

International standards such as ISO 22301 are useful tools for organisations to assist in the planning and execution of a resilient organisation. ISO 22301 sets out a valuable framework to assess the impact that having a crisis event would have on the organisation. Whilst risk is a key component of the process, the focus is mainly on managing the consequences of crisis events and for restoring normality within a set timescale, or indeed, defining a new normality. 

Failing to plan for crisis situations could easily lead to a failure of the business. It is, therefore, essential that businesses identify their vulnerabilities including loss of IT and to plug any gaps before it is too late. Every day, we should think…what would we do right now if x,y or z happened? If you cannot answer that question, then you need a plan.

Too many organisations and indeed, senior executives and board members, have misconceptions around business continuity, disaster recovery and resilience, all of which are in essence the same thing. Consequently, it is time to ensure that the following words are wiped from the vocabulary: 

  • ‘It won’t happen to us’
  • ‘We will cope, we always do’
  • ‘We are too big a company to fail’.

Do so at your peril!!!

Gillies Crichton. MSc. GIFireE. MBCI. SIRM – group head of assurance for AGS Airports Limited, based at Glasgow Airport

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Contingency Planning Emergency Response and Safety

Although there is some recognition of the importance of contingency planning, far too few firms have anything beyond a contingency plan that sits on a shelf in the CEO’s office. Even in those companies with crisis management teams (CMTs), the members often do not meet to plan or even discuss how the team would function in an actual situation.

The most progressive firms offer the team members, fire brigades, and employees an opportunity to preplan (contingency planning) through mock exercises that replicate industrial disasters, explosions, fires, or tornado alerts. The end result is a better-prepared team of employees ready to respond to any contingency. Unfortunately, many firms have not gone this far.

Contingency planning may not have been a traditional security process, but in today’s global business environment the security organization is assuming a much greater role and responsibility for its implementation. Even prior to the events of September 11, 2001, many organizations were becoming more conscious of the need to have contingency plans. A complete contingency planning program has three major elements:

  • 1. Emergency Response
  • 2. Crisis Management
  • 3. Business Continuity: Business Recovery and Business Resumption

Emergency response activities involve responding to an incident, crisis or disaster and managing that incident at the scene. Should an incident escalate to the crisis or disaster stage, a CMT should take over managing the crisis to its conclusion. If the crisis or disaster does cause damage to a company building, facility or operation, the CMT should hand over to a business continuity team the responsibility of recovery and resumption. After a disaster, it is critical that the business recovers and resumes normal (pre-event) operations as soon as possible. Customers, shareholders and stakeholders expect nothing less. Executive management has the obligation to ensure contingency planning is properly considered and addressed within their company. The consequences of not planning for contingencies can be catastrophic with numerous liability issues.

Introduction

No facility protection program is complete without clear, well-defined policies, and programs confronting the possible threat of fire or any other natural or human-made disaster. While planning for such contingencies is the responsibility of top management, in most situations the task of carrying out emergency response falls specifically on the security management team; specifically those resources dedicated to incident management response now considered boutique specialty in many multinational companies. This is primarily due to the essence of the security mission—that is, to observe and report. In the best of all possible worlds the responsibility is a shared responsibility among security, fire, and safety departments. Regardless of the functional placement of responsibility, security, fire, and safety personnel must work together when they are confronted with preparing for and responding to disasters.

According to a 2006 IOMA Safety & Security Reports briefing, 39% of US companies lack a basic crisis plan and 56% have not conducted crisis drills or simulation in the last year. Follow up research in 2017 reveals not much has changed regarding general readiness for many companies. In fact, some companies consider crisis planning and drill exercise a bit of a nuisance and do so at their own peril. Under an amendment to a 9/11 bill passed by the House, the Department of Homeland Security and the American National Standards Institute established a set of “best practices” for disaster preparedness. This includes a certification process to verify compliance [1] .

According to Dr. Dennis F. Sigwart, Emeritus Professor, Western Illinois University, current and future security professionals should be aware of the absolute necessity of disaster planning and preparedness as a viable component of the many facets (fire, earthquake, explosions, flooding, and so forth) of which they will have to perform as a practitioner. Those assigned disaster preparedness tasks must continually play the “what happens if” game [2] . Said another way, drill scenario and testing is akin to being a player on a practice field. Practice often makes perfect, builds confidence and comradery among players and streamlines the incident management response process. Drill scenario testing on a frequent basis cannot be overemphasized enough. Firesafety (discussed in Chapter 12, Fire Prevention and Protection), and emergency (contingency) planning is designed to anticipate what might happen to endanger people, physical assets, and information (thus causing damage and interruption to normal business) and to take the necessary preventive measures and make provision—through the use of appropriate hardware and/or personnel response—for prompt and effective action when an emergency does occur. While the emphasis in this chapter (as in most actual practice) is on physical safeguards, it is important to emphasize the human aspect. Disastrous losses often occur not from the failure or absence of physical safeguards, but from human error—the failure to close a fire door, to maintain existing protection systems in good working condition, to inspect or to report hazards, and, at the management level, to ensure through continuous employee education and training that the organization remains prepared at any time for any emergency. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), and Life Safety Codes dictate certain safety requirements for all businesses.

Contingency Planning

The Association of Contingency Planners (ACP), which is an association dedicated to the evolution of business continuity, describes contingency planning in the following way: “Business continuity planning integrates knowledge from related disciplines such as information technology, emergency response, and crisis communications to create a strategy that ensures a business will remain resilient in the face of adversity.” [3]

The purpose of contingency planning is simple. Essentially, contingency planners work to prepare their business, organization, or institution to be better able to mitigate any disruption to normal business activities. As an example, if a natural occurrence (e.g., hurricane, fire, or earthquake) disrupts normal business activities, having plans in place for responding to and recovering from such an occurrence will allow for a faster resumption of business, thus reducing the amount of time the business is disrupted.

For our purposes, we will discuss contingency planning in the construct of four major components: emergency response, crisis management, business recovery, and business resumption. The fundamental elements of each component and the need for an effective integrated contingency planning process will be addressed. Furthermore, categories and types of crises, along with basic preparation and awareness needs, will be discussed. You will note that emergency response, crisis management, business recovery, and business resumption processes have much in common (e.g., communications requirements); however, each is handled as a standalone process.

Security and the Contingency Planning Process

The traditional role of security in the contingency planning process has been to develop emergency evacuation plans for the business and to respond to emergency or crisis situations. Acting as the eyes and ears for an organization, business, or facility and maintaining a 24 hours a day, 7 days a week presence, the security organization is best positioned to respond to an emergency and manage a crisis through the concept of C3: command, communication, and control. As crises escalate, they are best managed by a multidisciplined team.

Due to the ever-ready posture of many security organizations and the increased emphasis on emergency preparedness and contingency planning following the tragic events of September 11, 2001, in New York City, Arlington County Virginia, and Pennsylvania, many security departments have expanded their contingency planning capabilities to include the following components: emergency response, crisis management, business recovery, and business resumption.

Depending upon the scope of the effort, a contingency planning program can take into consideration many activities, events, conditions, and processes. Depending upon the size and complexity of a business the process of contingency planning can be quite extensive. Planning for a contingency generally means assessing and understanding all aspects of the business, particularly the business critical processes and supporting information systems. To do this effectively requires the participation of many people from different disciplines, including management, employees, suppliers, and sometimes even customers. It may also include representatives from external organizations such as representatives of an insurance underwriter or the local fire departments.

Having a variety of knowledgeable people involved from different functional disciplines calls for establishing common parameters. To be effective, everyone involved must have a common understanding of the elements and objectives of the contingency planning program and all must have a common understanding of the process. The first consideration in establishing common parameters is to develop a set of common definitions of terms. When discussing any aspect of contingency planning it is essential that all parties have a common understanding of what is being discussed. Just what does someone mean when he or she refers to the incident management, business recovery, or any other elements of the contingency planning process?

Below are a set of contingency planning terms defined in such a way as to be useful for any organization in establishing a common baseline, points of reference, and common jargon for the end to end contingency planning process. Definition of terms must be part of the organization’s formal or institutionalized contingency planning process to ensure continuity of planning and success in achieving common preparedness objectives.

  • • Business continuity : Minimizing business interruption or disruption caused by different contingencies—that is, keeping the business up and running efficiently. Business continuity plans encompass actions related to how an organization prepares for, manages, recovers, and ultimately resumes business after a disruption.
  • • Business recovery : Refers to the short-term (less than 60 days) restoration activities that return the business to a minimum acceptable level of operation or production following a work disruption. Commonly used interchangeably with the term disaster recovery .
  • • Business resumption : The long-term (more than 60 days) process of restoration activities after an emergency or disaster that return the organization to its preincident condition. (Keep in mind that restoration to the exact preincident condition may not be necessary or even desirable. However, making this determination may not be possible without proper planning or going through the actual resumption process.)
  • • Contingency : An event that is possible but uncertain in terms of its occurrence or that is likely to happen as an adjunct to other events. Contingencies interrupt normal business activities. In some cases the disruption is minor, while in other situations the disruption can be catastrophic.
  • • Contingency planning : The process of planning for response, recovery and resumption activities for the infrastructure, critical processes, and other elements of an organization based upon encountering different contingencies.
  • • Crisis and incident management : The process of managing events of a crisis to a condition of stability and ultimate recovery. This is proactively accomplished by local, regional, corporate, and executive incident management response teams working hand in hand to successfully manage the incident. The “step up” or “step down” process is a key element of the incident response process. Let us take, for example, local flooding in a foreign country where the infrastructure cannot handle large amounts of rain from a typhoon. When conditions deteriorate “locally,” one would “step up”, and C3 the incident from the “regional” level. However, this does not preclude the local, regional, corporate, and executive incident management teams from activing simultaneously.
  • • Critical processes : Activities performed by functions, departments, or elements within a business or organization that, if significantly disrupted due to an incident, emergency, or disaster, would have an adverse impact on organizational operations, revenue generation ability, production, and/or distribution schedules, contractual commitments, or legal obligations.
  • • Emergency response : The act of reporting and responding to any emergency or major disruption of the business organization’s operations.
  • • The Situation Watch Protocol : Chasing not pacing the world of incidents is not an optimal strategy for a company. Hence the birth of the Situation Watch protocol. This protocol demands that incidents are proactively monitored and communicated to key business partners when there is a potential-tangential or direct impact on a company that may need to be incident managed. In fact, most incidents are predictable. For example, if a company is housed within the pacific ring of fire it is easy to understand that there will be earthquakes followed by a potential tsunami. Take, for example, Superstorm Sandy in 2012 which caused severe flooding along the eastern seaboard of the United States. It first began as a tropical wave in the Caribbean then formed into a tropical storm easily monitored and easily communicated. That in a nutshell is the Situation Watch protocol in action. More specifically, proactively monitoring and communicating a potential incident from its inception. In this case, monitoring, tracking, communicating, and then proactively responding to Superstorm Sandy before it is at a Company’s door step.

Contingency Planning Program

The purpose for contingency planning is to better enable a business or organization to mitigate disruption to the enterprise. Should disruptions occur, and they do all too often, the enterprise must be able to resume normal business activities as quickly as possible. The inability to restore normal operations will have an adverse economic impact on the enterprise. The extent of the impact will correspond to the extent of the disruption or damage. If the damage is severe and the mitigation of such damage has not been properly planned for, the effect could be catastrophic, even to the extent of failure of the business.

Essentially, contingencies fall into three categories:

  • 1. Those that impact the business infrastructure (fire, severe weather, and earthquakes: see the definition of hazards further in this section) causing physical damage.
  • 2. Those that impact people, such as accidents, seasonal illnesses (influenza), epidemics, or pandemics causing harm to employees, rendering them unavailable to work.
  • 3. Those that impact the reputation of the business (such as a product defect leading to a recall), causing resources to be diverted from normal operations to recovery and/or restoration. Each contingency has the potential to disrupt normal business operations to some degree. A minor building fire may disrupt operations in a limited way for only a couple of days, whereas a major fire may destroy an entire factory, completely stopping operations for an extended period.

Contingency planning is a continuous process. It is not something that can be done once and put away only to be retrieved when needed. It is a continuous process requiring periodic updates and revisions as appropriate to, and consistent with, changing business conditions. It also involves implementing and maintaining awareness and training elements. Those personnel with contingency planning responsibilities require periodic familiarization with plans and processes and training on new techniques and methods. The process of contingency planning should be designed to achieve the following:

  • • Secure and protect people. In the event of a crisis, people must be protected (employees, visitors, customers, and suppliers).
  • • Secure the continuity of the core elements of the business (the infrastructure and critical processes) and minimize disruptions to the business.
  • • Secure and protect all information systems that include or affect supplier connections and customer relationships.

Throughout the remaining sections of this chapter, elements of the contingency planning process and program ( Fig. 11.1 ) are presented and explained.

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Elements of a business continuity planning program.

Contingency Plans

Contingency plans formally establish the processes and procedures to protect employees, core business elements, critical processes, information systems and the environment in the event of an emergency, business disruption, or disaster. These plans should be developed and designed to consider specific categories and types of emergencies and disasters and address the mitigation, preparedness, and response actions to be taken by employees, management, and the organizations charged with specific response and recovery tasks. These plans should contain basic guidance, direction, responsibilities, and administrative information and must include the following elements:

  • • Assumptions : Basic assumptions need to be developed in order to establish contingency planning ground rules. As a baseline for planning, it is best to use several possible “worst-case” scenarios relative to time of event, type of event, available resources, building/facility occupancy, evacuation of personnel, personnel stranded on site, and environmental factors such as weather conditions and temperature. Furthermore, consideration should be given to establishing response parameters for emergency events. Define (for your enterprise) what constitutes a minor emergency, a major emergency, and a disaster.
  • • Risk assessment and vulnerability analysis : Identify known and apparent vulnerabilities and risks associated with the type of business and geographic location of the enterprise. An assessment of risk and vulnerabilities should be made prior to developing or upgrading contingency plans. All planning will be accomplished in accordance with a thorough understanding of actual and potential risks and vulnerabilities. For example, in a petroleum refining facility, contingency plans for petroleum spillage, contamination, and fires must be considered. Furthermore, if located in an earthquake zone, planning must address associated hazards. The risk assessment and vulnerability analysis must also include an assessment of enterprise–critical relationships. That means involving suppliers and customers in the contingency planning process. If a critical supplier or many key suppliers are not also prepared for various potential contingencies, their inability to recover will adversely impact your enterprise.
  • • Types of hazards : Planning for each and every type of hazard is not practical, nor desirable. Grouping them into similar or like categories will allow for planning to address categories of hazards which can easily be categorized as natural occurrences, health/pandemic, infrastructure, and social, civil or political disruption. Since many hazards have similar consequences and result in like damages, it is best to plan for them in categories. The following is a list of common hazards: Medical Emergencies; Fires; Bomb Threats; High Winds; Power Interruptions; Floods; Hurricanes; Snow/Ice Storms/Blizzards; Hazardous Materials Issues; Aircraft Crashes; Civil Disorders; Earthquakes; Terrorist Threats/Activities; Workplace Violence; Explosions; and Tornados.
  • • Critical process identification : Critical processes must be ranked in accordance of criticality and importance to the productivity and survivability of the enterprise. Process of recovery must be focused on those critical processes that, when resumed, will restore operations to a minimal acceptable level. In essence, these processes are identified to be the first processes restored in the event of a major interruption to business operations. Failure to restore them presents the greatest possibility of damage or loss to the enterprise and could lead to the loss of a competitive edge, market share, or even the viability of the enterprise.
  • • Business impact analysis : A business impact analysis must be accomplished to accurately determine the financial and operational impact that could result from an interruption of enterprise operations. Moreover, all critical interdependencies, those processes or activities critical processes are dependent upon, must be assessed to determine the extent to which they must be part of the contingency planning process.
  • • Emergency response : All participants in the emergency response process, particularly emergency responders, must understand their role. Expectations and responsibilities of emergency response personnel must be well defined and documented. Guidance for all employees on how to react in the event of an emergency and what their individual and collective responsibilities are must be documented and shared. Organizational responsibilities must also be established, to include the development of department-level emergency plans, generally for mid-size and large organizations. Events such as building evacuation and roll-call assembly need to be well defined so, in the event of an actual emergency, there is no confusion or uncertainty as to what must be accomplished.
  • • Incident management or crisis management : As an incident escalates, a crisis management team (CMT) should assume responsibility for managing the crisis. If the crisis is international or global in nature, it is important that the incident response process is fluid to address it. For example, activing a local or regional team and stepping up or stepping down as necessary as was discussed in a prior section of this chapter. How this process works and who has what responsibilities must be clearly stated in the contingency plans. In the event of an actual emergency, some unqualified people will attempt to manage the incident or participate in crisis management; however, they should not have any role in this process unless they were previously identified and trained as part of the CMT. Without established and well-defined incident management protocols and procedures, confusion is likely to erupt. It must be clear at all times who is the designated incident commander and his or her back up if necessary with C3 for the incident. Essentially, incident management, and crisis management personnel must be trained and must understand their responsibilities including decision-making authority in the teeth of a crisis real time. Without this authority, the timely response to an incident gets booged down in the bureaucratic quagmire which could jeopardize employee safety and well-being. Lastly and where here practical, back-up supporting personnel should be identified and trained in the event that primary personnel are not available.
  • • Incident/event analysis : After an event occurs and the situation is stable, an analysis of what occurred and why should be conducted to determine the immediate extent of damage and the potential for subsequent additional damage.
  • • Business resumption planning : The process of planning to facilitate recovery of designated critical processes and the resumption of business in the event of an interruption to the business should be performed in two parts. The first part focuses on business recovery in the short term while the other part focuses on business restoration in the long term. This process will also include establishment of priorities for restoration of critical processes, infrastructure, and information systems.
  • • Post-event evaluation : An assessment of preceding events to determine what went well, what did not go so well, and what improvements to existing plans need to be made must also be part of the process. Learning from real events is an unfortunate opportunity. There is no better way to learn how to handle an emergency than to actually handle one. The evaluation or after action report should always be documented to serve as an organization’s memory of the event in order to proactively address improvements in the incident response process.

Emergency Response

When an emergency occurs, and unfortunately emergencies occur at even the most prepared businesses, being able to effectively respond is critical. Respond in this context means to call up the necessary incident response team regardless of the time of day or weekend and even holiday. As such accessibility of responding incident management team decision makers are paramount. The type and nature of emergencies that can occur vary widely. From a medical emergency in which an employee becomes injured or sick, to a natural or person-made disaster causing extensive damage to buildings and equipment, being prepared to respond will usually lessen the damage or impact of the event. Preparedness takes many forms. Being prepared to respond to a medical emergency is different from being prepared to respond to a natural disaster. The medical emergency may only require applying first aid to a victim or it may require the assistance and services of medical professionals. A natural disaster may require support from emergency medical services along with law enforcement, fire departments, search and rescue operations, and hazardous material crews.

When planning for emergencies, types of emergencies should be grouped into like categories so that planning is accomplished for only categories of emergencies, as opposed to each and every possible emergency occurrence. This strategy recognizes the similarities of different types of emergencies and is efficient in terms of creating fewer and flexible plans.

The purpose of preparing an emergency response plan is to document the planning accomplished in preparation for an emergency. This documentation provides the ground rules for emergency response activities. It also provides a reference for all who need to know how the process works. The plan will identify general and specific responsibilities for emergency response personnel and for all employees, both management and nonmanagement. Having a plan in place will assist emergency response personnel in their effort to return the business to normal operations. However, it is important to remember that the plan should be easily accessible, streamlined, and ready for action. A plan too burdensome in the number of pages and instructions will only serve to hamper the incident management response process.

  • • Reporting emergencies : Employees must know how, and to whom, emergencies should be reported. If handling an emergency is beyond the internal capability of an organization, additional external assistance can be sought. For example, a seriously ill employee may require immediate medical attention. If paramedic capabilities exist within the company then the in-house paramedic should be the first respondent. If the situation calls for more sophisticated expertise and capabilities, external emergency medical services can be called for.
  • • Fire alarm systems : These systems are generally the most widely used. Linked to a variety of sensor detectors and manual pull stations, fire alarms do just that: sound an alarm. These systems are sufficiently unique in sound and volume as to clearly indicate the need for building and facility evacuation. Employees must be conditioned to respond immediately.
  • • Public address systems : These systems can be used to augment the fire alarm system. Announcements can be made alerting employees to the danger of fire. Announcements alerting employees to other types of dangers can also be made. Public address systems are particularly useful during emergencies when a building or facility evacuation is just the opposite of what is needed. For example, in the event of a chemical discharge or other environmental hazard, it may be necessary to keep people inside the facility and shut down all air movement systems, thus preventing employees from exposure to hazardous airborne substances. Since employees are conditioned to evacuate a building or facility when a fire alarm is sounded, they can be conditioned to wait and listen for specific instructions provided over a public address system. New to the market in 2017 are Internet Protocol (IP)-based public address systems. Public not in the traditional sense but rather internet sense in that the address protocol works integrally with your desk phone and smartphone and will “chase you down” by communicating to multiple devices.
  • • Emergency Response Team (ERT) Leads : The use of employees to augment the emergency notification system has much value. Specially selected and trained employees can be given responsibility to act during an emergency to spread the word to evacuate a building or facility during an emergency. Assigning each a specific area of responsibility, the ERT Leads ensures complete coverage of the building or facility. Communications between floor ERT Leads and emergency response personnel or a security emergency operations center can be easily established. ERT Leads can be alerted by IP technology solutions radio, smartphone, or other means in the event of an emergency and be instructed to react to the specific situation. ERT Leads can and should be empowered and trained to react on their own in the event they recognize danger. Authority should be provided to ERT Leads to evacuate a building or facility based upon their judgment and assessment of an emergency situation. In the event of a complete communications failure, it may be necessary to empower them to dispatch people to a safe environment.
  • • Response to emergencies: Since security officers are located throughout the facility and operate on different shifts, they are usually the first to respond as often times they are the eyes and ears to an event unfolding or one that just occurred. Being on the front lines, the security officer can assess the situation and make a determination if additional assistance is necessary. In some cases, they may not be able to make an assessment and may require support from others. For example, in the event of a hazardous chemical spill, it will be necessary to have an expert in environmental and safety issues on the scene to make the assessment. It may even be necessary for a hazardous materials (HAZMAT) crew to respond to handle the event. Clean up of a chemical spill should only be done by skilled and certified personnel. Another example may be the unfortunate death of an employee in the workplace. This will require the security officer to make immediate notification to OSHA as well as cordoning off the scene and directing law enforcement to the scene. In rare cases, it may require the preservation of evidence and stand by for the corner to clear to the body. Clearly, defining who has what response capabilities and responsibilities will impact the effectiveness of any response. Without a doubt, capable and training security officers are a key ingredient to the efficient handling of the incident management response process.
  • – A roster of department employees
  • – Emergency contact/notification roster (not all emergencies occur during working hours so it may be necessary to reach people at home)
  • • Identify floor wardens
  • • Evacuation routes, procedures, and assembly areas
  • • Roll-call instructions
  • • Procedures for evacuation of people requiring assistance
  • • People identified as members of a search-and-rescue team
  • • Additional manager- or employee-specific responsibilities
  • • Incident management : Personnel trained in handling emergencies should manage the incident at the scene. If the incident escalates to a crisis, a company CMT should be convened to manage the crisis. The senior emergency response person, when at the scene, should manage the incident with the assistance of specialists as appropriate.
  • • Evacuation and assembly : A critical objective during any emergency is employee safety. In the event it is necessary to evacuate a building or facility, having an established and orderly process is essential. Once a warning system sounds the notice to evacuate, employees must be aware of preestablished procedures for quick evacuation, including primary and alternate evacuation routes and where they should assemble. Maps or diagrams with this information should be included in the plan and posted throughout the work area. A floor warden or an employee with the assignment to facilitate evacuation should make a sweep of the area prior to their own evacuation to ensure all personnel have exited the building or facility. Once in the predetermined assembly area, a roll call must be taken. Primary, secondary, and tertiary responsibilities should be assigned to ensure someone is available to take roll call and report the results to security. If someone did not evacuate the facility, a search-and-rescue team or other emergency personnel may be required to reenter the facility and provide assistance.
  • • Emergency evacuation drills : The efficient and complete evacuation of personnel from a building or facility in the event of an emergency is such an important event that periodic drills should be conducted to reinforce the process and its importance. At least annually, each building or facility should undergo an evacuation drill where employees respond to a warning and completely evacuate the building or facility. This may be required by law in some states or jurisdictions. Lastly, a roll call should be conducted and results reported to security and senior management.
  • • Search and rescue : In the event of serious damage such as a fire or collapse of building, it may be necessary to search and account for employees. Search and rescue is the responsibility of responding emergency personnel who have proper protective equipment such as the fire department persons not trained in search-and-rescue techniques or who do not have proper equipment should not enter hazardous areas and conduct searches. Heavy lifting should always be left to the professionals such as properly trained search and rescue teams and fire department personnel. Heavy lifting in this context means security personnel should not supplant the proven experience of responding agencies and do it themselves without the proper training. This can cause critical delays in response and could even jeopardize lives. At its core, the job of the security officer is to observe and report.
  • • Return to work : The process for returning to work after a crisis should also be included in the emergency plan. After any incident where employees are required to leave their work area and evacuate a building or facility, a process for having them return to work is necessary. For example, in the event of a false fire alarm where employees have evacuated a building, a means of communicating to them an all-clear, safe to return to work signal, is needed. This can be accomplished in many ways. Public address announcements can be made or security personnel can go to assembly areas, directing employees to return to work the good old fashion way by use of a bull horn. As appropriate, other methods may also be employed such as IP-based communication systems. In the event there is actual damage and employees cannot return to work, a process should be established identifying who makes the decision to send employees home—most likely Human Resources—as well as how that is communicated to them and how they are kept apprised of event updates. For example, if a building was severely damaged due to fire and cannot be occupied for several days, posting daily direction and guidance for employees on the company website or on an emergency toll-free phone line will allow employees to call each day for specific instructions. For this to be effective, employees must know this process, must know the phone number to call or website to access and, as with all other processes, this one must be updated regularly. Extended remote work authorization can also be of great assistance to a company keeping it operating efficiently while longer term infrastructure needs are addressed. This type of remote work authorization especially works well where natural occurrences most happen such as severe snow storms, hurricanes (when evacuation is not necessary), and typhoons. In some instances, keeping employees at home working remote while there is civil, social, and political unrest can save lives by keeping employees off the roads or away from the office.
  • • Document the events, circumstances, and chronology.
  • • Prepare a lessons-learned review. Include key personnel involved in responding to and managing the emergency so as to assess what occurred and how it could have been better handled.

Crisis or Incident Management

Emergencies, contingencies, business interruptions, and other unplanned events happen. Sometimes the event itself is a crisis, such as a fire burning a building or facility. In other cases, an incident not responded to or managed properly at the scene may turn into a crisis. For example, failing to respond promptly to that small fire may allow for it to turn into a large fire.

Incident management is the process of managing events of a crisis to a condition of stability. Emergency response personnel at the scene of an incident manage the incident. If the incident escalates, becoming a crisis, it is then necessary to have a different group take charge. Ideally, a CMT, consisting of experienced personnel from multiple disciplines, would come together to manage the incidents that develop beyond the capability and decision authority of emergency response personnel. Essentially, the CMT manages the crisis to closure.

After emergency response planning, crisis management planning is the next step in the continuum of the contingency planning process. A crisis management plan should address the following activities and concerns:

  • • Crisis management teams : Managing a crisis can’t be left to emergency personnel only. When an incident escalates into a crisis, the situation becomes more complex, affecting different aspects of the business if not the entire business and requiring different skills to manage it. Employees with a broad understanding of the enterprise and its mission, goals, and objectives are much better suited to manage a crisis than those with a more narrow perspective of the business. Ideally, a CMT is like an integrated process team. Skilled professionals representing different disciplines come together on a short-term basis to work on a specific issue or tasking. In the case of CMTs, the task is to serve as a deliberative body to plan and prepare for a crisis and, when a crisis occurs, manage that crisis so as to mitigate damage or its impact. CMTs should include members with expertise in the following areas: security, human resources, site management, safety and environmental and safety services, business management and communications.
  • • Disaster operations : In the event of a crisis or disaster, it is to be expected that some personnel may not be able to immediately leave the site. For example, following an earthquake the surrounding area may not be safe for travel. Employees may have no choice but to seek shelter at the workplace for hours or days. Furthermore, emergency personnel may be needed on site for an extended period to assist in recovery operations. Being prepared to deal with this or similar scenarios is essential. Preparation will include ensuring sufficient supplies are on hand to meet the needs of a reasonable number of stranded or support personnel. It is necessary to ensure that sufficient food, water, medical supplies and emergency sanitation, and shelter facilities are available. All of these items can be acquired and placed in a long-term storage condition, providing they are regularly checked for serviceability, spoilage, and maintained within the expected shelf life. During a crisis, much uncertainty exists. Consequently, it will be necessary to communicate to employees, keeping them as up to date as possible about the situation and events and providing guidance concerning their safety and work expectations. During a crisis, employees are naturally anxious. Prompt and clear communications can help reduce this anxiety and keep employees informed. Communication may need to extend beyond the duration of a crisis into an undefined subsequent period. Using the previously referred to emergency contact and notification number, or company Web site, can be very effective. Messages can be updated regularly as needed so the information is current. Also, information broadcast on local news radio stations can reach a large population of employees. At the point in time where an incident escalates into a crisis, the CMTs become involved, managing the crisis to closure. At some point during a crisis, a deescalation of events will occur and eventually the crisis will terminate. If the impact or damage from the crisis is significant, the CMT will commence with restoration activities. These activities may be led by the CMT or passed on to a business continuity team. How this can work will be discussed further in the next section.
  • • Media relations : During a crisis, it is possible that the local, national, or even international media will become interested in events. For example, large industrial fires always draw the attention of local media. Natural disasters also draw much media attention. Even isolated events such as incidents of workplace violence can draw significant media attention. It is therefore important to have a media relations plan. The company media representative should be part of the company CMT. Since there is always a degree of unpredictability during a crisis, it is best that all CMT members understand how to deal with the media and be prepared should they be thrust into such a situation.
  • • Damage assessment : During a crisis, emergency personnel will make ongoing damage assessments, reporting status back to the CMT. These assessments are useful in determining actions to be taken next. However, these assessments are situational and due to the circumstances and nature of a crisis, do not have the luxury of thoroughness. The true extent of damage is not determined until after the crisis has terminated and a complete building, facility or site assessment can be made. Immediately following a crisis, a damage assessment for infrastructure safety and functionality must be made. Without this, a return-to-work decision cannot be made. The damage assessment is also the starting point for all restoration and resumption activities.
  • • Business continuity team : Earlier reference was made to the transition of responsibility from a CMT to a business continuity team. This is an important step in the effort to resume business. While the CMT’s focus is on managing through the crisis, the business continuity team’s focus is recovery and resumption. The role of a business continuity team will be discussed further in the next section.

Business Continuity

Earlier in this chapter, we defined business continuity as the effort to minimize business interruption or disruption caused by different contingencies. When contingencies occur, business recovery and resumption needs to happen as rapidly as possible. In essence, business must continue. Business disruptions can be costly and even catastrophic. Customers, shareholders and stakeholders demand the business remain viable. Preparation to deal with contingencies is a critical component of keeping the business going and maintaining the viability of the enterprise.

Business continuity is a two-stage process. Business recovery is the first stage. Business resumption is the second. The recovery effort is the process of getting the business up and running again but only in a minimal acceptable condition. It is not a recovery to a preevent condition, but rather a recovery to produce product, make deliveries to customers and accomplish the basic activities to keep the business going.

The business resumption stage is the effort to recover from a contingency and resume business in a preevent condition. This is not to say that all critical processes and other processes will be exactly the same as they were preevent. Resumption planning may call for new or modified processes. The intent is to resume business operations to a level similar to the preevent operations level, but not necessarily exactly the same.

A business continuity team should be established to provide oversight of the development of business resumption plans. Representation from each of the major business functions should be part of this team. Manufacturing, business management, finance, engineering, information technology, human resources, legal and others major areas, and disciplines within the business, depending upon the nature of the business, need to participate. Business resumption teams lead the effort and planning process to ensure the business is prepared to recover from contingencies and resume full business operations. In some cases it may be necessary to have a major supplier or customer participate as a member of this team. Business recovery and resumption planning have common elements. The difference is the stage of recovery and the time necessary to get there. Following are common elements of the processes for business recovery and resumption:

  • • Define critical processes : Each major business area, function and discipline should provide to the business continuity team a listing of all critical processes. The business continuity team should then review these processes for criticality and prioritize them, creating an official critical process list. Planning for recovery of the critical processes is the primary concern. Noncritical processes should be recovered and resumed after the critical processes. Resource and time limitations do not allow for resumption of all processes at the same time. Processes critical to the business must have top priority. Any processes determined not to be critical should be planned for during the later stages of the resumption effort.
  • • Critical process interdependencies : As part of the critical process assessment, particular emphasis must be placed on information systems and process interdependencies. For example, an information system in and of itself may not be determined by its process owner to be critical. However, if it supports a critical process and that critical process can’t be completely restored without the information system, then that information system itself becomes critical. Examining processes as part of a system is essential in the assessment of criticality. Interdependencies need to be identified in order to properly assess criticality to the business. Other interdependencies may exist in the form of relationships with organizations outside of the enterprise. These too must be considered. Different methodologies can be used to estimate potential impact a contingency or disaster may have on a critical process. When considering the criticality of a process, the financial effect, operational effect and any less tangible or quantifiable concerns, such as customer satisfaction, must be addressed.
  • • Resources : Critical process recovery requires an assessment of resources. Planning for process restoration means considering what resources may no longer be available and will need to be acquired or obtained to get the critical process up and functional again. What type of facilities will be needed and where? Will additional hardware, software, or equipment be required? Will people capable of managing and working the processes be available? Will there be effective means of communications? If not, what must be done to provide a minimum capability of communications until full communications can be restored? These are some of the resource issues and questions the team must grapple with.
  • • Mitigation strategies: For those processes identified as critical, preevent actions can be taken to help mitigate the impact, both operationally and financially, of interruptions to the business. When developing contingency plans for critical processes, strategies will become apparent that may be implemented prior to an event that will lessen the impact of an event if and when it occurs. A cost/benefit analysis may be required to assess the feasibility of implementing a preevent action and if the analysis shows it to be an effective action, it should be taken. For example, an old building not built to current building codes may be vulnerable to damage from an earthquake. If that building supports a critical process, it may be more cost effective to retrofit the building with the necessary structural supports and bring it into compliance with current standards than to risk severe damage in the event of an earthquake, rendering a critical process inoperative.
  • • Vital records : The ability to recover vital records is critical to the recovery and restoration process. Having a vital records protection and management program will enable the recovery of essential information during a contingency.
  • • Customers and suppliers : The importance of considering input, participation, and impact to customers and suppliers cannot be overstated. Any business continuity planning must take into consideration customer and supplier relationships. Moreover, it is important to work with your suppliers and providers of goods and services to ensure they too have contingency plans in place. In the event a supplier supports one or more of your critical processes, a disruption to their business will impact your business operations.
  • • Communications : Communicating during the recovery and resumption process can be just as important as communications during other phases of a contingency. Employees who may have been affected by the events of a crisis or disaster need to be kept abreast of developments affecting them and their employment. Customers and suppliers need to understand the progress made toward resumption of business, as it may have a serious impact on their operations. Even the external worlds of stakeholders and shareholders have an interest in these events.
  • • Lessons learned : There is an old adage that lightning doesn’t strike twice in the same place. If only that were certain and true, and applicable to the critical processes of a business. However, it is not. Therefore, much can be learned from each phase of managing and recovering from a contingency. Documenting the process of recovery and restoration will help in identifying the things learned, both good and bad, and will go a long way toward helping to deal with other crises when they occur.

Business Recovery

The previous section addressed areas and issues common to resumption and recovery aspects of the total contingency planning process. This section will discuss areas specific to recovery and the short-term process of resuming normal business operations.

Recovery plans focus on getting the business up and running—in essence, the actions that need to be taken within the first 30–60 days to restore critical processes and resume operations. These should be the most critical processes focused on infrastructure, product delivery, and keeping damage or loss to an absolute minimum. As difficult as it may be, people need to be part of this equation. For example, should a natural disaster occur, causing severe damage to a building or facility, there is a good chance that some key employees may have experienced something similar. Some may be preoccupied with their own issues of recovery and restoration and may not be able to support the company. Generally, you can expect this to be limited to a few, but it could be a critical few. Part of the critical process planning should take this into consideration and identify alternatives.

Vital records recovery is very much part of the recovery process. Being able to access off-site records storage, hard copy, and electronic, is critical to expediently moving this process forward. Many companies use outsource providers to handle, store and, retrieve their vital records. This process allows for separate storage, away from company facilities, and reduces the possibility of damage or destruction to these records. There are many capable and reliable companies throughout the world who perform vital records handling, storage, and recovery.

Business Resumption

Issues and areas of focus and concern that are common with recovery and resumption were addressed earlier. This section discusses areas specific to resumption and the long-term process of resuming normal business. Long-term priorities are addressed in business resumption plans with the intention of restoring operations to a preevent condition. Restoration to a preevent condition does not necessarily mean that all is the same or equal to the conditions prior to contingency occurrence, crisis, or disaster. During the process of recovery and restoration it may be learned or discovered that the implementation of a critical process or other processes can be accomplished differently, in the sense that improvements can make the process more efficient and more cost effective. Consequently, changes can and should be made. Furthermore, it may be learned that some processes can be eliminated altogether. Recovery and resumption in many ways are similar to a reengineering process. Process owners are usually the best source for ideas and as they participate in resumption they may develop new approaches and methods to implement and execute their process.

If the process is simple, changes can be implemented quickly with little or no additional review from management or the business continuity team. If the process is complex, affecting, or dependent on other processes, a cost-benefit analysis is warranted to accurately assess the impact of any proposed changes.

Defined, “a pandemic is a global disease outbreak.” (end-note WebMD). This has driven governments and private organizations to take mitigating steps to address the pandemic threat. Pandemic preparedness continues to receive much attention most recently the middle east respiratory syndrome (MERS), the H5N1 Avian Flu and the H1N1 Swine Flu viruses remain active in various parts of the world, with the H5N1 being active mostly in Asia [4] . Pandemics are not new, having been with us since humankind’s earliest time. They don’t occur frequently but when they do, the effects can be devastating. The last devastating pandemic occurred in 1918, when the Spanish flu affected more than 30% of the population, killing between 50 and 100 million people worldwide and disrupting the normal lives of societies around the globe [5] .

Planning for a pandemic requires an emphasis on people. The focus is on planning to keep employees, and their families, healthy and in the workplace where they can be productive. Pandemics affect people, not infrastructure, although without people operating an infrastructure is at best difficult, and may be nearly impossible. Consider running the air transportation infrastructure without people. With a 30% reduction in the number of air traffic controllers, pilots and maintenance personnel, would this system work effectively, or would it even work at all? How would your business be affected if air transportation was limited or shut down for operating for 30 days?

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has created a Pandemic Severity Index to assist local and state governments in assessing the severity of a viral outbreak. The level will help officials determine the extent of school closure, quarantines, and work-from-home assignments.

  • • Category 1 involves less than 90,000 deaths and would not require school closures.
  • • Category 2 and 3 would recommend school closures and limiting personal contact for up to one month.
  • • Category 4 or 5 would potentially involve over 1.8 million deaths, school closures of up to 3 months and limits on public events [6] .

Within this chapter, the authors have attempted to provide the reader with a framework for understanding the complexities of contingency planning and the development of contingency plans. A particular point we attempt to make lies with the importance of planning for categories of contingencies. It is a daunting task to attempt to plan for each and every possible contingency. However, contingencies can be grouped into categories and planned for accordingly. This allows for consistency in preparedness and best utilization of resources. Types of contingencies develop and change over time as societies and organizations change and progress. Prior to the 20th century, nuclear contamination was not a concern, but today countries with nuclear power generation capabilities have in place extensive contingency plans that are regularly tested. More common hazards such as severe weather and other natural events have caused enough damage to drive organizations to better preparedness. State and local governments along with private enterprises in states like California and Mississippi spend large sums of money to prepare to mitigate the effects of earthquakes and flooding.

  • 1. Emergency response
  • 2. Crisis management
  • 3. Business continuity: business recovery and business resumption

Emergency response activities involve responding to an incident, crisis, or disaster and managing that incident at the scene. Should an incident escalate to the crisis or disaster stage, a CMT should take over managing the crisis to its conclusion. If the crisis or disaster does cause damage to a company building, facility, or operation, the CMT should hand over to a business continuity team the responsibility of recovery and resumption. After a disaster, it is critical that the business recovers and resumes normal (preevent) operations as soon as possible. Customers, shareholders, and stakeholders expect nothing less. Executive management has the obligation to ensure contingency planning is properly considered and addressed within their company. The consequences of not planning for contingencies can be catastrophic, with numerous liability issues

Critical Thinking

Can a business be successful without having contingency plans?

Review Questions

  • 1. What are the key elements of any contingency plan?
  • 2. What should be the role of security in developing a contingency plan?
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Environmental services, emergency response vs. business continuity plans.

Emergency response plans are developed for coordinating university departments' response to specific types of incidents. The plans and responses are tactical in nature, in that the majority of the incidents will last a very short period of time and are brought under control rather quickly. A more serious incident may require a response from university departments which can last two or three days and may involve outside agencies such as local fire and police. The emergency response plan takes into consideration these possibilities and emergency housing and food provisions are in place to address these types of issues. Emergency response plans addresses the incident and the time period immediately after the incident in order to return critical university operations to a minimum level.

Business Continuity plans on the other hand are strategic in nature and are concerned with returning the university to full normal operations as soon as possible after an incident. This type of plan addresses the aftermath of a critical incident and ensures the university is in a position to continue to operate and sustain long term recovery. The plan must address the loss of productivity and any physical damage resulting from an incident while normal services and operations are being restored. While departments such as Facilities, Campus Safety and Student Affairs components will normally be the lead departments in a critical incident response, Academic Affairs, Finance, Facilities Management, Risk Management, Government Relations and Information Services are the university offices most often responsible for carrying out the aspects of the Business Continuity plan.

The I.S. Department and Financial Affairs Division as well as other departments and divisions have in place Business Continuity Plans that ensure the university will return to normal operations as quickly as possible, should an incident impact the university community. The President's Office will provide updates to the Loyola University Chicago community at:  http://www.luc.edu/emergency/  Parents of Loyola University Chicago students can also go to  http://www.luc.edu/parents/  for additional information.

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3 Differences Between Emergency Preparedness and Business Continuity

3 Differences Between Emergency Preparedness and Business Continuity.jpg

However, at many organizations, the two groups don’t fully understand what the other does—and sometimes employees feel that the other department is “stepping on their toes.” So, what distinguishes emergency preparedness and business continuity?

Let’s take a look at their key differences:

1. The main goal.

Although the two fields have plenty of overlapping interests, their main goals are actually quite different. Emergency management seeks to safeguard people from harm, while business continuity is focused on the continuity of key business operations. Sure, effectively managing an emergency will impact business continuity efforts, but the two are not identical.

Emergency management most often manifests as the procedures and actions that are taken immediately after a crisis occurs. The business continuity team , on the other hand, takes steps to maintain or restore the organization to its pre-crisis state.

2. The key tasks.

In the ideal corporate set-up, emergency management and business continuity personnel would be completely separate entities with their own teams. (Although in practice, these roles often get lumped together based on the misguided notion that they are one in the same.)

In reality, emergency preparedness and business continuity involve very distinct tasks:

  • Emergency preparedness often involves directing people and resources away from danger, holding emergency drills and training sessions, evacuating facilities and working with first responders to ensure all stakeholders make it through a crisis safe and sound.
  • Business continuity tasks include protecting the business’ reputation online, establishing and maintaining redundant systems and support teams, restoring IT systems and ensuring employees are able to return to their daily work tasks following an emergency.

3. Preparation and planning.

Of course, since emergency preparedness and business continuity have different goals and job roles, the way each department prepares for a crisis will be unique.

Emergency preparedness staff must assess all the possible crises that could hit their organization, such as severe weather, flooding, gun violence and, in some cases, even terrorism. The team will hold regular drills or exercises to ensure that the entire business is aware of these threats and knows what to do in case of an emergency. They should also establish a way to effectively distribute their emergency response plans , contact lists and other key documents to employees and other stakeholders.

Meanwhile, the business continuity team develops plans to avoid potential business-disrupting problems. Typically, business continuity plans aren’t distributed to the entire company, but rather to key stakeholders who would be involved in business continuity efforts. This might include the executive team, the IT department, PR and communications, and other related groups.

Of course, despite the differences between emergency management and business continuity, in the end these two distinct departments are both working toward the same objective: to help ensure the success of the business. Their specific, day-to-day focus may be very different, but by cooperating together, the two teams will be much better positioned to succeed.

How are emergency management and business continuity handled in your organization? Are they viewed as two distinct fields, or are they sometimes lumped together into one?

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Respiratory Infectious Diseases / COVID-19 – Tips

Infectious diseases - main content, emergency response and business continuity planning for respiratory infectious diseases (rids) outbreaks, on this page, introduction, emergency response plan, key elements of an emergency response plan, business continuity plan, key elements of a business continuity plan, change management.

All employers in Canada must take reasonable precautions to make the workplace safe. Employers can help keep workers from getting hurt or sick by having a plan to deal with emergencies, and also by having a business continuity plan to keep the workplace functioning during and after an emergency.

This guidance document can help workplaces build or update both their emergency response and business continuity plans to prepare for respiratory infectious disease outbreaks.

An emergency response plan includes procedures for handling sudden or unexpected situations that can result in harm to people. Refer to Emergency Planning for guidance on how to create an emergency response plan. The key elements of an emergency response plan are shown below and provide specific tips on creating a plan for respiratory infectious diseases.

Identify the hazards

The emergency response plan starts with an understanding of workplace hazards, possible emergencies, and potential consequences:

  • Complete a risk assessment to identify hazards (e.g., a virus or bacteria that can cause a respiratory infectious disease)
  • Identify all possible emergencies (e.g., all workers in a department become sick with a respiratory infectious disease at the same time)
  • Identify the potential consequences (e.g., spread of a respiratory infectious disease among workers, sick workers needing medical care, lost productivity due to absences)

Understand the workplace

Characteristics of the workplace can affect how easily a respiratory infectious disease can spread and impact the normal work functions. Some factors to consider include:

  • Size of the workforce
  • Physical layout of the workplace (e.g., individuals working very closely together)
  • Capabilities in an emergency, including trained personnel and response equipment
  • How quickly outside aid can be received
  • The capacity of the local public health authority and primary care hospitals

Understand the actions to take

Document required actions, written procedures, and available resources for employees.

  • Prepare written emergency response procedures that explain how to respond to different events
  • Detail how to respond to someone being sick with a respiratory infectious disease in the workplace
  • Include how to contact emergency response personnel (names of people and their emergency response roles, work locations, cell phone numbers, and alternate contact details)
  • Include a list of external resources (local public health authority, occupational health and safety department , workers’ compensation board , nearest hospital, etc.)
  • Availability of personal protective equipment (PPE)
  • Transportation methods if a sick individual requires hospitalization
  • Safe disposal of contaminated items (e.g., used PPE and cleaning materials)
  • Notification procedures for relevant authorities, if required
  • Cleaning and disinfection of high-touch surfaces and objects
  • Where sick individuals can isolate on workplace premises (if isolation is recommended by the government authorities)
  • Provide communication and training about the plan, including written instructions for each person about their specific responsibilities
  • Inform external stakeholders of any changes that could impact them
  • When updating the emergency procedures to include control measures for respiratory infectious diseases, make sure that the fire code and other applicable legislation are still followed, and no new hazards are created
  • Test the plan to make sure it will work. Run drills and exercises, review the results, and make improvements as needed
  • Review at least annually or when hazards, control measures, or regulations change

Emergency response personnel, equipment, and supplies

An emergency response plan should document the resources necessary to appropriately respond to a respiratory infectious disease outbreak in the workplace. A workplace committee, comprised of health and safety experts, members of the health and safety committee, and subject matter experts, can create this custom plan.

Roles and responsibilities within the emergency response plan should be clearly defined, documented, and communicated. Some important roles include:

  • Incident commander: overall in charge of responding to an outbreak. Gives instructions to other internal emergency responders, facilitates communication, and authorizes use of emergency resources
  • First aider: can assess sick individuals, provide respirators or masks, and arrange for an ambulance, if required

There can be additional responsibilities that are not assigned to a specific role, such as improving indoor ventilation (e.g., by opening windows). These can be assigned by the incident commander.

Equipment and supplies identified in the emergency response plan should be kept in stock and readily accessible. These may include:

  • Respirators or medical masks
  • Impervious gloves (e.g., nitrile gloves)
  • Emergency contact list

Drills and exercises

Practising the response to a respiratory infectious disease outbreak in the workplace helps prepare workers should a real incident occur. Drills and exercises help test the emergency response plan, build workers’ competence for an efficient response, and identify areas for improvement. It is important that all workers know how to respond to a sick individual in the workplace, but this scenario may not typically require a drill. Consider a drill or exercise scenario where a worker begins experiencing severe symptoms of a respiratory infectious disease (e.g., difficulty breathing) and requires emergency care. Other scenarios relevant to your workplace that form part of the emergency response plan can be added to a schedule.

Considerations for drills and exercises:

  • Follow the guidance from the applicable emergency response procedure when conducting drills and exercises
  • Have a schedule and plan ahead
  • Record the occurrence and make notes of important details such as workers being potentially exposed to a respiratory infectious disease or not knowing what to do
  • Make improvements as necessary

A business continuity plan describes how the organization will continue to function during and after an emergency, disaster, or similar event (such as a respiratory infectious disease outbreak). It involves planning how services, products, and operations can continue, and the recovery of key business and systems.

While each organization is unique, the following should be considered during a respiratory infectious disease outbreak:

  • Knowing which key factors are essential for the workplace to continue functioning
  • How to implement and follow the control measures needed to help prevent the spread of the disease, while supporting existing business activities
  • How your core business activities can be maintained for several weeks or months with limited staff or other key resources
  • How to maintain staffing levels and productivity. Plan on people being unable to report to work for various reasons (e.g., sickness, accommodation, child or elder care, etc.)
  • Where to find reliable sources of public health and occupational health information
  • Coordination and communication with stakeholders

Refer to Flu and Infectious Disease Outbreaks Business Continuity Plan for guidance on how to create a business continuity plan for respiratory infectious diseases. The sections below provide additional tips in creating a plan.

Understand the business

The level of detail needed for a business continuity plan depends on the type, size, and complexity of the workplace. Identify the key factors needed to continue functioning:

  • Critical processes, operations, and functions
  • Internal and external dependencies

Some factors to consider include:

  • Cross-trained workers (i.e., workers who can temporarily take on non-routine responsibilities if their colleagues are absent)
  • Availability of essential equipment (e.g., laptop computers for remote work)
  • External supply of materials, equipment, and services (e.g., primary and secondary suppliers of materials needed to produce a product for customers)
  • Internal supplies (e.g., stockpile of essential PPE)
  • Established communication methods and contacts (e.g., a contact list with phone numbers and email addresses, an organizational chart that clearly identifies chain of command)
  • Document the business continuity plan
  • Ensure the plan has accounts for all shortcomings identified (see " Understand the business " above) and that all recommendations are in place
  • Aim for quick resumption of interrupted operations
  • Establish communication systems with stakeholders and keep them informed
  • Make sure all workers know about the plan and their responsibilities within the plan
  • Cross-train workers to act as reinforcements (back-ups) for essential (or all) functions
  • Test the plan to make sure it will work (e.g., allow back-up personnel to run operations)
  • Plan for recovery so that operations can eventually return to normal
  • Review at least annually or when business needs, hazards, or regulations change, and involve senior management in these reviews

Business continuity resources

A business continuity plan should document the resources necessary to maintain business operations when a respiratory infectious disease disrupts normal work. A committee can create a customized plan that clearly defines roles, responsibilities, and actions to be taken to safely maintain business operations.

Some considerations for business continuity resources include:

  • Personnel, finances, information, equipment
  • Written mutual aid agreements with other organizations, where appropriate
  • Facilities for emergency operations centres, as necessary

Drills and exercises test the business continuity plan, help ensure that operations can continue even as a respiratory infectious disease disrupts normal operations, and identify areas for improvement. Consider a drill or exercise scenario where a significant percentage of the workforce becomes sick and is unable to work. Other scenarios relevant to your workplace that form part of the business continuity plan can be added to a schedule.

Emergency response and business continuity plans attempt to prepare for and respond to events that could affect workers and business operations. Emergency events can sometimes present unique, unforeseen challenges. All changes to established plans must undergo a change management process to ensure that they produce the best results and do not create new hazards. Have a change management process that assesses the risk of all changes and monitors the results for future improvements.

  • Business Continuity Plan - Pandemic – CCOHS
  • Pandemic Planning e-course – CCOHS
  • Emergency Response Planning Guide – CCOHS
  • Infection Prevention and Control for Respiratory Infectious Diseases (RIDs) – CCOHS

Emergency Management

Business continuity planning.

Yale University’s mission is to create, preserve and disseminate knowledge. Each college, division, and major administrative unit within the University exists in support of this mission. Each area performs functions that are essential to the ongoing success of the University.

Business Continuity Planning is the process of developing prior arrangements and procedures that enable Yale to respond to a disaster or major disruption of operations in such a manner that critical and essential business functions can continue with minimum disruption or down time.

A Business Continuity Plan (BCP) is a collection of resources, actions, procedures, and information that is developed, tested, and held in readiness for use in the event of a disaster or major disruption of operations. A BCP helps prepare Yale departments and organizations to maintain essential functions after a disaster or disruption. Having a business continuity plan will minimize the impact of a disaster and help you return to normal operations as quickly as possible.

Developing a Business Continuity Plan

The following video, along with the Quick Start Guide, explains the basic concepts of a business continuity plan and the steps to take to develop a plan for your department or unit.

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Emergency Response and Business Continuity

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Each campus has an overarching campus Emergency Response Plan and a Business Continuity Plan; however, similar plans that are specific to each performing arts venue are necessary to protect the students, performers, crew members, and patrons.

In addition to developing site specific plans, training must be conducted for performers, crew, and front-of-house personnel. Assistance in developing the plans and conducting the training can be provided by EH&S, Risk Management, Fire, Police, and Campus Emergency Management personnel.

Emergency Response and Business Continuity Plans

The overall department and individual emergency response plans will start with the campus Emergency Response Plan. Additional information on emergency response planning can be found at your local campus Emergency Services web site and from your Campus Emergency Manager. These plans will define the procedures for responding to a variety of emergency situations. The Business Continuity Plan will describe the steps to be taken to get the venue up and running again as quickly as possible. Review the campus Emergency Response and Business Continuity Plans to identify department duties and responsibilities. Then develop department and venue-specific emergency response procedures and business continuity procedures. Ensure incident investigation procedures are included in each plan.

Identify and Assign Duties

Assign duties based on level of responsibility and skill set. Ensure those placed in charge have the authority to carry out their assigned duties. Will what is happening in the building and who is present change who is in charge? Consider building conditions and staff during classes, production preparations, rehearsals, and performances. Ensure emergency response duties are specified in job duty descriptions. Ensure those persons assigned emergency response duties receive initial and on-going training in regard to their duties and the emergency procedures. Develop site specific plans for each venue that are compliant with and compatible with the campus’s overarching Emergency Response Plan. Each plan should address evacuation procedures, shelter-in-place procedures, and the response duties of site personnel. Contact your Campus Emergency Management Unit for assistance.

Emergencies Requiring Evacuation 

Some aspects of evacuation planning will apply to all venues, such as:

  • Evacuation Duties – Front-of-house personnel are responsible for assisting patrons in safely evacuating the venue. Stage management personnel are responsible for assisting performers and crew in safely evacuating the venue. Instructors are responsible for evacuating students.
  • Evacuation Announcement Procedures – Define how the patrons, performers, and crew will be informed of the need to evacuate, and specify who is responsible for making the announcement when an announcement is necessary.

Other aspects of evacuation planning will be specific to the venue, such as:

  • The primary and secondary5 exit routes from all areas of the venue.
  • The location of hazardous materials storage areas and that they should evacuate away from these areas. Remember, never store hazardous materials in or near an exit or exit pathway.
  • The accessible evacuation routes and the areas of refuge where evacuees unable to exit can shelter in place until assistance can arrive.
  • Assembly Areas and Sites – Ensure site personnel and those assisting patrons to evacuate know where to assemble after leaving the building. Ensure the location for each assembly area or site is out of the anticipated path of emergency responders and away from the venue or other structures or conditions that may present a hazard as a result of the event that generated the need to evacuate. As an example, another building would not be an acceptable assembly site in cases of earthquake.
  • Visible Evacuation Maps – Ensure evacuation maps are posted and kept visible at all times.

Shelter-in-Place Emergencies

Some emergency situations may require performers, crew, and patrons to shelter in place, such as severe weather events, power outages, or active shooter on campus situations. Determine how the facilities will be secured and where personnel and patrons will be gathered to shelter them from hazards, such as shattering glass. Ensure items such as water and restroom facilities can be safely accessed within or from the sheltering place.

Fire Emergencies

In case of fire, 

  • Immediately notify campus safety by dialing 9-1-1. Report the exact location of the fire.
  • Activate the fire alarm.
  • Evacuate the building. Only Campus Fire Department personnel are trained, equipped, and required to fight fires.
  • Secondary evacuation routes are necessary in case the emergency event obstructs access to the primary exit.
  • An assembly area is an area located outside of the building. An assembly site is a nearby building that is safe to use as a shelter from the weather and other elements. Release to drop the fire curtain.
  • Close doors after each area/room is evacuated. 
  • Go immediately to the assigned assembly area.
  • Wait in the assembly area until further directions are given.
  • Never re-enter the building until permitted to do so by Fire Department personnel.
  • After each fire incident is controlled, investigate the incident to determine the causes of the incident and the results of the response actions, and take corrective action to prevent a recurrence of the incident and improve incident responses.

An attempt may be made to extinguish a fire ONLY if:

  • You have been trained in the proper use of a fire extinguisher.
  • It is a small incipient fire involving simple combustibles, such as wood or paper. Never attempt to extinguish hazardous materials, electronics, or equipment.
  • The fire is extinguished within 10 seconds; after that you must evacuate the building.

Chemical Spill Emergencies

All personnel who work with hazardous chemicals or work in an area where hazardous chemicals are used or stored need to be informed of what steps to take in case of a chemical spill. Not all chemical spills require a call-out of the hazmat team. Contact your campus EH&S personnel to determine the specific steps to take for chemical spills on your campus. Work with campus EH&S personnel to determine if performing arts personnel can be trained and authorized to clean up some small spills. Ensure spill containment materials are properly maintained within the shops and areas where hazardous chemicals are used and/or stored.

Chemical Exposure Emergencies

Chemical exposure may occur through contact with skin or eyes, inhalation, or ingestion. Each type of exposure requires a different response. After the exposure incident is controlled, investigate the exposure incident to determine the causes of the incident and the results of the response, and take corrective action to prevent a recurrence.

Contact with Eyes

  • Immediately flush the eyes using the emergency eyewash station.
  • Never wait to remove contact lenses.
  • Keep your eyes in contact with the running water for at least 15 minutes.
  • Seek immediate medical attention.
  • Provide a copy of the chemical’s Safety Data Sheet (SDS) to medical personnel.

Contact with Skin

  • Immediately flush your skin in running water.
  • Remove jewelry and contaminated clothing while you are rinsing.
  • Seek medical attention for chemical burns.
  • Provide a copy of the chemical’s SDS to medical personnel.
  • Immediately leave the room and seek fresh air.
  • Immediately remove anyone overcome by vapors to fresh air.
  • Leave the door open as you exit to ventilate the room.
  • Provide first aid to persons overcome and call 9-1-1 for medical assistance if the person has lost consciousness.
  • Seek medical attention if your symptoms do not subside.
  • Reduce the risk of ingestion by refraining from eating, drinking, preparing, or serving food or beverages in areas where chemicals are used or stored.
  • Seek medical attention for ingestion incidents.

Power Outage Emergencies

Trip and fall incidents increase in a power outage due to people trying to move around in the dark. In facilities equipped with backup generators, the lights are back on within minutes. For those facilities that are not equipped with a backup generator or if the generator does not function properly:

  • Stay put if there is no imminent danger.
  • Wait for direction from front-of-house or stage management personnel.
  • Call Facilities Services to report the outage.
  • Proceed with care to an area lit with emergency lighting if the emergency generator does not activate after five minutes.
  • Use your cell phone as a light source if you do not have access to a flashlight.
  • Turn off all computer, equipment, appliances, and lights to reduce the risk of damage from a power surge when the power is restored.

Medical Emergencies

  • Allow the injured person to clean, bandage, and/or apply pressure to wounds if he or she is able.
  • Wear latex gloves.
  • Wear safety a CPR mask when administering CPR.
  • Wash your hands with soap and water after removing the gloves.
  • Head injuries
  • Unconsciousness
  • Heart attack or symptoms of heart attack
  • Deep wounds
  • Not breathing
  • Broken bones
  • Use the automated external defibrillator (AED) (if one is available) in accordance with the instructions and any training you have received.
  • Notify the person in charge immediately for injuries and illnesses that are not minor. Post personnel along the route from the building entry to the injured person to assist the prompt arrival of emergency medical personnel.
  • Begin the gathering of information for the investigation as soon as the injured or ill person’s medical needs are met.
  • Report the incident to the EH&S office and Risk Management Department.

Conduct documented emergency response training for all new crew members, performers (including visiting performers), students, and front-of-house personnel, including volunteers and temporary employees. Ensure all personnel understand their responsibilities and duties in each type of anticipated emergency. Provide front-of- house and backstage personnel with first aid, CPR, and AED training in addition to the other emergency response duties. Conduct training at least annually for all permanent personnel. Conduct training whenever the procedures change.

Practice Drills

Conduct documented emergency drills. These can be conducted in various scales from table top to campus-wide events. Invite students to be the audience and practice evacuations during dress rehearsals. Track and record the time it takes to evacuate the building or respond to an emergency. Conduct reviews of drills to identify what improvements are needed.

Remember there are campus resources available to assist you. Contact EH&S, Risk Management, Fire, Police, Campus Emergency Management and Business Continuity Planners with your questions and requests for guidance.

Everyday Preparation

Being prepared to respond to emergency situations takes preparation as stated in the prior sections, but it also takes vigilance each day to ensure basic fire and life safety is maintained. As you go about your everyday activities and especially during times of chaotic activity:

  • Ensure fire exits, aisles, and exit pathways are clear and accessible.
  • Ensure exit doors are clear of obstructions on both sides of the door.
  • Report to the Physical Plant Department any exit signs or emergency lights that are not functioning.
  • Ensure fire extinguishers are properly hung (extinguishers greater than 40 pounds in weight may be mounted on a cart), the seal is intact, and the indicator gauges are in the green zone. Immediately report any fire extinguishers that do not meet these criteria to the Physical Plant Department.
  • Ensure all fire-fighting equipment is clear of obstructions and accessible; this equipment includes fire extinguishers, fire hose stations, fire pull stations, fire suppression sprinkler heads, and fire sprinkler risers.
  • Ensure flammable and combustible materials are properly stored and protected from ignition sources.
  • Ensure compressed gases are secured to prevent them from falling or being knocked over.
  • Ensure electrical panels are clear of obstructions and accessible.
  • Ensure the doors of electrical panels are closed.
  • Ensure extension cords are not used in place of permanent wiring
  • Take immediate action to correct any non-compliant conditions.

UC Performing Arts Safety Links

  • Introduction
  • Set Construction
  • Audio & Video
  • Special Effects
  • Theatrical Makeup
  • Front of House
  • Emergency Response
  • Theater Maintenance
  • Codes of Safe Practice and Training
  • UC Performing Arts Checklists
  • Safety in the Performing Arts Manual (pdf)

IMAGES

  1. Where Does a Business Continuity Plan Fit with Emergencies

    business continuity plan emergency response

  2. Stop Confusing Emergency Response with Business Continuity

    business continuity plan emergency response

  3. Why a Business Continuity Plan is Essential to Disaster Recovery

    business continuity plan emergency response

  4. PPT

    business continuity plan emergency response

  5. Business Continuity Plan Template

    business continuity plan emergency response

  6. Building a Business Continuity Plan (BCP)

    business continuity plan emergency response

VIDEO

  1. Emergency Services Funding

  2. BUSINESS CONTINUITY PLAN

  3. EMERGENCY PLAN TOPICS AND IMPORTANCE

  4. Emergency plans fine

COMMENTS

  1. Business Continuity Planning

    Business Continuity Training Part 3: Planning Process Step 1 The first of six steps addressed in this Business Continuity Training, which detail the process of building a business continuity plan. This step addresses how organizations should "prepare" to create a business continuity plan. View on YouTube

  2. PDF Emergency Response And Business Continuity Plan

    The Pace University Emergency Response and Business Continuity Plan is a university-wide plan to be implemented at the campus level.

  3. PDF Guidance on Business Continuity Planning and Emergency Response

    Guidance on Business Continuity Planning and Emergency Response GUIDANCE TO BUSINESS CONTINUITY PLANNING & EMERGENCY RESPONSE Across the globe, many organizations are implementing "work from for their staff and are actively working to mitigate the impact on operations emergency situation can cause.

  4. Stop Confusing Emergency Response with Business Continuity

    In a nutshell, Emergency Response focuses on the safety and protection of life, assets, and the environment. On the other hand, Business Continuity focuses on continuing the critical operations of the business until it can return back to normal. Many organizations use an Incident Flow Chart, similar to the one shown in Figure 1 below, to help ...

  5. Prepare for emergencies

    Step 1: Assess your risk Every business has unique vulnerabilities and weaknesses. Knowing which disasters are most likely to affect your business can help you to return to operations faster. A back-to-business self-assessment can help you to assess your risks for common hazards such as hurricanes, wildfires, flooding, or even cyberattacks.

  6. What Is Business Continuity? How to Plan for an Emergency

    June 7, 2022 An ounce of preparation is worth a pound of cure. No matter the size of your organization, the risk of business disruption is real. Many hazards can disrupt critical business functions, including physical or cyberattacks, natural disasters, pandemics, and supply chain impacts.

  7. PDF Yale University Business Continuity Planning Quick Start Guide

    An emergency response plan tells you what to do immediately before or during an emergency, like what to do if you see a fire, or what to do during a blizzard. A business continuity plan helps you minimize the impact on our business regardless of the incident and helps you return to normal operations as soon as possible.

  8. What is a Business Continuity Plan (BCP)?

    British Standards Institution BS 25999 standard for business continuity. Emergency management and disaster recovery plans. An emergency management plan is a document that helps to lessen the damage of a hazardous event. Proper business continuity planning includes emergency management as an important component.

  9. Business Continuity Plan: Example & How to Write

    1. BCP Team In the midst of a disaster or emergency, having a team or point person to go to will be essential. The BCP team will be responsible for planning and testing business continuity strategies. Background of each member in the BCP team can vary from organization managers or supervisors to specialists. 2. Business Impact Analysis

  10. Emergency Plans

    The process for creating a business's preparedness plans should encompass as much as possible of what a business might need during an emergency. This includes communications planning, IT support and recovery, and continuity plans.

  11. Emergency Response Plan

    10 Steps for Developing the Emergency Response Plan. Review performance objectives for the program. Review hazard or threat scenarios identified during the risk assessment. Assess the availability and capabilities of resources for incident stabilization including people, systems and equipment available within your business and from external sources.

  12. Understanding emergency, contingency and business continuity plans

    The Civil Contingencies Act 2004 replaced the outdated legislation and for the first time, legislation put a mandatory requirement on emergency responders to take account of business continuity to ensure that the emergency services could keep functioning when faced with unwanted events such as flooding of their premises.

  13. Developing an emergency communications plan: A template for business

    External emergency communications that should be part of a business continuity and resilience plan include how to notify family members of an injury or death, discuss the disaster with the media and provide status information to key clients and stakeholders.

  14. Contingency Planning Emergency Response and Safety

    Contingency Planning. The Association of Contingency Planners (ACP), which is an association dedicated to the evolution of business continuity, describes contingency planning in the following way: "Business continuity planning integrates knowledge from related disciplines such as information technology, emergency response, and crisis communications to create a strategy that ensures a ...

  15. Build an Emergency Response Team for Your Business

    However, if your business doesn't already have an emergency response plan, it is not alone. The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) found that 20% of companies spend no time maintaining business continuity plans, and they estimate that 40% to 60% of small businesses never reopen their doors following a disaster. FEMA found that 20% ...

  16. PDF Small Business Continuity Planning Integrated with Fire ...

    disaster whether man-made, natural or technological and do not create a business continuity plan (Blackwell, 2010). More than 60% of U.S. small businesses do not have formal emergency-response plan and do not back-up their data off-site. Therefore, these businesses are vulnerable to catastrophic loss (Drew, 2012, para. 1).

  17. PDF Crisis management and business continuity guide

    6 8 Introduction KPMG can support your organization: Crisis Management Program KPMG designs and delivers a series of independent cyber security simulations to test an organization's cyber incident response, business and board crisis management procedures when faced with a cyber focused disruption scenario. Business Continuity

  18. Emergency Response vs. Business Continuity Plans

    Emergency response plans addresses the incident and the time period immediately after the incident in order to return critical university operations to a minimum level. Business Continuity plans on the other hand are strategic in nature and are concerned with returning the university to full normal operations as soon as possible after an incident.

  19. 3 Differences Between Emergency Preparedness and Business Continuity

    1. The main goal. Although the two fields have plenty of overlapping interests, their main goals are actually quite different. Emergency management seeks to safeguard people from harm, while business continuity is focused on the continuity of key business operations.

  20. Emergency Response and Business Continuity Planning for Respiratory

    Business continuity plan. A business continuity plan describes how the organization will continue to function during and after an emergency, disaster, or similar event (such as a respiratory infectious disease outbreak). It involves planning how services, products, and operations can continue, and the recovery of key business and systems.

  21. Business Continuity Planning

    A Business Continuity Plan (BCP) is a collection of resources, actions, procedures, and information that is developed, tested, and held in readiness for use in the event of a disaster or major disruption of operations. A BCP helps prepare Yale departments and organizations to maintain essential functions after a disaster or disruption.

  22. Develop an emergency management plan

    The continuity plan - helps you prepare your business for an emergency by identifying risks to critical areas and how to best protect them. The emergency action plan - helps you and your staff know what to do during an emergency situation. The recovery plan - guides your business's recovery after an emergency.

  23. Emergency Response and Business Continuity

    Emergency Response and Business Continuity Each campus has an overarching campus Emergency Response Plan and a Business Continuity Plan; however, similar plans that are specific to each performing arts venue are necessary to protect the students, performers, crew members, and patrons.