disaster management business plan

What’s Disaster Management Plan? Preparation and Implementation Process

In today’s increasingly unpredictable world, the significance of having a robust Disaster Management Plan (DMP) cannot be overstated. This blog delves into the essence of a DMP, outlining its critical role in safeguarding communities and organizations against the devastating impacts of natural and man-made disasters.

We’ll guide you through the meticulous process of preparing and implementing a DMP, from conducting thorough risk assessments to engaging in recovery efforts post-disaster. Our aim is to equip you with the knowledge and tools necessary to develop a comprehensive plan that not only mitigates risks but also enhances resilience, ensuring a swift and effective response in times of crisis.

What’s Disaster Management Plan?

A Disaster Management Plan (DMP) is a strategic document that outlines the procedures, strategies, and actions to manage and mitigate the impacts of disasters, whether natural or man-made. The primary goal of a DMP is to minimize the damage and disruption caused by disasters and to ensure a quick, effective, and coordinated response to emergency situations. The plan typically covers various phases of disaster management, including:

• Prevention : Measures taken to prevent the occurrence of a disaster or to reduce its impact.
• Preparedness : Activities and preparations made in advance to ensure an effective response to the impact of disasters, including emergency response plans, stockpiling supplies, and training responders.
• Response : Actions taken in the immediate aftermath of a disaster to save lives, protect property, and meet basic human needs.
• Recovery : Steps to return the community to normal or near-normal conditions, including the restoration of basic services and the repair of physical, social, and economic damages.

Effective disaster management plans are comprehensive and considerate of the specific vulnerabilities, capacities, and needs of the community or organization they are designed to protect. They involve the collaboration of various stakeholders, including government agencies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), community groups, and the private sector, to ensure a coordinated and efficient approach to disaster management.

Preparation and Implementation Process Of Disaster Management Plan

Preparing and implementing a Disaster Management Plan (DMP) involves a series of strategic steps to ensure that an organization or community is ready to respond effectively to disasters. Here’s a general guide on how to prepare and implement a DMP:

1. Risk Assessment

• Identify Hazards : Determine what types of natural or man-made disasters could potentially impact the area or organization. This could include floods, earthquakes, fires, terrorist attacks, pandemics, etc.
• Analyze Vulnerabilities : Assess the susceptibility of the community or organization to these hazards. Consider factors like location, population density, infrastructure, and resources.
• Estimate Risks : Evaluate the potential impact of identified hazards, taking into account the likelihood of occurrence and the severity of their consequences.

2. Planning

• Set Objectives : Define clear, achievable goals for the disaster management plan, such as minimizing loss of life, protecting property, and ensuring rapid recovery.
• Develop Strategies : Outline specific strategies for disaster prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery. This should include roles and responsibilities, communication plans, and resource allocation.
• Create Plans : Develop detailed action plans for each phase of disaster management. This includes evacuation plans , emergency response procedures, and recovery plans.

3. Resources and Logistics

• Identify Resources : List all available resources, including personnel, equipment, facilities, and financial resources, that can be mobilized in the event of a disaster.
• Establish Partnerships : Collaborate with local authorities, NGOs, community organizations, and the private sector to ensure a coordinated response.
• Logistics Planning : Plan for the logistics of delivering supplies, equipment, and services before, during, and after a disaster.

4. Training and Exercises

• Training Programs : Develop and conduct training programs for emergency responders, staff, and volunteers on their roles and responsibilities within the DMP.
• Conduct Drills and Simulations : Regularly organize drills and simulation exercises to practice emergency response procedures and identify any weaknesses in the plan.

5. Implementation and Monitoring

• Implement the Plan : Put the disaster management plan into action, ensuring that all stakeholders are aware of their roles and responsibilities.
• Continuous Monitoring : Regularly monitor hazards and review the effectiveness of the disaster management plan, making adjustments as necessary.

6. Review and Update

• Evaluate Performance : After drills, simulations, or actual disaster events, evaluate the performance of the disaster response and identify areas for improvement.
• Revise the Plan : Regularly update the disaster management plan to reflect new risks, lessons learned, and changes in resources or capabilities.

7. Communication

• Internal Communication : Ensure effective communication channels within the organization or community for the dissemination of information and coordination of response efforts.
• Public Information : Develop a plan for communicating with the public before, during, and after a disaster, including emergency alerts, updates, and recovery information.

Implementing a Disaster Management Plan is an ongoing process that requires commitment, coordination, and cooperation among all stakeholders involved. It’s crucial to foster a culture of preparedness and resilience to enhance the effectiveness of disaster response and recovery efforts.

In conclusion, the development and execution of a Disaster Management Plan is a critical endeavor that demands meticulous planning, steadfast commitment, and continuous improvement. By understanding the risks, preparing comprehensively, and implementing effectively, communities and organizations can significantly mitigate the impacts of disasters. This process not only safeguards lives and assets but also enhances resilience, ensuring a quicker recovery and a return to normalcy.

Remember, the strength of a Disaster Management Plan lies in its ability to adapt and evolve, incorporating lessons learned from past incidents to better prepare for future challenges. Through collaboration, education, and proactive measures, we can build a safer and more prepared society.

Saad Iftikhar

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Natural Disaster Risk Management Plan for Businesses

Business risk management after natural disaster: strategies and resources for business leaders.

A natural disaster can have devastating effects on your business operations, your employees, and the local community at large. As such, it is prudent for any business leader to have plans in place to manage their affairs and perhaps even serve their community in the event of such a crisis. What natural disasters you should prepare for will depend on factors such as the geographical area you are located in and what type of operations your business runs. However, at the bare minimum, you should have a generalized plan of action to address your business interests in the event of a large-scale emergency.

• A Business’s Role in the Community Following a Natural Disaster

Businesses play many important roles in their communities, circulating money and resources into the local economy, affecting local culture, and influencing the quality of life of their employees. Depending on the type of business, they may even play many more roles in their community. For example, a library can serve as an educational resource center as well as an option for shelter.

Businesses can also choose to go above and beyond their natural role in the community, and choosing to do so can be especially valuable in times of crisis. It is not only a matter of moral obligation; it is also often a smart business move. Businesses that are seen to generously help their communities in times of need may be viewed more positively by the community, while those that choose not to may take some blows to their reputation. Furthermore, damage to the community often results in damage to businesses within the community, due to factors such as economic hardship of residents.

How your business can help the community will depend on the circumstances. If you are a food supplier, it could be helpful to donate food. If you employ affected locals, you could donate to help them recover. If you have a physical location, you could offer your offices as shelter. It is important, however, that your efforts genuinely help the community, and are not simply token gestures, as a half-hearted effort will be hardly more beneficial than no effort at all.

Planning Stages

Your strategy for dealing with a natural disaster will depend on your unique business operations, assets, and needs. However, there are some core stages that every business should address when developing a natural disaster preparedness plan.

• Business Impact Analysis (BIA)

Before you begin building the plan itself, you will first need to conduct a business impact analysis. A BIA seeks to anticipate the effects of various scenarios on a business, such as loss of sales or increased expenses in the event of a natural disaster. This will give you the foundational data you need to build your natural disaster preparedness plan. There are many ways to conduct a business impact analysis, but a good place to start is a simple BIA questionnaire . A BIA will of course be a greater challenge for larger businesses with more complex operations, as they will need to consider more factors and consult a wider range of insiders for necessary information.

• Contingency Plans

A contingency plan is a plan for what to do for the duration of an unusual event, such as a natural disaster. This plan will involve steps that will be taken if the event comes to pass, as well as allocate resources for that possibility. Examples of contingency plans include:

• Planning of evacuation routes;
• Installation of emergency equipment;
• Investment in backup power sources;
• Planning for adjusted operations in the event of loss of workforce;
• Insurance that covers potential loss of or damage to inventory or property;
• Developing remote work options in case the physical location is compromised.
• Continuity Plans

A continuity plan is a plan that accounts for actions that need to be taken for a business to resume operations as efficiently as possible following an unusual event. Examples of continuity plan measures include:

• Allocating additional funds for things like emergency PTO, repairs, and stock replenishment;
• Building relationships with a variety of other businesses and suppliers to speed the recovery of supply and business operations;
• Developing remote work options in case the physical location remains compromised;
• Preparing alternate transportation for goods.
• Further Reading

Resources that can further benefit business leaders outlining emergency preparedness plans include:

• Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA): This is a comprehensive continuity planning guide published by FEMA.
• Ready.gov : This is a worksheet published by the U.S. government to help businesses plan continuity resources.
• AP News : This is an overview of natural disaster insurance options that your business may benefit from considering.
• GitLab : This page provides advice for adjusting business operations to remote channels as an emergency response option.

IT Disaster Recovery Plan

An IT disaster recovery plan will anticipate the potential for loss or breach of information during a disaster, and employ strategies to prevent and respond to these possibilities. Potential measures that may be included as part of an IT disaster recovery plan include:

• Regularly updating software;
• Creating backups for data;
• Employing a third-party storage system;
• Employing a third-party security system;
• Conducting regular cybersecurity audits.

Incident management is the process by which an IT team strives to return the functions of their systems to normal as quickly as possible. This can be achieved via the following measures:

• Anticipation of service losses;
• Creation of channels for user reporting;
• Solution analysis;
• Employment of automatic incident notifications;
• Creation of an escalation strategy;
• Halting regular operations until full confidence in IT systems has been restored.
• Crisis Communications Plan

In the event of a natural disaster, a business should ideally be prepared to provide information and updates to interested parties such as consumers, stakeholders, employees, community members, and government officials. This information could include anything from a timeline for the expected return of access to services to an inventory of lost products. Some measures that may be included in a crisis communications plan include:

• Identifying your crisis communications team;
• Investing in spokesman training for your crisis communications team;
• Setting up a notifications system;
• Preparing holding statements;
• Offering easy access to your notifications system and contact information.
• Employee Assistance and Support

In the event of a natural disaster, your employees could be negatively impacted in a wide variety of ways, including loss of work hours, loss of personal property, and emotional trauma. By taking care of your employees during this crisis, you will potentially allow them to better do their jobs in the long run, earn loyalty from your employees, and demonstrate ethical business operations to the public. Options for supporting your employees during a natural disaster include:

• Providing transportation;
• Providing direct financial assistance;
• Offering remote work options;
• Expanding flexibility for work hours;
• Offering additional PTO;
• Expanding access to medical care;
• Expanding access to counseling;
• Offering care packages;
• Offering your premises as an avenue for sheltering in place.
• Hazard Mitigation

Hazard mitigation refers to steps taken to eliminate hazards or reduce the damage caused by them, especially in a specific scenario such as a natural disaster. Hazard mitigation measures for a business may include steps such as:

• Structural improvements;
• Adjustments based on professional hazard audits;
• Accessibility updates;
• Employee training for emergency response;
• On-premises adjustments based on government recommendations for natural disaster hazard prevention.
• Risk Prioritization

Risk prioritization is important because it allows you to determine how much of your resource pool should reasonably be dedicated to each potential risk. For example, a business in California would be wise to allocate a significant portion of their resource pool towards earthquake response, but likely will not substantially benefit from hurricane preparations. In contrast, a business in Florida should likely invest in a hurricane response plan, but likely will not substantially benefit from earthquake preparations.

As another example, a bank would be wise to invest heavily in IT disaster recovery plans while carrying few physical products that they would need to worry about being damaged. Meanwhile, a small furniture store would not need to worry as much about IT disaster recovery options, but would be wise to take steps to protect their physical inventory.

In short, while it is a good idea to cover your bases, you should prioritize risk based on likelihood, as well as the impact that it would have on your business. Deploying data analysis systems to consider environmental, health, and safety risks can provide a structured view of risks and how they should be prioritized for any business.

• Risk Management

A risk management plan identifies, analyzes, prioritizes, and monitors risks, and establishes protocols to address these risks if the occasion arises. A risk management plan should be a living document that reassesses risks, provides dynamic data analytics , and adjusts the prescribed strategies on an ongoing basis. To develop an effective risk management plan for natural disasters, you should take the following steps:

• Designate a risk management team ;
• Identify risks;
• Prioritize risks;
• Determine who would be impacted by the event;
• Acquire and deploy risk management information systems and risk analytics software for processing and managing data on an ongoing basis;
• Analyze relevant data continuously to ensure all processes and plans are up to date and appropriate;
• Anticipate potential losses;
• Create an easily accessible document outlining the plan;
• Clearly outline each risk, the potential damages associated with each risk, the protocols meant to prevent that risk, and the protocols for responding to that risk;
• Regularly reassess and update your risk management plan.
• Business Insurance Coverage and Natural Disaster Assistance Resources

Resources related to business insurance coverage and emergency assistance include:

• FEMA Disaster Assistance : This is a resource for finding government-sponsored disaster assistance.
• >SBA Disaster Assistance Loans : This is a guide to applying for an SBA disaster assistance loan.
• Tax Relief : This IRS resource discusses tax relief options related to natural disasters.
• Claims Management Software : This software can help you manage insurance claims.
• General Resources for Developing a Natural Disaster Plan for Your Business

Resources that can help you develop your business’s natural disaster plan include:

• Ready.gov (Resource Management) : This page discusses how you can identify and manage your business resources as part of your emergency response plan.
• Ready.gov (Emergency Response Toolkits) : This is a compilation of bite-sized “toolkits” for various situations related to business emergency preparedness.
• Ready.gov (Emergency Response Outline) : This is a template you can use to develop your emergency response plan.
• Ready.gov (Social Media) : This is a guide for handling your business’s social media presence during an emergency.
• Resources for Natural Disaster Risk Assessment

Resources that can help you conduct risk assessments related to the potential impact of natural disasters on your business include:

• Ready.gov Risk Assessment Guide : This is a risk assessment guide sponsored by the federal government.
• Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development : This is a comprehensive guide for disaster risk assessment and risk financing.
• Risk Assessment Sample : This is an example risk assessment outline.
• How to Perform a Simple Business Risk Assessment : This is a guide to conducting a simple business risk assessment.

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Best Tips for Creating Your Business’s Disaster Plan

Table of Contents

You never want to imagine the worst happening to your business – but what if it does? A natural disaster may seem unthinkable, but as a business owner, thinking about the impacts of one needs to be part of your job. Help secure your company’s future by creating business continuity and disaster recovery plans.

What are business continuity plans and disaster recovery plans?

While there are differences between a business continuity plan (BCP) and a disaster recovery plan (DRP), some companies merge them into one plan.

“A business continuity plan is a defined, documented strategy designed to help business owners and their employees prepare for any event that may disrupt business operations, including natural disasters , single-building fires or floods, supplier outages, and more,” said Mick Whittemore, vice president of IT at Paychex.

A DRP, sometimes referred to as a disaster recovery policy, describes how to resume business operations quickly and is typically applied to details-level planning of an organization’s IT infrastructure and applications. The DRP should allow your IT team to recover enough data and system functionality to operate the business again.

These plans apply to both physical disasters, such as weather events, and virtual ones, like cyberattacks. In either instance, your business needs to be equipped to minimize the consequences.

A professional employer organization (PEO) such as Paychex can help you create your BCP and DRP. Read our Paychex PEO review to learn more about the vendor and check out all of our recommendations for the best PEO service providers as you go about choosing a PEO for your company .

Do you need both a BCP and DRP?

To ensure your business can continue operating after a disaster, you need both a BCP and DRP. Your BCP and DRP work together to make sure all potential vulnerabilities are addressed so you can maintain continuity by keeping unaffected operations going while working on recovering to restore affected ones.

“With the proper planning, the loss can be a bit less devastating, and in some cases, you could even prevent certain damaging situations from happening,” said Jay Shelton, senior vice president of executive risk at Assurance. “A disaster restoration and business continuity plan can significantly reduce the effects of a loss.”

Why are disaster recovery plans important?

You can’t always avoid disasters, but you can prepare for them. Disaster recovery plans help recover what is lost, whether that is data from a cloud data center, physical property (e.g., office space in a hurricane) or something else.

Consider this scenario: A hurricane hits your region, flooding your data center. How will you get operations back up and running in a timely manner? What if you can’t? The longer your business is out of commission, the harder it will be for your company to survive. A thorough disaster recovery plan properly executed can mitigate the damage. Such a plan may not only save you money but also help ensure your company’s reputation emerges from the disaster unscathed.

How do you create a disaster recovery plan?

To create a disaster recovery plan, you first need to decide what approach or strategy will form the framework of your policy.

• Data center disaster recovery: With this approach, your business’s data is stored onsite. Your DRP should specify what the critical assets are and ensure there are redundancies in place (e.g., generators) to protect your company’s data.
• Cloud-based disaster recovery: Here, your company’s data is stored in an offsite location where it is not vulnerable to damage or loss.
• Virtualization disaster recovery: Virtualization creates a virtual version of IT resources (e.g., your servers, applications and networks), which are stored with a host. Virtualization cuts the time in performing a full restoration of your system. In the event of a fire, for example, you wouldn’t need to reconstruct a server.
• Disaster recovery as a service: With this method, providers can host and run a secondary hot site (a type of backup) for your data. In addition, they can rebuild and ship servers to your business.

Please note that due to the complexity of disaster planning, our advice is for small and midsize businesses only. If you work for a big company that has a lot of moving parts, we recommend contacting a disaster recovery specialist.

What’s included in a disaster recovery plan?

Once you’ve decided on your disaster recovery plan’s approach, begin tackling the specific components to build the plan. A good DRP should include the following elements.

A planning team: Establish a planning team of employees or volunteers who are responsible for the development of the plan.

A leadership execution team: Throughout your plan, specify who is responsible for executing the plan and assign a lead. In some cases, the entire company will be accountable, but to keep execution organized, always have a disaster recovery plan lead.

Goals and objectives: Identify goals and objectives for what your plan will accomplish. Establish answers to questions like, “Where do we relocate?” and “Whom should I partner with?” Your primary goal should be to have a solution for the issue.

Capabilities and hazards: Gather information about current capabilities and possible hazards and emergencies. Consider what the worst-case scenario would be. Also, consider something most businesses don’t think about – the recovery point objective, or RPO. RPO is the age of the files that need to be recovered from backup storage so your operations can continue as usual. The age of your files will affect your data backup strategy. Due to the complexity of this subject, consult an IT expert for assistance.

Action plans: Each type of possible disaster (such as fire, flood, earthquake or hacking) should have its own action plan. Each action plan should list the procedures to follow. In addition to an action plan, it’s essential to have a long-term recovery plan in place.

Written documentation: Include backup protocols and systems to ensure everyone on your team knows what needs to be done and can follow the outlined plan. Address the below questions so your plan is simple and easy to follow:

• Who are the team members responsible?
• What is the specific type of threat?
• What is the likelihood of it happening?
• What impact would it have on the business?
• What are the recovery objectives?
• What are the required response steps?
• What recovery and repair might be required?
• What follow-up is required?

Employee training: All staff members, from management to maintenance, should understand your company’s disaster recovery plan. Integrate plans into company operations and employee trainings.

Testing and re-evaluation: Your disaster recovery plan is not complete after you create the initial plan. Testing and re-evaluation are critical parts of ensuring your policy will be effective. See where there is room for improvement, then weigh different plans of action to ensure disasters are handled in the best way possible.

Task certain employees with planning and leading your DRP, with a commitment to regularly test and revise the plan so it remains up to date.

How and when should employees be trained for disaster recovery?

Employee knowledge is integral to creating a successful business continuity plan and disaster recovery plan.

“Employees need to be informed about their roles and responsibilities in support of any recovery effort,” said Whittemore. “They should be trained when the BCP is first developed and then refreshed every year as the document is updated.” 

Many companies use simulation exercises or drills to implement parts of the plan to ensure critical infrastructure is working. E-learning tools can be helpful as well, but the best practice is to simulate the plan at least once a year.

While existing employees benefit from training at the time the plan is created and during regular simulations, incoming employees need to be informed about the process too. New hires should be trained on the plan once they’re onboarded. You can even make it part of your onboarding checklist .

What happens if your disaster recovery plan goes wrong or isn’t followed?

If your disaster recovery efforts don’t go according to plan, your company could immediately lose money. It could keep losing money until the disaster is resolved – or your business is forced into bankruptcy. 

For example, let’s say you haven’t taken advantage of quick cybersecurity tips and fall victim to a cyberattack. This would be a digital and financial disaster: According to IBM , the average cost of a data breach in 2022 is $4.35 million. With a disaster recovery plan in place, you would quickly reactivate your IT systems and avoid or minimize losses. 

But without a disaster recovery plan – or with a team that doesn’t follow it or carry it out correctly – you could be hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars in the hole. The longer you remain unable to provide your services, the more your customers will seek them elsewhere. That long-term revenue and customer loyalty loss can be hard to recoup.

Data breaches and property damage are among the biggest business insurance risks . To complement your BCP and DRP, seriously consider taking out business interruption and cyber policies. Learn more in our small business insurance guide .

Creating a DRP and BCP to keep your business stable

A disaster can happen at any time, especially when you’re not expecting it. When you create a disaster recovery plan and business recovery plan and train your team on them, you lessen the chances of disasters sidelining your business. It’s frustrating not to know when these disasters might be coming and how bad they’ll be. Preparing before there’s even a hint of a threat can help you keep the worst outcomes at bay. 

Max Freedman contributed to the writing and reporting in this article. Source interviews were conducted for a previous version of this article. 

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6 actions to develop an effective disaster plan

With ever increasing wildfires and an “above normal” hurricane season, preparation is key. Consider these six steps to help your agency develop a disaster plan.

With recent wildfires destroying thousands of acres across the U.S, and with an uptick in storm activity in the past few weeks, there is no time like the present to develop an organizational disaster plan. The all-consuming wildfires in Hawaii, which resulted in the loss of so many lives, and the recent devastation in Florida from Hurricane Idalia illustrate that no community is immune to natural disasters. Wildfires have grown more intense and destructive across much of the U.S, and both Colorado State University and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) released final predictions for the 2023 hurricane season as “above normal” for storm activity. For coastal exposed states and territories, this forecast is a gentle reminder to solidify preparations  for future storms.

Disaster planning provides agencies with the knowledge and resources to:

• Protect the health and safety of the community.
• Minimize or eliminate the risk of future damage to property.
• Maximize sustainability and protection.
• Optimize critical response time.
• Ensure that FEMA policies are followed.
• Provide proactive solutions.

No two agencies are exactly alike, and each must consider its unique risk factors to develop a customized plan. A basic disaster plan may be a good starting point, but it will be ineffective without specific details that are relevant to each agency. An effective disaster management plan should define roles and responsibilities, emphasize a collegial approach, provide for communication channels, integrate with risk management, identify resources, and ensure sustained capabilities.

The plan should also be developed using a collaborative model and include relevant stakeholders. It is helpful to create a team to produce the plan and consider following the six steps in FEMA’s National Preparedness System :

• Identifying and assessing risk
• Estimating capability requirements
• Building and sustaining capabilities
• Planning to deliver capabilities
• Validating capabilities
• Reviewing and updating capabilities

Keep reading for an explanation of each step and the critical details you should bear in mind when developing your agency-specific disaster plan.

Step 1: Identifying and assessing risk

First, collect historical and recent data on existing, potential, and perceived threats and hazards to develop a risk assessment. This information is important as it becomes the basis of your disaster plan. Make sure to account for potential risk across the entire organization by including input from all appropriate stakeholders, not only during this step, but throughout the entire planning process to ensure that vulnerable and underrepresented populations are not left out.

A risk assessment includes an analysis based upon criticality, followed by a coordinated application of resources to mitigate the risk. There are many methods used in the identification of risks, including an analysis of loss data, historical analysis, expert consultation, physical inspection, survey, contractual review, discussion with stakeholders as well as a procedures and policies review.

For a natural disaster, historical information should be examined, along with information from catastrophic models and consultations with experts. Disaster specific risk rankings are recorded in the organizational risk register document and prioritized according to risk scores. The risk register and disaster specific assessments outline the current and planned mitigation controls for various disaster scenarios. The goal of a risk analysis is to create a structured assessment and starting point for meaningful risk discussion.

Step 2: Estimating capability requirements

Next, determine the specific capabilities needed to best address the risks identified. Some capabilities may already exist, while some may need to be developed or improved.

Plans are needed to deal with natural events where advance notice can be provided, such as hurricanes, as well as events where advance notice is often not possible, such as flash floods or tornadoes. Areas of vulnerability, like buildings that would not withstand a major hurricane or tornado, need to be addressed and resiliency measures considered, including grant funding that may be available for improving resiliency.

The safest places on the property should be determined, as well as the agency’s capability to replicate its services at another site. Relocation contracts or reciprocal agreements with another agency should be considered to allow for the primary functions to be sustained at a temporary site.

Agencies should have a plan for maintaining communication, for example, a back-up communication plan if cell towers are down. Addressing capabilities ensures that agencies have examined their ability to minimize the identified risks and are ready to address immediate needs in the event of a disaster. An agency’s capabilities and vulnerabilities affect critical business functions, and if they’re not accurately assessed and addressed, there can be major impacts to the agency’s ability to continue its operations.

Step 3: Building and sustaining capabilities

Agencies need to determine the best way to build upon existing capabilities, develop new capabilities where needed, and sustain these capabilities. Capabilities should be addressed in the short range, as well as for the long term. The risk assessment completed in step 1 can be used to prioritize resources to address the risks with the highest probability or greatest severity of loss.

Funding may be a consideration, especially when addressing modifications to buildings to improve resiliency. When funding is a concern, planning in phases such as a 1-, 3-, or 5-year plan is better than not having any plan.

There are many inexpensive steps that an agency can consider to support its recovery. For instance, adequate pre-disaster documentation  such as the collection of yearly and dated photographs requires minimal effort and cost. Safely storing and securing items so they do not become projectiles in a wind event is another simple, yet powerful, approach to preventing damage from a disaster.

There will likely be other capabilities that will require funding and addressing over time. When addressing capabilities, consider the following areas:

• Safe and secure zones.
• Internal communication plan.
• External communication plan.
• Basic needs supply (water, food, first aid, blankets, flashlights).
• Transportation away from impacted areas.
• Coordination with local emergency responders.
• Documents that will be needed (photos, maintenance records).
• Reciprocal agreements.
• Temporary relocation site options.
• Pre-position remediation contracts for tasks such as tarping, water extraction, tear out of wet material.
• Staff coordination.
• Federal regulations pertaining to insurance.
• Business continuity plans.
• Insurance coverage.

Step 4: Planning to deliver capabilities

Delivery of capabilities requires a delineation of roles and responsibilities to ensure that all resources and needs are properly accounted for and addressed. Each of the capabilities identified in step 3 needs to be implemented by an assigned team member to ensure that the responsibility or task is fully carried out.

Because preparedness impacts an entire community, it is important to coordinate your plans with a diverse range of organizations across the community. This may include emergency management agencies, local businesses, nonprofits, community and faith-based groups, and various levels of government.

For example, a K-12 school may need to move students quickly from the affected area and may need to develop an agreement with a local business or church to provide a safe drop site. Purchases may be needed to ensure that appropriate supplies are available. This could include satellite phones, generators, food supplies, temporary offsite shelter for staff, alternative payroll services, and materials for emergency repairs.

Step 5: Validating capabilities

Now, it’s time to see if your planning efforts are working as intended. Participating in exercises, simulations, or other activities can help identify gaps in plans and capabilities. It also helps to measure progress toward meeting preparedness goals.

Mock drills and tabletop exercises are effective ways to determine how well your agency is prepared for a disaster. The insights received through these exercises will help determine gaps in the disaster management plan. The gaps you identify should be documented, and a plan should be developed to address how the gaps will be managed.

If the communication plan is determined to be ineffective, corrective action will be needed; if supplies are not sufficient or a shelter has not been identified, a plan for improvement will be required. If an assigned role was missed, update the plan to include the individual responsible for conducting a particular task.

Step 6: Reviewing and updating capabilities

It is important to regularly review and update your agency’s disaster plan. All stakeholders involved in plan execution should be involved in its development and maintenance.

A plan that sits idle with outdated resources and without regular assessment will be ineffective. Risks and resources evolve and so should your preparedness efforts. A disaster management plan is a living document; it will change over time as risks, roles, and capabilities evolve. Preparation and planning require stakeholder collaboration to ensure that the disaster plan takes into consideration all impacted parties.

Developing a successful disaster plan depends on having the right people on the team, which leads to the right discussions to ensure people are safe, property is protected, resources are readily available, and capabilities are sustained and improved.

Susan (MBA, CRM, CIC) is a risk management and insurance expert with more than 30 years of experience assisting clients in insurance and risk-related matters, including disaster planning, business continuity, resiliency, and recovery from disasters.  View bio

• Disaster management

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Risk Management Monitor

The risk management blog.

8 Steps to Create Strong Disaster Management Plans

A core responsibility of any risk professional is planning for any possible disasters your business might face. These could be man-made, such as a data breach or accidents involving machinery, or natural, like a tornado or flood.

Disasters and crises affect different organizations in different ways—one company might consider something a catastrophe, while another may not even notice a change in its workflow. It is important to look at your own business operations and evaluate what you would consider a crisis. Generally, business crises fall into one of three categories:

• A danger to the physical safety of employees or customers
• Loss of income or means of making income
• Events or people negatively affecting your business reputation

In many cases, the crisis may fall into more than one of these categories. An accident in the workplace that is hazardous to employees can impact the company’s income because the factory has to shut down. This can also negatively affect the company’s reputation if it turns out that the company did not provide a safe working environment.

With even the best risk management programs, no organization can avoid all disasters completely. Risk mitigation often comes down to crafting the best plans possible for the moment disaster inevitably strikes. These eight steps can help risk professionals develop strong crisis and disaster response plans:

1. Define The Types of Crises You Could Face: There is not a one-size-fits-all approach to a crisis management plan. Working out what is likely to affect your business specifically can relate to your geography—areas that get hit by severe storms or earthquakes must include those potential disasters, and what knock-on effects they may cause. For example, storms may cause flooding, loss of power, or blocked roads that make it difficult to reach your premises. The type of crisis can also be specific to your industry. Employees in a manufacturing facility are likely at greater risk in a physical disaster than those working in a tax consultancy, for example. Security should also be a consideration. Is your business likely to get robbed of cash or equipment? Do you have high-profile proprietary information that makes you more likely to be the victims of cybercrime ?

2. Triggering the Plan: Including levels of urgency in your plan will help people responding to the crisis pinpoint how significant the event is, and how much of the plan must be put into action. A step-by-step approach for specific scenarios can be helpful and cover dealing with man-made and natural disasters in different ways. The risk for each will be unique to the situation and knowing when and how to trigger a response is key. The plan should include how and when to escalate the response should the crisis worsen, as well as how to identify when the crisis has passed. It can be helpful to use red, yellow and green system to indicate severity and urgency, and this classification approach is easy to adapt to any scenario.

3. The Base of Operations Location: Accidents or natural disasters may cause your usual place of business to close temporarily or permanently. In your plan, designate a backup command center in an alternate location for dealing with the crisis until you can get back to work. This location can be your company’s operations hub, a point for gathering after a crisis, or where you know your sensitive and important data backs up. If a natural disaster has made travel dangerous or roads impossible to navigate, you will also need a virtual base of operations—some possibilities include message boards, chat apps or email. With so many employees working remotely because of COVID-19, this may be easier to implement now.

4. The Chain of Command: Ensuring a clear chain of command so that there is no arguing or confusion when people and the business are at risk. Wherever possible, appoint a back-up for each person in charge so if someone cannot perform their duty, it falls to the next in line.

5. Internal and External Communication: When a crisis compromises an office or business, communication can become tricky. Have a clear set of rules for how you get information to and from your employees , what information you must and must not share with those outside of the company, and how to achieve that. This part of your crisis management plan can save lives and stop rumors from spreading.

6. Necessary Resources: Though this will depend on the nature of the business, consider first aid and safety equipment if you are likely to have injuries or get cut off because of poor weather. Also, think about alternate communication methods if mobile phone towers go down or the electricity gets cut, as well as access to your sensitive data , such as employee contracts and supplier agreements.Include all necessary resources you would need to operate and highlight any alternate replacements. For example, if a storm knocks out your power, you may have a generator.

7. Training: It is no good putting a crisis management plan together and not giving the relevant people the training they need to execute it. For example, the people you name as first aid providers or unit leaders need to know what is expected of them and undergo the necessary training. If you have safety equipment on your premises, like fire extinguishers or emergency release valves for machinery, you need to educate all stakeholders how these work.

8. Testing the Plan: Finally, test that your plan actually works. Review it with staff and conduct safety drills regularly—every two months at least. Look for any weak points or flaws in the plan before an actual crisis.While it may not be possible to anticipate everything a disaster brings, you can set up several response plans and test each one individually. These plans can tie in with your standard safety drills, or stand alone, depending on the nature of the event anticipated.

A crisis management plan is integral to every business, no matter its size, scope, or sector. By preparing for various potential disasters, you can take action when needed without putting your organization, employees, or yourself at unnecessary risk. 

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The purpose of contingency planning, crisis management tools.

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A disaster recovery plan covers all the steps necessary to enable a business to return to normal operation in the event of a disaster or incident such as a flood, fire or major information system failure. The aim of this plan, also known as a business continuity plan, is to ensure that the business can continue to operate its most essential services and activities.

The disaster plan identifies all the possible risks a business might face. These range from major incidents that affect whole regions, such as natural disasters, floods or civil disorder, to problems specific to the business. These include fires, strikes, power cuts, telecommunications failures, IT security breaches and failure to comply with industry regulations. The plan sets out the scenarios and potential consequences for each type of risk.

Critical Resources

A list of critical resources is an essential part of the recovery plan. These include telecommunications and information systems, computer networks and databases. In a manufacturing company, production line equipment and production control systems are critical. The disaster plan prioritizes the resources and includes an assessment of the risks and consequences associated with each resource.

Recovery Team

The plan must include the names, responsibilities and contact details of the team that will coordinate and manage the recovery. The team should include a senior executive to take strategic decisions, specialists to restore facilities, telecommunications and information systems and a public relations executive to manage communications. It may also include representatives of individual departments. The team must also agree dates for rehearsing the recovery process and reviewing the content of the plan.

Key Employees

The plan also identifies key employees who must be able to resume work after a disaster. These include senior executives, customer service staff, sales representatives and production planners. These are the employees responsible for making important decisions about the business or keeping customers informed during the recovery period.

Temporary Facilities

To enable key employees to continue working, the plan includes details of temporary facilities that the business can access after a disaster. These include laptop computers, mobile phones and generators. Businesses may use a temporary building equipped with a telephone network and computing facilities. The plan includes details of suppliers with emergency contact numbers.

Communication

Communication is critical in the period following a disaster. The plan sets out a communication process for informing customers, suppliers, investors, employees and the media. It lists contact details for the various audiences and may include templates for emails, news releases or announcements relating to different scenarios.

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Based in the United Kingdom, Ian Linton has been a professional writer since 1990. His articles on marketing, technology and distance running have appeared in magazines such as “Marketing” and “Runner's World.” Linton has also authored more than 20 published books and is a copywriter for global companies. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in history and economics from Bristol University.

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Small Business Preparedness

To minimize the impact of disasters on employees, property, and operations, businesses must make the right preparations. These include: creating a disaster plan, identifying priorities, training employees on emergency preparedness, and reviewing the business’ insurance coverage. Here are resources to help prepare for disasters and organize your response.

Quick Guide: Small Business Preparedness

January 01, 2015

Top 10 Preparedness Tips

• Organize a staff team to create your plan.
• Gather critical documents and information needed for decision making.
• Identify and prioritize the company’s most important operations and processes.
• Identify hazards and potential disruptions to your operations.
• Keep it simple: design a plan that is easy to understand and implement. .
• Create a communications strategy and plan to use it post emergency. Maintain an up-to-date emergency contact list for employees, vendors, suppliers, and other key stakeholders.
• Recruit and train employee volunteers that can effectively manage the response.
• Back up and store vital records and data at an off-site location.
• Take action to mitigate the potential impact of a disaster on equipment, buildings, facilities, inventory, and storage. Consider your insurance options and whether to purchase a generator.
• Exercise, test, and update your plan at least annually.

Only 33% of small businesses have business interruption insurance. (National Association of Insurance Commissioners)

• Top 20 Preparedness Tips for Businesses  (DRB Toolkit) – Covers what you need to do before, during and after with tips on how to protect everything from your employees to the company brand.
• Are You Prepared? How to Make a Disaster Recovery Plan For Your Business  – A 10-step guide to creating a disaster recovery plan.
• 7 Steps You Need to Take Before Disaster Strikes  (AmEx) – Provides simple, straight-forward steps derived from the response to Hurricane Sandy and other disasters.
• Business Interruption Preparedness/Recovery – Five steps to ensuring business continuity during a disruption.
• How Small Businesses Should Plan for Disasters – Case studies on disaster response from Hurricane Sandy.

“Small businesses are at particular risk as they often lack the resources to survive a catastrophic event. And when small businesses are unable to rebuild, the entire community continues to suffer. Jobs are lost, neighborhoods decline, and individuals and families endure further hardships.” ~United Way, Larimer County (CO) after 2013 floods

Preparedness Guides

• 7 Steps to an Earthquake Resilient Business  – Focused on earthquake recovery, this booklet explains what businesses can do before, during, and after disaster.
• Preparedness Planning for Your Business  (FEMA) – Website and tools for assessing, planning, responding, and improving future readiness.
• American Red Cross Ready Rating Assessment  – A program that provides a 123-question assessment to help businesses identify gaps and strengths and where they should focus attention.
• Disaster Recovery and Continuity Guide – Guide to prepare and assist businesses affected by a disaster.

Checklists—General

• Emergency Preparedness Checklist for Small Businesses  (Red Cross) – 3-step preparedness checklist.
• IOWA Business Emergency Preparedness Plan  – Checklist with examples of best practices for creating a preparedness plan.
• Business Disaster Planning Checklist – Useful list to help business plan ahead before a disaster.  
• Minimizing the Risks to Your Business Using Security Measures and Disaster Planning  – Guide to securing business property following a disaster.

Checklists—By Hazard

• Prepare for a hurricane’s effect on your business, employees and community  (SBA/Agility) – Guide to preparing for a hurricane.
• Tornado Preparedness Checklist  (SCORE) – Guide to preparing for a tornado.
• Tornado Preparedness and Response  (OSHA) – Planning and employee training guide for tornado preparation.
• Flood Preparedness Checklist  (SCORE) – Guide to preparing for a flood.
• Earthquake Preparedness Checklist  (SCORE) – Guide to preparing for an earthquake.
• Seven Steps to Earthquake Safety – Step-by-step guide to earthquake preparation.

Business Continuity Planning (BCP)

• Planning for Business Continuity after a Disaster  (IRS) – Short video giving four key areas for businesses to focus on when planning.  
• DRB Toolkit © (Disaster Resistant Business Toolkit) – Step-by-step, fully customizable planning tool guides to help all types of businesses build a disaster plan, train employees, run exercises, and prepare operations. Provides tools, templates, and videos for beginners and experienced planners alike. Use discount code: USChamber
• Planning and Responding to Workplace Emergencies  (OSHA) – Factsheet of requirements and tips for emergency response and protecting employees.
• Preparing Your Business for the Unthinkable  (Red Cross) – Short guide with helpful suggestions to get started.
• 2011 Crisis Preparedness Study  – Slideshow for businesses about the importance of Business Continuity Planning.
• Preparing for Disasters (IRS) – Short video about how to protect tax and banking information following a disaster.
• Preparing for a Disaster (Taxpayers and Businesses) – Tips for safeguarding documents and tracking valuables after a disaster. Includes a Loss Workbook tool from the IRS.
• Being Prepared: Is Your Business Ready for a Disaster? – Slideshow of information about disaster recovery; includes information on government assistance, statistics about business recovery, and assistance for small businesses.

71% of small businesses say they are “very dependent” on 1 or 2 key people, but only 22% have “Key Person Insurance” ~National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC)

Insurance is not a tax; it is a risk management tool critical for all businesses. It can reduce the financial impact of accidents, fires, and other unplanned disruptions. Insurance protects businesses from events out of their control and improves chances for survival. Here are some tips to keep your business running smoothly:

• Review your coverage and design an insurance program that fits your business and risks. Bring in an insurance professional to explain different types of available coverage. Keep in mind that some policies may not need to cover every aspect of the business but simply the most critical elements that you need to remain operational. Find the right balance.
• When disaster strikes, file a claim as soon as possible. To do so, plan ahead for what items you will be required to provide so you do not miss an important step in the process. Take pre-disaster photos of your business and equipment. After an event occurs, document damage with photos or videos.

Review Your Coverage

• What Types of Insurance Should a Small Business Consider?  – Discusses everything you need to know how to pick the right coverage for your business.
• Types of Business Insurance  (SBA) – The 5 basic types of insurance that businesses need to consider.  
• Insurance is Financial Risk Mitigation  (FEMA) - Information on National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP); includes resources such as a link to an insurance coverage review  form .
• Earthquake Basics Insurance – Details insurance options available for businesses facing the threat of an earthquake.
• How to Develop a Small Business Disaster Recovery Plan – Overview of helpful insurance plans for small businesses. 

Filing a Claim

• Let Us Help Guide You Through Your Business Insurance Claims  – Checklist to assist with filing a claim.   
• After A Loss: Filing Your Business Insurance Claim  – List of steps to take after filing an insurance claim.
• Disaster Resource Guide for Small Businesses  – Step-by-step guide to filing a claim. (Ignore Missouri specific information) 
• Important Insurance Lessons from Superstorm Sandy  – Helpful tips on working with insurance companies during the claims process. 

Communicating with Employees, Suppliers, and Customers

During disasters, communication is one of the most needed activities to inform employees and suppliers, answer customer questions, reduce rumors, and provide expectations to the public. It is also one of the first systems to break or experience challenges.

To plan for potential business interruptions and to create a crisis communication strategy as part of your larger Business Continuity Plan. Here are some tips:

• Keep your Emergency Contact List updated with every possible mode to reach each person (phone: work, home, cell, significant other’s cell; email: work, personal, alternate; family contact; evacuation plan and contact; social media: Facebook, Twitter; etc.)
• Consider an alert mechanism that can keep your employees, customers, vendors, suppliers, and stakeholders informed and regularly updated in multiple ways (e.g. email, text messages). Test regularly.
• Use existing social media platforms to communicate online (e.g. Facebook, Twitter).
• Have procedures to work with the media following a crisis.
• Identify a spokesperson to be the voice of your company in talking with the media.
• Developing messaging and talking points specific to their intended audience (e.g. employees, vendors, community members).
• Communicate accurately and often with customers to keep them informed of any delays in delivery, alternatives, expectations, and any compensation.
• Monitor outside communications to determine what is working well and areas to improve your communication strategy.
• Update the communications strategy often. Train employees and provide new hires with the communications strategy.

Crisis Communication Planning

• Is Your Company Prepared to Respond after a Disaster?  (SBA) - Tips to get your company’s crisis communications plan started.
• Crisis Communications  – (SBA/Agility) Checklist for developing a crisis communications plan with recommendations for during and after an emergency.
• Disaster Recovery: Developing the Perfect Communications Plan for Your Business  – Guide to completing the Crisis Communications checklist.
• Crisis Communications Plan  (FEMA) – Background information about Crisis Communications Plans and their importance.
• Developing an Emergency Communications Plan: A Template for Business Continuity Planners  –List of eight essential topics that a crisis communications plan must cover.
• Crisis Communications and Disaster Response  – Tips on communicating with employees and stakeholders post-Disaster.                                       
• 2011 Crisis Preparedness Study  - Helpful statistics about Crisis Preparedness; includes recent case studies.
• Reputation Management  –Slideshow of the basics for pre-planning crisis communication and how to address events strategically.

Integrating Social Media into Your Communications Plan

• 5 Tips for Integrating Social Media into Your Disaster Plans – Helpful tips for using social media following a disaster.
• 8 Tips to Avoid Social Media Disaster – How to plan for and respond to potential damage to your company’s name and brand.
• Social Media Disaster Prevention and Response Tips – Case studies of businesses using social media to preserve their name and brand following a disaster.

Employee Assistance

An Employee Assistance Program (EAP) can be useful in handling productivity decline following a disaster.  

• Consider how your company can help employees and families access medical care, food, housing, and other essentials.
• Plan to connect employees with resources.  Those hit hardest may not have working phones or the ability to call area resources to find new housing, child care, a kennel, a rental car, or other necessary services.
• Plan for the possibility of employees requiring financial assistance through the form of emergency grants or an advance on future wages. 
• How to Set-Up an Employee Assistance Program?  – Five steps to set up an EAP.
• Employee Assistance & Support  (FEMA) – Steps on setting up an EAP and opening a family assistance center.
• A Manager’s Handbook: Handling Traumatic Events  – Chapters six and seven specifically provide information for businesses looking to set up an Employee Assistance Program. Includes tips on minimizing employees’ stress.

Additional Resources

Depending on the type of hazards your business may face there are a variety of resources to help. These include FEMA, SBA, business continuity publications, local fire departments, Chambers of Commerce, Economic Development organizations, professional organizations and many more. Most  have a strong online presence with tools available via the internet.

• FEMA.gov  – Presents many kinds of preparedness information and materials.
• Ready Business (FEMA) - Helps companies develop a five-step preparedness program that addresses the impact of many hazards.
• Protect your Property or Business from Disaster (FEMA) – A downloadable list of publications detailing how to minimize property losses caused by various types of natural disasters.
• DisasterAssistance.gov  – If you have personal (non-business) losses, register with FEMA here or call FEMA: (800) 621-3362 or TTY (800) 462-7585.
• Disaster Declarations  are made by states to keep track of what is happening and provide immediate resources.
• If there is a federal emergency declared, click here  to find your nearest Disaster Recovery Center.
• SBA: Disaster Loans  Links to articles, factsheets, and forms related to the Disaster Loans program; includes mail-in and online applications.  
• Emergency Preparedness (SBA) – Articles on planning and resources.
• IRS Videos on Disaster Subjects  – Informative videos to help businesses affected by a major disaster.

Recommended

• Disasters Harnessing the Power of Business for Women's Empowerment and Global Resilience The 14th Annual International Women's Day Forum served as a pivotal platform for critical discussions addressing the challenges and opportunities in the empowerment and safety of women and girls highlighting the essential role of multi-sector partnerships in supporting women and children amidst global challenges. By Sydney Lewis
• Disasters Responding to Hurricane Otis
• Disasters The Business Community Convenes to Mobilize Support for Israel Following Terrorist Attacks By Sydney Lewis
• Disasters Strengthening the Backbone of Healthcare: Navigating Supply Chain Challenges in the New Era By Rob Glenn
• Disasters American Express Commits $12.75M in Grants to Aid Small Businesses in Climate Resilience and Disaster Recovery

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From COVID-19 to Hurricane Season: Disaster Preparedness for Small Business

Table of Contents

Running a small business is hard enough without having to rebuild after a natural disaster. Many businesses all over the world make the mistake of not properly preparing for disasters and are left to suffer the costly consequences. However, small business disaster preparedness planning is easier than you might think. We scoured the internet and interviewed risk management experts to bring you the best tips and resources, so you can finally check “disaster plan” off your to-do list.

What does good disaster preparedness look like?

What does good disaster preparedness mean? We asked Frank Russo, founder of risk management company  Procor Solutions + Consulting . He told us an impressive story.

There’s a large consumer goods retailer, he said, that calls a standing meeting after  every  major natural disaster, even ones that had no effect on their business. They talk about what they would have done if the disaster had happened at one of their locations. Russo said that the company builds these brainstorm sessions into a regular “catastrophe gaming process” where employees act out disaster situations. The real-life stress tests identify weak points – for example, a door that can’t be locked because the facilities person is on vacation.

In 2008, Hurricane Ike caused a major loss for this company in Houston, but it recovered quickly thanks to all its preparation – so quickly, in fact, that Russo says it actually saw higher-than-normal sales after the hurricane. Why? Because it was one of the only businesses open in the area.

In December 2019, the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) was detected in Wuhan, China, and quickly spread all over the world. As of March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization recognized the spread of the infectious disease as a pandemic. Businesses all over the world have been impacted by the coronavirus pandemic – if you are a small business owner, visit the CDC’s website for interim guidance for businesses and employers.

Natural disasters can end small businesses.

Studies show that more than 40% of small businesses close permanently after a disaster . Among the businesses that reopen, another 25% fail within a year.

A good disaster plan means fewer days out of business, better communication with customers, and a better settlement from your insurance company. Add it all up and your plan could be the reason your small business beats the odds.

Look, we know you have a long to-do list. But trustworthy government resources developed over the past few years have made putting together a disaster plan much easier than you’d think. As Russo says, “even a basic plan is better than no plan.”

Step 1: Identify risk.

Which of these large-scale disasters is a threat to your business?

• Winter weather
• Earthquakes

If you have a single location, you already know the answer. But what about any additional areas that are critical to the success of your business? Think about where computer servers are located, where goods are stored – even areas where your employees commute from or work remotely. This  risk assessment table from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will help.

If you have business insurance, make sure you’re covered for disasters that could hurt you. Your agent will be able to tell you what coverage you need.

One thing you can do in the next 15 minutes to make your business more prepared is review one of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) and Agility Recovery checklists below.

If you’re ready to start your comprehensive plan, the FEMA Ready toolkits at the end of this article are the place to start.

Step 2: Develop a plan.

The key to developing any good plan is to put a single person in charge of it. This is your disaster plan coordinator. They decide how to develop the plan – but you, as the business owner or manager, should be clear about what they need to include. Here are some questions to think about when you assign this important task.

Does the plan coordinator need a supporting committee?

If your business is large enough that it has separate departments, the answer is probably yes. Each internal department will have its own unique assets, systems and requirements. You don’t want an outsider guessing what those might be.

Next, think about the entire scope of your operations. Do you ship hundreds of packages a day? Then you want to have someone at your shipping company as part of the supporting committee. Any vendor, supplier or government agency that you use on a day-to-day basis should be represented on your committee. They can explain their own disaster preparedness planning and how that will affect your post-disaster operations.

What are the minimum elements your plan requires?

The goal of a disaster plan is to help ensure the well-being of your employees, the stability of your location’s environment and, last but certainly not least, your ability to keep the business running. That may mean you need a 100-page guide, or you may just need a simple series of reference sheets. Either way, your planning coordinator needs to know the scope of your plan before they can properly develop it.

Your plan must address these three goals, at the very least. These are the minimum viable elements of a disaster plan:

• An evacuation policy, including maps and routes
• Whom employees should contact, inside and outside the company, for additional information about what to do
• Who is required to stay onsite to perform essential functions or shut down important items
• Who is responsible for rescue and medical duties
• Employee emergency contact information, plus information about unique medical needs
• Special instructions regarding hazardous materials and equipment, if necessary

What special circumstances does your plan need to address?

Direct your plan coordinator to address any special circumstances related to your employees, your environment or your business operations. Here are some examples:

• An employee with mobility issues
• An irreplaceable piece of equipment that requires maximum protection
• A specific OSHA requirement for storage of a certain chemical

If you have business insurance, this is an excellent time in the prep process to involve your insurance agent. You know that monthly premium you pay? Part of what you’re paying for is access to the risk management experts at your insurer. They have seen the aftermath of disasters from coast to coast and can help you decide what to prioritize in your disaster planning.

Here are some other resources to help you build out your plan requirements.

• CDC:  Coronavirus (COVID-19)
• WHO:  Rolling updates on coronavirus disease (COVID-19)
• Red Cross:  Ready Rating
• S. Chamber of Commerce:  Small Business Disaster Preparation Quick Guide
• FEMA Ready:  Business Impact Analysis
• FEMA Ready:  Disaster Plan Performance Objectives
• IRS:  Preparing for a Disaster

Step 3: Implement and train.

Your disaster plan coordinator, their supporting committee, and you, as the business owner or manager, should approve the final plan – but your work doesn’t stop there.

A disaster plan isn’t something you dust off when the red warning stripe comes across your TV screen. You’ll have action items as soon as your plan is complete. The idea is to identify things you can do now so you won’t have to do them in the days or hours before a natural disaster.

Here are a few examples.

Evacuation routes and wardens

In case of an evacuation, employees need to know where to go. Supply evacuation maps and post them in visible areas. Designate one or more individuals to make sure everyone gets out of the building safely – these folks are called evacuation wardens. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)  recommends you designate one warden for every 20 employees .

Disaster communications materials

Approve emergency communications for employees, customers, suppliers and other stakeholders. Write these now, with fill-in-the-blanks to cover disaster scenarios. Make sure people who need access have it both at work and at home. Don’t be like the state governor  who couldn’t tweet because he forgot his password .

Employee go bag

“In the event of a weather emergency, employee safety needs to be the No. 1 priority,” said Peter Duncanson, disaster preparedness and recovery expert at  ServiceMaster Restore . “Having a preparedness kit on hand, stocked with nonperishable food, clean water, first-aid supplies, and emergency tools like a hand-crank radio and backup batteries will all serve as valuable resources, especially if you have to wait out the storm for an extended period of time.”

When you plan the items to include in an employee go bag, consider how far employees travel to your work location and that roads may be rendered impassable. This  Red Cross quiz can help you decide what to include.

Every employee in your organization has a role to play during an emergency – even if it’s just getting themselves out of the building safely. Your plan should identify which employees are responsible for which roles.

Businesses of all sizes should have a person or team responsible for business continuity and crisis communications. In a small company, this will be you, the owner.

• The  business continuity team prepares the business to restart once it’s safe to do so. This team also works with the insurance company to recoup losses caused by the disaster. The sooner you start making money again, and the more you get back from your insurance company, the more likely your business is to survive.
• The  crisis communications team is responsible for developing disaster communications and delivering those messages.

Here’s a sample training scheme:

Step 4: Be a preparedness leader in your community.

In a natural disaster, you may be at the mercy of your least-prepared neighbor. The unsecured restaurant patio umbrella that comes flying through your window or the hazardous materials that floodwaters carry into your parking lot might not be a threat if you were in charge of them, but you aren’t. And the longer your community takes to get back on its feet, the longer you’re likely to wait for business to ramp up again.

Communities often come together in the aftermath of a disaster, but it would be even better if they did so before the disaster happened.

Preparedness is good business.

Celebrating your disaster preparedness plan encourages other business owners – and customers – to make their own. It’s not only good for the community; it could be good for your business too. Promoting your disaster preparedness efforts helps in these areas:

• Hiring and retention. By showing prospective employees – and reminding current ones – that you take employee safety seriously, you encourage them to join and remain with your company.
• New business acquisition. Talking about disaster preparedness is a way to connect with potential customers and referrers that doesn’t require a sales pitch.
• Social media growth. Feel-good stories about your steps to keep the community safe can generate positive social media attention. Don’t be shy – you put in the work, and you deserve those likes and shares!

Ready’s  Business Emergency Preparedness Social Media Toolkit  has sample messaging and graphics to work from. They’re a little dry, so challenge your marketing team to do better. They should relish the opportunity to talk about something other than your products.

Prepare now so you can improvise later.

Bennett’s Market & Deli is a neighborhood grocery in Atlanta’s Grant Park. In September 2017, Victoria Bennett and Claire Pearson had owned the store for five years without experiencing a single power outage. But as Hurricane Irma approached, they put their disaster plan into action.

They bought a generator and massive amounts of ice, and collected coolers from folks in the neighborhood. They moved all of their backroom stock off of the floor to protect it from flooding. And they sent staff home, deciding to run the store themselves rather than risk employees’ safety.

Then the power went out, and it was time to get creative. With no way to run their credit card processors and cash registers, and no light in the store, Bennett and Pearson were still able to sell beer, wine, bread, and snacks using a cash bag and manual receipts.

“I think the neighborhood really appreciated that we were open,” Pearson said.

You never know how bad a disaster is going to be, and you can’t control it. Maybe flooding would have forced Pearson and Bennett to evacuate. Maybe the power would’ve stayed on. But they were prepared, which let them pivot as the situation required. In the end, they formed a stronger bond with their customers.

An expert’s take: What you should do right now

Frank Russo, the risk management expert who shared the story about the company in Houston, advises Fortune 100 corporations about disaster planning. We asked him, “What do you tell friends who own small businesses when they ask what they should do?”

“At a minimum, have an inventory of what your assets are, and make sure it’s up to date,” he said. That’s something you could knock off in less than an hour.

Once you’ve done that, consider following the steps above to create an actionable plan for your business.

“Have an updated planning review session once per year,” Russo said. “Ideally, every quarter.”

The best action you can take, says Russo, is to weave disaster preparedness into the fabric of your business like the company in Houston did.

The true indicator of your disaster plan’s strength will be your business not only surviving the disaster but thriving during the recovery.

COVID-19 information and resources

As ever more information comes out about the coronavirus pandemic, it can be difficult for small business owners to know what to do to prevent the spread of this infectious disease. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) frequently updates its guidance for businesses and employers.

• Actively encourage sick employees to stay home.
• Place posters that outline coughing and sneezing etiquette and proper hand hygiene, and encourage employees to stay home when they’re sick.
• Implement flexible working arrangements and supportive sick leave policies. Certain employees may be legally guaranteed sick leave, covered by the Family and Medical Leave Act and/or the Families First Coronavirus Response Act .
• Incorporate social distancing policies and barriers or partitions in your workplace.
• Educate employees on health and safety guidelines, including how to properly use personal protective equipment (commonly known as PPE).
• Instruct employees to wear masks at work (unless they have a condition that prevents them from wearing one) and clean their hands often with an alcohol-based hand sanitizer.
• Conduct daily in-person or virtual health checks (e.g., temperature and symptom screenings).
• Routinely clean all frequently touched surfaces in the workplace.
• Encourage employees to notify their supervisor if they have a sick family member.
• If an employee is confirmed to have COVID-19, inform your team about possible exposure. However, you must keep the employee’s identity anonymous, in compliance with privacy protections granted by the American with Disabilities Act (ADA).
• Encourage eligible employees to get the coronavirus vaccine in accordance with the CDC’s vaccine rollout recommendations. Individual employee vaccination information must remain confidential, per the ADA.
• Check the  CDC’s travelers’ health notices for the latest guidance and recommendations.
• Conduct a thorough hazard assessment to determine weak points in your health and safety protocol where employees may be exposed to the virus.

SBA and Agility Recovery disaster checklists

The SBA and Agility Recovery provide comprehensive checklists of things you should do in the days before a disaster is likely to strike. Review the ones that are applicable to your business – you want to make sure you can do all of this if necessary. All checklists are printable PDFs, although some may need to be downloaded with a business email.

• Flood Preparedness
• Winter Weather Preparedness
• Influenza Preparedness
• Bomb Threat Preparedness
• Earthquake Preparedness

FEMA Ready Business Toolkits

These 40- to 65-page documents are a good place to start. They are generic and broad, because they are meant to work for many different types of businesses. But they do provide a solid framework focused on six factors: staff, surroundings, space, systems, structure and service.

• Hurricane Toolkit [ In English /  En Español ]
• Inland Flooding Toolkit [ In English /  En Español ]
• Power Outage Toolkit [ In English /  En Español ]
• Severe Wind/Tornado Toolkit [ In English /  En Español ]
• QuakeSmart Toolkit [ In English /  En Español ]  

Skye Schooley and business.com editorial staff contributed to the writing and reporting in this article. Source interviews were conducted for a previous version of this article.

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Creating Disaster Plans For Small Business

Continuity insights.

A proactive disaster management plan can mitigate the effects on your business and help speed your return to normal operations.

Think about all the time and resources you have invested in your small business. Imagine that it’s all gone: furniture, equipment, inventory, records, everything. What would you do?

“There will be problems flying at you from all directions,” said Mark Debner, whose Cedar Rapids, Iowa-based business DPI Quality Custom Finishes was hit hard by flooding in 2008 and the Midwest derecho of 2020. “You will be making quick decisions while under great pressure. Do not beat yourself up if you make a few bad mistakes as you recover.”

While you can’t prevent natural disasters, a proactive disaster management plan can mitigate the effects on your business and help speed your return to normal operations. This National Safety Month, SCORE shared several tips for developing a strategy:

Develop An Operational Contingency Plan

Assess the feasibility of operating out of nearby rented office or warehouse space, or even your home. Perhaps a mutual agreement with a friendly competitor to share space and other facilities is worth considering. Determine what equipment and other resources will be needed to continue operations. Important documents, backup copies of computer records, and other vital information should be stored at a secure off-site location or in the cloud.

Jennifer Megliore felt the impact of Hurricane Matthew on her art retail business, ArtWare, on Hilton Head Island, S.C. in 2016. “My SCORE mentor encouraged me to have a hurricane plan, being feet away from the water,” said Megliore. “He helped me create a laminated checklist of items and equipment to remove if we had to evacuate.”

She also received advice to set aside contingency money that would help bridge a closure. “Insurance can help,” she said, “but it can take a long time to receive the money to keep going.”

Ensure The Safety Of Employees And Customers

Develop an evacuation plan that includes access to shelters, hospitals and other emergency services. Keep emergency telephone numbers clearly posted, and maintain up-to-date emergency contact and essential medical information for all employees.

Perform A Safety Inventor

Regularly clean and test smoke detectors, changing the batteries at least once each year. Make sure you have several well-stocked first-aid kits and that all fire extinguishers are fully charged. Keep a supply of all types of batteries used in your business, and consider purchasing a portable generator for emergency power, with fuel safely stored.

Review Your Business Insurance Coverage

Your coverage should be enough to get your business back in operation at the earliest possible date. It should cover the replacement cost of buildings, contents, and essential facilities. Special coverage may be needed to cover computer hardware, software, and stored data. A major consideration is business interruption and extra expense coverage for loss of income and other expenses incurred to quickly return to normal operations. A qualified, professional commercial insurance agent can prove to be a valuable resource in crafting a disaster management plan for businesses.

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Emergency Response Plan

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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• For Businesses

Prepare My Business for an Emergency

Businesses can do much to prepare for the impact of the many hazards they face in today’s world including natural hazards, human-caused hazards or technology related hazards.

• Natural hazards could be a flood, hurricane, tornado, earthquake or a widespread serious illness such as the H1N1 flu virus pandemic.
• Human-caused hazards include accidents, acts of violence by people and acts of terrorism.
• Examples of technology-related hazards are the failure or malfunction of systems, equipment or software.

DHS/FEMA sponsors a resource called “Ready Business” to assist businesses in developing a preparedness program by providing tools to create a plan that addresses the impact of many hazards. The direction recommended is to adopt a standard for Disaster/Emergency Management and Business Continuity Programs called an “all hazards approach.”

Steps to Create a Business Preparedness Program

To develop an “all hazards approach,” DHS has adopted National Fire Protection Association 1600 (NFPA 1600) as the American National Standard for developing a preparedness program.

There are five steps toward creating a business preparedness program:

1. Program Management

• Organize, develop and administer your preparedness program
• Identify regulations that establish minimum requirements for your program

2. Planning

• Gather information about hazards and assess risks
• Conduct a business impact analysis (BIA)
• Examine ways to prevent hazards and reduce risks

3. Implementation

Write a preparedness plan addressing:

• Resource management
• Emergency response
• Crisis communications
• Business continuity
• Information technology
• Employee assistance
• Incident management

4. Testing and Exercises

• Test and evaluate your plan
• Define different types of exercises
• Learn how to conduct exercises
• Use exercise results to evaluate the effectiveness of the plan

5. Program Improvement

• Identify when the preparedness program needs to be reviewed
• Discover methods to evaluate the preparedness program
• Utilize the review to make necessary changes and plan improvements
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Four Phases of Emergency Management & How to Develop a Comprehensive Plan [+ Template]

Emergency management is crucial, expected, and incredibly difficult. Learn how to meet your emergency management duties in four phases.

• 4 Phases of Emergency Management
• What Is an Emergency Management Plan?

How to Build a Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan

When the world is increasingly chaotic and prone to disruption, how can an organization keep its people safe and its operations under control? The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported that large-scale weather disasters have been particularly frequent in the past few years compared to previous decades. The number of mass shootings is also trending upward—a 61% increase from 2019 to 2022.

Faced with more major disasters—both natural hazards and manmade threats—proactive emergency management planning is essential to ensuring employee safety and organizational resilience . And yet, FEMA reported that only 44% of adults felt prepared for a disaster in 2021—down from 59% just two years prior.

To guide your organization’s disaster preparedness efforts in 2023, it helps to approach emergency management in four phases. In this article, we’ll cover the ins and outs of each phase—whether you’re starting from scratch or improving the basic plan you already have.

Download Our Emergency Response Plan Template

The four phases of emergency management.

Emergency management has four main phases: mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery. These phases represent critical actions to minimize the impact of emergencies on your employees and operations. Each phase serves a slightly different purpose and should be used in different stages of a crisis .

1. Mitigation

Mitigation is taking action to reduce the severity of a crisis. For example, wearing a seatbelt mitigates the risk of injury in a car accident. For your business, strong passwords mitigate the risk of cybersecurity attacks, emergency evacuation plans mitigate the loss of life during a fire, and preparing your facilities for winter mitigates the impact of severe weather.

Performing a risk assessment will help your business identify what threats may require mitigation efforts. With common hazards identified, your business can develop a plan to avoid those risks altogether or reduce the harm done if a crisis is unavoidable. Those plans will include specific actions for employees to take during an emergency, a strategy for communication, and pathways toward recovery.

To help you determine what internal hazards your workplace may need to mitigate, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has a list of top workplace safety violations . From preventing slips, trips, and falls to monitoring hazardous materials to handling heavy equipment properly, there are a number of safety-promoting actions that can help reduce the impact of common workplace hazards.

Of course, not all threats stem from internal workplace hazards. Severe weather, like winter storms and tornadoes, are out of your control—as are threats to public safety like disease outbreaks or acts of violence. Being able to monitor external threats with threat intelligence software and alert employees quickly will help prevent and reduce the negative impact of any disaster.

2. Preparedness

While mitigation may significantly reduce the impact of an emergency, not all crises and impacts are avoidable. With that in mind, being prepared for the worst with a strong emergency management plan will help your business respond effectively. Your organization’s plan should outline ways to address all of the potential threats to employee safety and business operations.

The preparedness phase ensures that your organization is ahead of an emergency and is equipped to handle it effectively. First, identify potential threats, and then define ideal responses to those threats. For instance, businesses in wildfire-prone areas should create defensible space around their facilities and have wildfire evacuation routes in place. Businesses in high-risk industries like construction and manufacturing should be prepared for workplace injuries, having easy access to first aid kits and first responder numbers.

“Disaster recovery/business continuity is a program, not a project.”

— Peter Steinfeld , Senior Vice President of Safety Solutions at AlertMedia

Flexibility and adaptability are essential, especially when you consider that workplace emergencies can span from power outages to bomb threats. Some disasters, like hurricanes or flash floods , might require more than one emergency plan—personnel might have to respond simultaneously to power outages, IT complications, and travel disruptions. The more elements of an emergency management program your business plan can address, the better.

Clear, consistent, and timely communication is also foundational to any effective emergency management plan. It ensures employees know what to do in the event of an emergency and they always have a lifeline to support. A robust emergency communication strategy will make sure everyone is on the same page and understands what is going on, whether they should be actively responding to the emergency or just keeping themselves safe.

3. Response

When an emergency does hit your business, you don’t want to just react; you want to respond. Where reactions are often chaotic or unpredictable, an effective response is intentional, well-planned, and action-oriented. They are tailor-made to types of hazards but still flexible enough to adjust in the face of unforeseen changes. Taking advantage of your prepared emergency plans in the face of a crisis will minimize the impact on the well-being of both employees and business operations.

The response phase is critical in an emergency, so being able to communicate with employees quickly is invaluable. A quality emergency communication solution will ensure that your messages reach the right people quickly, no matter where they are. Without communication, there is no way for key personnel to execute their designated emergency duties. There is no way to provide real-time emergency alerts and up-to-date information. There is no way to answer any employee questions that may arise.

With the right plan in place and a reliable communication system, you are set up to respond to the incident. Activate your emergency operations plan to maintain essential services and contact emergency services/law enforcement or your emergency management agency if necessary. While response activities take place over the short-term, they will see your business through the worst of the crisis and to the next phase of disaster management: recovery.

4. Recovery

Management of an emergency often continues long after the initial threat has passed. This is the recovery phase—where you address the impact of the disaster and mitigate further risk. Be prepared to take corrective actions to recover both the business and your employees.

Establishing a recovery plan during the preparation phase of emergency management will help guide the process. For instance, recovering from an information technology (IT) crisis might include restoring data and performing careful system updates. In the case of a public health crisis like the coronavirus pandemic, workplace recovery might include developing a COVID-19 vaccination policy or helping employees adjust to remote work .

Write an after-action report (AAR) and summarize your organization’s response to emergencies or drills. Additionally, documenting your recovery activities will help identify opportunities for improvement for future disasters and enable you to communicate event details with employees and other stakeholders effectively.

Learn a step-by-step framework for developing an after action report to ensure your organization is prepared for any emergency scenario.

What Is a Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan?

A comprehensive emergency management plan (CEMP) outlines an all-hazards approach that accounts for any plausible threat to your business. It outlines steps to take during critical events in order to optimize safety and minimize harm. While emergencies often occur when we least expect them, emergency preparedness can prevent emergencies from becoming catastrophes.

Comprehensive emergency management plans are broad, detailed plans that provide a framework with which any problem can be solved. This approach differs from an emergency response plan , which exists to mitigate the impact of one specific emergency on your business.

In the workplace, the emergency management planning process begins with a threat assessment to analyze the likelihood and severity of potential threats that could impact the business, from severe weather to acts of violence. Next, a plan of action is established and practiced. Disaster response roles are assigned, essential supplies are collected, and plans for post-disaster recovery are put into place.

“The best time to prepare for a disaster is in a classroom, not when a disaster occurs.”

— Larry Robert , Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery Manager, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston

Maintaining a proactive, rather than reactive, response to emergencies ensures that employees stay as safe as possible. A strong plan also helps maintain the continuity of operations during any unpredictable situation.

Why Build an Emergency Management Plan?

At their core, CEMPs exist to protect people. All employers have a duty of care to their employees—in other words, businesses are obligated to keep people safe while at work.

In addition to providing a safe work environment, there are other benefits to establishing a preparedness plan. Effective preparedness activities reduce loss of life and property damage, speed up recovery, and minimize the overall cost of disaster recovery. One study even found that every $1 invested in disaster preparedness can save up to $11 in total cost.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) estimates that about 25% of businesses won’t reopen after facing a disaster. Effective preparation will help reduce the negative impact an emergency has on business operations and promote a return to normal operations and success. Though it might seem like more work on the front end, committing to a comprehensive emergency management plan is both a wise business decision and invaluable when it comes to protecting your people.

“The number one goal is to always take care of the health and safety of our [employees].”

— Justen Noakes , Director of Emergency Preparedness, HEB

Now that you have the basics of emergency management, it’s time to build a plan that works for your business. Here are five practical steps to guide you:

1. Determine your emergency risks

First, sit down with your organization’s key stakeholders and run a risk assessment to determine the threats that are relevant to your business and its employees. Remember to take seasonal and regional factors into account—like preparing for hurricane season or severe winter weather. Other hazards might pose a threat year-round, like cybersecurity issues or workplace violence.

2. Account for your whole team

When building your CEMP for the year ahead, consider all members of your business team. For instance, how can you maintain accessible evacuation routes for personnel with disabilities ? Consider vendors who might be onsite in the event of an emergency and how you can effectively care for and communicate with them too. Identify the key stakeholders responsible for these actions, and build contact lists for different groups based on location or potential for impact.

3. Find your technology solutions

There are many software solutions that can make building and executing your CEMP much easier, and you want to have them implemented before a crisis hits.

Threat intelligence solutions can help you identify and assess emerging threats that could impact your business. Emergency communication software allows for rapid, multichannel notifications and up-to-date information in the case of a crisis. Using two-way emergency communication software also allows employees to ask questions and gather the information they need to remain safe and maintain essential operations.

Since technology should make things easier, not harder, finding all-in-one platforms for emergency communications is always better than patching together various disconnected systems. Emergency communication solutions with integrated threat intelligence and employee safety monitoring, like AlertMedia, make staying connected easier on you and your employees.

4. Run drills

A plan is only that unless you ensure everyone knows how to use it. True preparedness requires practice. Running evacuation drills, such as natural disaster or fire drills , will show everyone what they should do and where they should go in an emergency situation. Running an active shooter drill will help employees respond appropriately in a potentially paralyzing situation.

Disaster recovery tabletop exercises are also a great way to prepare for when disaster strikes in the workplace. They are low-stakes, simulated scenarios where employees can put their strategic plans into practice. A tabletop exercise creates a safe learning environment and is also a good way to identify potential opportunities for improvement.

5. Plan for communication

Having a communication system in place is invaluable in a variety of situations—from winter weather to political demonstrations to the global pandemic . The ability to disseminate vital information and stay in touch with employees is absolutely essential in the event of an emergency.

Mass notification solutions allow you to keep everyone informed. You can ensure employees have accurate, rapid, and regular updates by using a two-way, multichannel alert notification system that will help minimize chaos and maximize employee safety.

Event page functionality can further ensure employees receive consistent and accurate information during a crisis. With a centralized hub to act as an incident command system and provide ongoing updates and streamline access to critical resources for any incident, employees are always on the same page. Disseminating information in this way prevents misinformation and reduces confusion during critical events.

Planning for Your Safest Year Yet

There’s no better time than now to look over your current emergency management plan and make improvements for the year ahead. Don’t wait until you’re mid-crisis to start getting organized—get prepared now. Need to do more research? Subscribe to The Employee Safety Podcast . And our newsletter, The Signal , is packed with safety insights and action-item alerts.

Wherever you are on the journey toward building a stronger emergency preparedness plan, AlertMedia has the resources your business needs to find success. With a comprehensive emergency management plan—supported by robust emergency communication software—you can be confident that you will have your safest year yet.

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Business continuity and disaster recovery plans are risk management strategies that businesses rely on to prepare for unexpected incidents. While the terms are closely related, there are some key differences worth considering when choosing which is right for you:

• Business continuity plan (BCP): A BCP is a detailed plan that outlines the steps an organization will take to return to normal business functions in the event of a disaster. Where other types of plans might focus on one specific aspect of recovery and interruption prevention (such as a natural disaster or cyberattack), BCPs take a broad approach and aim to ensure an organization can face as broad a range of threats as possible.
• Disaster recovery plan (DRP):  More detailed in nature than BCPs, disaster recovery plans consist of contingency plans for how enterprises will specifically protect their IT systems and critical data during an interruption. Alongside BCPs, DR plans help businesses protect data and IT systems from many different disaster scenarios, such as massive outages, natural disasters,  ransomware  and  malware  attacks, and many others.
• Business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR): Business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR) can be approached together or separately depending on business needs. Recently, more and more businesses are moving towards practicing the two disciplines together, asking executives to collaborate on BC and DR practices rather than work in isolation. This has led to combining the two terms into one, BCDR , but the essential meaning of the two practices remains unchanged.

Regardless of how you choose to approach the development of BCDR at your organization, it’s worth noting how quickly the field is growing worldwide. As the results of bad BCDR like data loss and downtime become more and more expensive, many enterprises are adding to their existing investments. Last year, companies worldwide were poised to spend USD 219 billion on cybersecurity and solutions, a 12% increase from the year before according to a recent report by the International Data Corporation (IDC) (link resides outside ibm.com).

Why are business continuity and disaster recovery plans important?

Business continuity plans (BCPs) and disaster recovery plans (DRPs) help organizations prepare for a broad range of unplanned incidents. When deployed effectively, a good DR plan can help stakeholders better understand the risks to regular business functions that a particular threat may pose. Enterprises that don’t invest in business continuity disaster recovery (BCDR) are more likely to experience data loss, downtime, financial penalties and reputational damage due to unplanned incidents.

Here are some of the benefits that businesses who invest in business continuity and disaster recovery plans can expect:

• Shortened downtime: When a disaster shuts down normal business operations, it can cost enterprises hundreds of millions of dollars to get back up and running again. High-profile  cyberattacks  are particularly damaging, frequently attracting unwanted attention and causing investors and customers to flee to competitors who advertise shorter downtimes. Implementing a strong BCDR plan can shorten your recovery timeframe regardless of the kind of disaster you face.
• Lower financial risk: According to  IBM’s recent Cost of Data Breach Report, the average cost of a data breach was USD 4.45 million in 2023—a 15% increase since 2020. Enterprises with strong business continuity plans have shown they can reduce those costs significantly by shortening downtimes and increasing customer and investor confidence.
• Reduced penalties: Data breaches can result in large penalties when private customer information is leaked. Businesses that operate in the healthcare and personal finance space are at a higher risk because of the sensitivity of the data they handle. Having a strong business continuity strategy in place is imperative for businesses that operate in these sectors, helping keep the risk of heavy financial penalties relatively low.

How to build a business continuity disaster recovery plan

Business continuity disaster recovery (BCDR) planning is most effective when businesses take a separate but coordinated approach. While business continuity plans (BCPs) and disaster recovery plans (DRPs) are similar, there are important differences that make developing them separately advantageous:

• Strong BCPs focus on tactics for keeping normal operations running before, during and immediately following a disaster. 
• DRPs tend to be more reactive, outlining ways to respond an incident and get everything back up and running smoothly.

Before we dive into how you can build effective BCPs and DRPs, let’s look at a couple of terms that are relevant to both:

• Recovery time objective (RTO):  RTO refers to the amount of time it takes to restore business processes after an unplanned incident. Establishing a reasonable RTO is one of the first things businesses need to do when they’re creating either a BCP or DRP. 
• Recovery point objective (RPO):  Your business’ recovery point objective (RPO) is the amount of data it can afford to lose in a disaster and still recover. Since data protection is a core capability of many modern enterprises, some constantly copy data to a remote  data center  to ensure continuity in case of a massive breach. Others set a tolerable RPO of a few minutes (or even hours) for business data to be recovered from a backup system and know they will be able to recover from whatever was lost during that time.

How to build a business continuity plan (BCP) 

While each business will have slightly different requirements when it comes to planning for business continuity, there are four widely used steps that yield strong results regardless of size or industry.

1. Run a business impact analysis 

Business impact analysis (BIA) helps organizations better understand the various threats they face. Strong BIA includes creating robust descriptions of all potential threats and any vulnerabilities they might expose. Also, the BIA estimates the likelihood of each event so the organization can prioritize them accordingly.

2. Create potential responses

For each threat you identify in your BIA, you’ll need to develop a response for your business. Different threats require different strategies, so for each disaster you might face it’s good to create a detailed plan for how you could potentially recover.

3. Assign roles and responsibilities

The next step is to figure out what’s required of everyone on your disaster recovery team in the event of a disaster. This step must document expectations and consider how individuals will communicate during an unplanned incident. Remember, many threats shut down key communication capabilities like cellular and Wi-Fi networks, so it’s wise to have communication fallback procedures you can rely on.

4. Rehearse and revise your plan

For each threat you’ve prepared for, you’ll need to constantly practice and refine BCDR plans until they are operating smoothly. Rehearse as realistic a scenario as you can without putting anyone at actual risk so team members can build confidence and discover how they are likely to perform in the event of an interruption to business continuity.

How to build a disaster recovery plan (DRP)

Like BCPs, DRPs identify key roles and responsibilities and must be constantly tested and refined to be effective. Here is a widely used four-step process for creating DRPs.

1. Run a business impact analysis

Like your BCP, your DRP begins with a careful assessment of each threat your company could face and what its implications could be. Consider the damage each potential threat could cause and the likelihood of it interrupting your daily business operations. Additional considerations could include loss of revenue, downtime, cost of reputational repair (public relations) and loss of customers and investors due to bad press.

2. Inventory your assets

Effective DRPs require you to know exactly what your enterprise owns. Regularly perform these inventories so you can easily identify hardware, software, IT infrastructure and anything else your organization relies on for critical business functions. You can use the following labels to categorize each asset and prioritize its protection—critical, important and unimportant.

• Critical:  Label assets critical if you depend on them for your normal business operations.
• Important:  Give this label to anything you use at least once a day and, if disrupted, would impact your critical operations (but not shut them down entirely).
• Unimportant:  These are the assets your business owns but uses infrequently enough to make them unessential for normal operations.

Like in your BCP, you’ll need to describe responsibilities and ensure your team members have what they need to perform them. Here are some widely used roles and responsibilities to consider:

• Incident reporter:  Someone who maintains contact information for relevant parties and communicates with business leaders and stakeholders when disruptive events occur.
• DRP  supervisor:  Someone who ensures team members perform the tasks they’ve been assigned during an incident. 
• Asset manager:  Someone whose job it is to secure and protect critical assets when a disaster strikes. 

4. Rehearse your plan

Just like with your BCP, you’ll need to constantly practice and update your DRP for it to be effective. Practice regularly and update your documents according to any meaningful changes that need to be made. For example, if your company acquires a new asset after your DRP has been formed, you’ll need to incorporate it into your plan going forward or it won’t be protected when disaster strikes.

Examples of strong business continuity and disaster recovery plans

Whether you need a business continuity plan (BCP), a disaster recovery plan (DRP), or both working together or separately, it can help to look at how other businesses have put plans in place to boost their preparedness. Here are a few examples of plans that have helped businesses with both BC and DR preparation.

• Crisis management plan:  A good crisis management plan could be part of either business continuity or disaster recovery planning. Crisis management plans are detailed documents that outline how you’ll manage a specific threat. They provide detailed instructions on how an organization will respond to a specific kind of crisis, such as a power outage, cybercrime or natural disaster; specifically, how they’ll deal with the hour-by-hour and minute-by-minute pressures while the event is unfolding. Many of the steps, roles and responsibilities required in business continuity and disaster recovery planning are relevant to good crisis management plans.
• Communications plan:  Communications plans (or comms plans) equally apply to business continuity and disaster recovery efforts. They outline how your organization will specifically address PR concerns during an unplanned incident. To build a good comms plan, business leaders typically coordinate with communications specialists to formulate their communications plans. Some have specific plans in place for disasters that are deemed both likely and severe , so they know exactly how they’ll respond.
• Network recovery plan:  Network recovery plans help organizations recover interruptions of network services, including internet access, cellular data, local area networks (LANs) and wide area networks (WANs). Network recovery plans are typically broad in scope since they focus on a basic and essential need—communication—and should be considered more on the side of business continuity than disaster recovery. Given the importance of many networked services to business operations, network recovery plans focus on the steps needed to restore services quickly and effectively after an interruption.
• Data center  recovery plan: A data center recovery plan is more likely to be included in a BCP than a DRP because of its focus on data security and threats to IT infrastructure. Some common threats to data backup include overstretched personnel, cyberattacks, power outages and difficulty following compliance requirements. 
• Virtualized recovery plan:  Like a data center plan, a virtualized recovery plan is more likely to be part of a BCP than a DRP because of a BCP’s focus on IT and data resources. Virtualized recovery plans rely on  virtual machine (VM)  instances that can swing into operation within a couple of minutes of an interruption. Virtual machines are representations/emulations of physical computers that provide critical application recovery through high availability (HA), or the ability of a system to operate continuously without failing.

Business continuity and disaster recovery solutions 

Even a minor interruption can put your business at risk. IBM has a wide range of contingency plans and disaster recovery solutions to help prepare your business to face a variety of threats including cloud backup and disaster recovery capabilities and security and resiliency services.

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Planning Guides

Comprehensive Guides

Planning Considerations

Houses of Worship & Schools

Pre-Disaster Recovery

Other Resources

Accomplished properly, planning provides a methodical way to engage the whole community in thinking through the lifecycle of a potential crisis, determining required capabilities and establishing a framework for roles and responsibilities. It shapes how a community envisions and shares a desired outcome, selects effective ways to achieve it and communicates expected results.

A shared planning community increases the likelihood of integration and synchronization, makes planning cycles more efficient and effective and makes plan maintenance easier.

We have resources to guide the way.

Have questions? Email the National Integration Center .

Cyber Incidents

Developed in coordination with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), “ Planning Considerations for Cyber Incidents: Guidance for Emergency Managers ” guide provides state, local, tribal, and territorial emergency managers with foundational knowledge of cyber incidents to increase cyber preparedness efforts in their jurisdictions. This guide is intended to help emergency management personnel collaboratively prepare for a cyber incident and support the development of a cyber incident response plan or annex. Download the Overview document and Critical Cyber Asset Identification & Prioritization Checklist . View the short video outlining the important roles emergency managers have in planning for cyber incidents impacting their communities through the identification and prioritization of critical services and dependencies.

Private Public Partnerships

The Private-Public Partnerships (P3) Guide and supplemental documents provide jurisdictions with best practices to establish and maintain a private-public partnership to help coordinate mitigation, response & recovery planning and preparedness, and increase community resilience. 

Building Private-Public Partnerships

Execu tive Summary

P3 Guide  | View in  Sp ani sh

Restoration and Recovery Guide

Fact Sheets:

P3s Support Equitable Outcomes for Risk Reduction

P3s Support Reducing Risks and Building Resilience

Information Sharing Guide for Private-Public Partnerships

Provides recommendations and resources for any P3 to develop, conduct, and improve the capability to share information for resilience and all response and recovery. The members of a P3 often share information through the human and technical systems of a partnership network, a community resilience hub, or a business emergency operations center (BEOC).

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Comprehensive preparedness guide 101: developing and maintaining emergency operations plans.

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CPG 201: Threat and Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment (THIRA) and Stakeholder Preparedness Review (SPR) Guide

CPG 201 provides guidance for conducting a Threat and Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment (THIRA) and Stakeholder Preparedness Review (SPR).

CPG 502: Considerations for Fusion Center and Emergency Operations Center Coordination

CPG 502 outlines the information-sharing roles of fusion centers and emergency operations centers and identifies planning and coordination considerations each entity.

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Disaster Financial Management Guide

Identifies the capabilities and activities necessary to prepare and successfully implement disaster financial management while maintaining fiscal responsibility throughout response and recovery operations.

Distribution Management Plans

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Disaster Housing

Guidance on national housing priorities, types of housing, key considerations and housing-specific planning recommendations that jurisdictions can apply when developing or improving housing plans.  ( Spanish )

Supply Chain Resilience Guide

Provides emergency managers with recommendations and best practices on how to analyze local supply chains and work with the private sector to enhance supply chain resilience using a five-phased approach.

Hazardous Materials Incidents

Provides officials with information and resources on hazardous materials, incident preparedness and response and practices to increase community resilience to those incidents.

Healthcare Facilities and Power Outages

Provides jurisdictions, utility owners/operators, and healthcare facilities with information and resources to improve resilience to power outages, integrate plans, and prioritize assistance during an outage.

Emergency Operation Plans – Houses of Worship and Schools

Houses of worship.

Guide on emergency operations planning, discussing actions that may be taken before, during and after an incident to reduce the impact on property and loss of life. It encourages houses of worship to develop an emergency operations plan.

Institutions of Higher Education

This guide outlines principles of emergency management planning for institutions of higher education, provides a process for the development of emergency operations plans and describes the content with those plans.

K-12 Schools

This guide provides recommendations in the development of plans not only to respond to an emergency, but also outlines how schools (K-12) can plan for preventing, protecting against, mitigating the impact of and recovering from these emergencies.

Pre-Disaster Recovery Planning Guides

Tribal governments.

This guide prepares tribal governments for recovery efforts from future disasters by engaging with the whole community and planning for recovery activities that are comprehensive and long term.

Local Governments

This guide is designed to help local governments prepare for recovery from future disasters offering tools for public engagement, whole-community recovery, identification of existing recovery resources, and identifying outside partnerships that can help local governments build resilience.

State Governments

This guide helps states and territories prepare for recovery by developing pre-disaster recovery plans that follow a process to engage members of the whole community, develop recovery capabilities across government and nongovernmental partners and create an organizational framework for comprehensive recovery efforts.

Implementation of Community Lifelines

Lifelines enable the continuous operation of critical government and business functions and is essential to human health and safety or economic security.

Disaster Resource Identification Fact Sheet

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10 Ways to Build an Effective Crisis Management Strategy for Business

Home Blog Media Monitoring 10 Ways to Build an Effective Crisis Management Strategy for Business

Posted on April 1st 2024

Irina Weber | 11 min read

Months of meticulous planning culminated in the highly anticipated launch of your company’s flagship product. Unfortunately, a critical bug was found in the product. It caused widespread malfunctions and bad user reviews. Public perception fell, and the carefully planned launch crumbled into chaos.

While dramatic, this hypothetical scenario highlights the possibility of unforeseen crises impacting any business.

Predicting each crisis is impossible. But, proactive companies can build a strong crisis management strategy to tackle these unpredictable situations.

In other words, crisis management strategies doesn’t predict the future. It is about being ready to respond well to the unexpected.

This comprehensive plan empowers you to protect your reputation, minimize potential damage, and ensure a smooth recovery. This will let your business emerge stronger.

What is a Crisis Management Strategy?

The crisis management strategy involves creating and implementing a plan of action that everyone on the team can follow to resolve a crisis quickly and efficiently.

It should identify risks. Make step-by-step plans. Plan for disaster recovery. Set up backup communications. And, it should clearly define key personnel and their roles.

The crisis management plan should contain different components. These parts include: noticing incidents, being aware of the situation, and having social skills to understand risks.

If we don’t talk about these things, we won’t understand the threats to our organization. Without these elements, you can’t fully comprehend the threats that your organization may face.

A well-designed crisis management strategy can help you respond to crises more effectively and minimize damage to your organization.

The Top 10 Strategies For Effective Crisis Management

This blog will walk you through 10 effective strategies based on real-world crises. That will help you create and implement a crisis management plan, turning a potential disaster into a manageable problem.

1. Put Customers First

Prioritizing your customers’ safety, concerns, and well-being is paramount during a crisis. That builds trust and fosters loyalty, demonstrating your commitment to their needs even in challenging times. Genuinely caring for your customers will strengthen you in the long term.

When a crisis occurs, avoid blaming customers. Try to be in their shoes and experience their pain. Ensure you take a supportive position instead of fighting your company on social channels.

Fortunately, many effective ways exist to respond to negative comments and mollify customers’ anger. For example, you can give a refund. You can offer discounts or promo codes for future purchases. Or, you can contact them directly to apologize.

Scenario: A popular fast-food chain experiences a foodborne illness outbreak, linked to their restaurants.

Crisis Management Strategy: The company prioritizes customer safety. They quickly apologize, recall contaminated products, and offer free medical checkups to affected customers. Transparency and swift action can help rebuild trust and minimize long-term damage to the brand.

2. Prepare for a Crisis

A crisis can happen at any time, causing stress and chaos. You should prepare for it in advance and be ready to handle unexpected situations calmly and efficiently. Creating a crisis plan can help you provide clear, quick steps and instructions for teams.

It’s essential to define your goals, members of your crisis management plan, your target audience, how to communicate with them, and how to overcome crises naturally without hurting your brand.

You shouldn’t wait for a crisis to strike—be proactive. Explore how to predict threats. These range from data breaches to product recalls. Develop contingency plans to lessen their impact. You will be better equipped to handle unforeseen situations more confidently by thinking ahead.

Scenario: An airline faces potential delays and cancellations due to an impending snowstorm.

Crisis Management: A pre-defined plan helps the airline proactively communicate with passengers, offer rebooking options, provide transparent information about delays, and ensure sufficient staff is available to handle the situation effectively.

3. Gather a Crisis Management Team

Crises demand a coordinated response. Building a dedicated crisis management team with diverse skill sets is crucial.

This team should be responsible and reliable in managing your crisis strategy and composed of individuals from different departments, including legal, public relations, and operations. That will help with effective problem-solving and swift decision-making during challenging situations.

Ensure that your crisis team members focus primarily on dealing with crises rather than everyday work. By doing so, your team can remain alert and be fully equipped to handle any situation that comes their way, minimizing the impact on your company.

Scenario: A law firm SEO agency suffers a data breach, exposing sensitive customer information.

Crisis Management: A crisis management team is dedicated to addressing crises. It includes legal, IT security, and public relations experts. They work together to address the breach, contain the damage, and talk to affected customers well.

Mark McShane, Digital PR Agency Owner at Cupid PR , says, “ In crisis management, be quick with the facts and slow with the blame. ”

4. Determine All Potential Threats

No business is invincible. This step involves pinpointing vulnerabilities across your operations, products, and reputation.

By finding these weaknesses early, you can fix them before they become big issues. It prevents a small problem from escalating into a full-blown crisis.

Remember that different locations, sizes, and industries may face different business crises. Even if there are more apparent threats, like hurricanes for coastal businesses or winter storms in the Northeast, it’s critical to know your main risks and prepare for worst-case scenarios.

That helps your team plan for unexpected challenges that could harm your business and keep you away from long-term rehabilitation.

Scenario: A retail store chain faces potential disruptions due to a labor strike.

Crisis Management: By predicting labor disputes, the company can make plans to minimize disruptions. They can do this by, for example, getting temporary staff or working out alternative solutions with union reps.

Additionally, in today’s digital age, businesses face increasing cybersecurity threats, including data breaches and cyberattacks. Implementing a Virtual Private Network (VPN) can enhance data security by encrypting internet connections and safeguarding sensitive information from potential breaches or unauthorized access.

5. Plan Your Response for Each Scenario

Consider different crises, from natural disasters to social media missteps. Now, what is essential is to create specific response plans for each, outlining clear actions for various departments and communication strategies to keep stakeholders informed.

That is where you should have protocols and guidelines to help manage a data breach or handle a natural disaster.

Planning for diverse scenarios requires preparing to respond efficiently and effectively on social media platforms , minimizing potential damage. It is crucial to be honest, consistent, and open with your target audience in all communications. Avoid posting inaccurate information and supporting materials, which can cause harm and panic.

Scenario: A manufacturing company experiences a product safety recall due to a potential defect.

Crisis Management: Having pre-defined protocols for product recalls ensures a swift and efficient response. The company can develop clear communication strategies to inform customers and retailers about the recall process and offer replacement products promptly.

6. Create a Solid Communication Plan

Clear and consistent communication with all stakeholders—customers, employees, investors, and the media—is paramount in a crisis.

The next step is to make a communication plan to ensure everyone gets timely and accurate information. It will use various channels like email marketing . The goal is to foster transparency and trust in a challenging time.

An effective communication plan is crucial. It ensures all know how to communicate in an emergency. This includes employees and stakeholders.

That helps avoid confusion and chaos and ensures everyone is on the same side. The plan should include clear instructions on communicating effectively.

Scenario: A pharmaceutical company faces negative media coverage regarding the side effects of a new medication.

Crisis Management: A clear communication plan helps the company to address media inquiries proactively. It provides accurate and transparent information about the medication. It also addresses concerns raised by the public.

7. Develop a Recovery Plan

Crises do not last forever, but their impact can linger. This step focuses on developing a recovery plan to efficiently get your business back on track and minimize long-term consequences. The plan will outline steps to rebuild trust, address lingering concerns, and ensure a smooth return to normal operations.

Scenario: A natural disaster damages a company’s headquarters, impacting operations.

Crisis Management: A comprehensive recovery plan outlines steps to ensure business continuity. That might involve activating emergency protocols. It could mean moving critical operations and using communication strategies to keep employees and stakeholders informed.

8. Use All Communication Channels

In today’s digital age, information travels fast, and so should your crisis response. To reach your audience effectively, you must explore leveraging various communication channels, like social media, press releases, and your website.

Different crises demand different communication channels and messages. Understanding the nature of the crisis and the audience is critical. It is key to choose the right channels and messages for effective crisis management.

One effective strategy is to create ads on your social media platforms, ensuring your message is visible amidst the digital noise and engaging directly with your audience in real time. A multichannel approach ensures your message reaches the right people at the right time.

Scenario: A travel agency faces a public relations crisis due to a viral social media post highlighting a negative customer experience.

Crisis Management: The agency uses many communication channels. These include social media, press releases, and official website updates. They use them to address customer concerns fast, explain the situation, and fix the issue.

9. Train Your Employees on Your Plan

Your employees are often on the front lines during a crisis. They deal directly with customers and stakeholders.

Training them on the crisis management plan ensures everyone understands their roles and responsibilities and can respond confidently and consistently to the company’s message.

Conduct drills or online training modules to ensure everyone knows what to do during an emergency. That will help identify weaknesses in your plan and keep your employees prepared and confident in their abilities if something happens.

Scenario: A financial services company experiences a cyberattack, requiring employees to implement specific security protocols.

Crisis Management Strategy: Regularly training employees on the company’s crisis plan to ensure they are ready to react well. They will be ready in many situations.

That includes understanding their roles and responsibilities, communicating effectively, and following established security procedures.

10. Evaluate Your Performance After the Crisis

No crisis is a complete loss—it can be a valuable learning experience. Therefore, you should discuss how to analyze your performance after a crisis to identify areas for improvement and strengthen your plan for the future.

You can learn from your experience. You can use it to refine your approach and ensure your business is even more ready for the next unforeseen event.

Scenario: A clothing brand accidentally releases an offensive marketing campaign, sparking public outrage.

Crisis Management: The company should thoroughly evaluate its response strategies after the crisis. That helps identify areas for improvement, refine communication protocols, and ensure the company is better prepared to handle future crises effectively.

Implementing these crisis management strategies and preparing proactively help businesses face tough situations with more resilience. They also reduce reputational damage and emerge stronger from adversity.

Investing in crisis management strategies will equip your business with the tools to weather unexpected disruptions.

This proactive approach empowers you to identify potential threats, assemble a dedicated response team, and establish clear communication channels.

Plan for many scenarios. Put your customers’ well-being first. This way, you can lessen a crisis’s impact, build trust in hard times, and ensure a smooth recovery.

Remember to evaluate and learn from each experience. This allows you to refine your approach and be better prepared for the future.

Effective crisis management strategies fosters resilience. It lets you emerge from tough situations stronger and readier for the future.

It acts as a blueprint for future reference and will enable you to respond appropriately to similar situations.

My name is Irina Weber, a freelance writer, and content strategist. I love helping brands to create, publish, repurpose, and distribute content through different marketing channels. I am a regular contributor to a lot of media outlets like SEW, SME, SMT, CMI, etc.

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Table of Contents

Business continuity plan in the management and operations of hospitals: First experience to certify the PDTA processes with the requirements defined by ISO 22301:2019 in emergency medical services

Affiliations.

• 1 Unit of Quality and Risk Management, University-Hospital of Marche, Ancona, Italy. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8471-9965.
• 2 Unit of Quality and Risk Management, University-Hospital of Marche, Ancona, Italy.
• 3 Healthcare Medical Direction, University-Hospital of Marche, Ancona, Italy.
• 4 Consultek Group s.r.l, Fano, Italy.
• 5 General Director, University-Hospital of Marche, Ancona, Italy.
• PMID: 38533699
• DOI: 10.5055/jem.0791

Background: A business continuity plan (BCP) facilitates the performance of primary functions during emergencies or other situations that can disrupt normal operations. If risk management is done analytically, a business impact analysis (BIA), according to ISO 22301 certification, makes it possible to define the best strategy for supporting the company's assets and image, optimizing the operational efficiency of service recovery and redesigning spaces for health. Since 2015, our healthcare company has embarked on a certification process for all sectors and activities through the implementation and development of diagnostic and therapeutic paths for operational diagnos-tic-therapeutic-assistance pathways (PDTAs). PDTA processes are all certified by the ISO 9001:2015 management system hospital. Our hospital is the first healthcare company to have obtained ISO 22301:2019 certification concerning PDTA processes, offering patients the highest standards of quality and safety of care in emergency medical services.

Methods: The formal BCP process includes several steps prior to the creation of a BCP: create a BCP team, conduct a BIA, determine the continuity plan by using the results of the analyses, and conduct training and exercises to educate staff and improve the BCP.

Results: From the BIA analysis, the team identified the time-employee PDTAs in company paths under emergency and urgency: acute ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), TRAUMA, and STROKE, providing for a planning path that took advantage of the duration of approximately 12 months. This path included the creation of structural procedures, the redefinition and updating of the PDTA in the light of the BCP, the preparation of exercises aimed at guaranteeing the business continuity objectives, and, finally, the awareness of our stakeholders regarding its correct application.

Conclusions: With a business continuity management (BCM) system, companies take preventative measures to ensure they can start operations again quickly in an emergency. An exhaustive BIA in a hospital company reveals the effects when processes fail, how critical each process is for the company, and the amount of time required to get up and running again, thus providing the organization with important information for risk management. The measures for handling risks derived from this analysis are incorporated into a BCM system where the emergency plans are defined, too, so that business operations continue even in the event of an emergency.

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Boeing CEO to step down in management shake-up as manufacturing issues plague storied plane maker

FILE - Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun speaks with reporters after meeting Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., at the Capitol in Washington, Jan. 24, 2024. Calhoun will be stepping down at the end of the year from the top job at the company, which is under pressure from major airlines wanting to know how Boeing plans to fix problems in the manufacturing of its planes. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

FILE - An Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9 with a door plug awaits inspection at the airline’s hangar at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, Jan. 10, 2024, in SeaTac, Wash. Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun will be stepping down at the end of the year from the top job at the company, which is under pressure from major airlines wanting to know how Boeing plans to fix problems in the manufacturing of its planes (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson, FILE)

FILE - A door plug area of an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9, with paneling removed, is shown prior to inspection at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, Jan. 10, 2024, in SeaTac, Wash. Air safety in general and concerns about Boeing-made planes in particular have been on the minds of many since January, when a panel covering an emergency door hole blew off an Alaska Airlines plane flying 16,000 feet above Oregon. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson, File)

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A leadership shake-up at Boeing, including news Monday that its top executive plans to step down, highlights the difficult path facing the iconic aircraft manufacturer as it tries to navigate through yet another safety crisis .

CEO David Calhoun, who has been under unrelenting pressure since a panel blew off a Boeing 737 Max jetliner during a January flight, said he would retire at the end of the year. He said the decision to leave was his and the timing would allow for an orderly transition.

The head of the company’s commercial airplanes unit, Stan Deal, is already out. Boeing said he was replaced immediately by Stephanie Pope, a fast-rising insider who just became chief operating officer on Jan. 1.

In a third high-profile decision, board Chairman Lawrence Kellner, a former Continental Airlines chief, won’t stand for reelection in May, Boeing said. A former Qualcomm CEO who was appointed to succeed Kellner will lead the search for Calhoun’s replacement.

Calhoun was on the Boeing board during its worst time — the crashes of two 737 Max planes in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people. He leaves with the company under intense scrutiny from regulators and lawmakers since a door-plug panel blew off a brand-new Alaska Airlines Max jet in midflight on Jan. 5.

Investigators say bolts that help keep the panel in place were missing after repair work at the Boeing factory.

AP AUDIO: Boeing CEO to step down in management shake-up as manufacturing issues plague storied plane maker.

AP Washington correspondent Sagar Meghani reports Boeing’s CEO will leave the company as part of a broader leadership shakeup amid ongoing plane production issues.

The Federal Aviation Administration reviewed Boeing’s 737 factory near Seattle and gave the company failing grades on nearly three dozen aspects of production. The company has until late May to give the FAA a plan for improvement. In the meantime, the federal agency is limiting production of 737s.

The FBI recently told passengers from the Alaska Airlines flight that they might be victims of a crime .

Airline executives have expressed their frustration with Boeing, and even minor incidents involving jets the company produced are attracting extra attention .

In a note to employees on Monday, Calhoun called the Alaska Airlines blowout a “watershed moment for Boeing” that requires a ”total commitment to safety and quality at every level of our company.”

“The eyes of the world are on us, and I know we will come through this moment a better company, building on all the learnings we accumulated as we worked together to rebuild Boeing over the last number of years,” he said.

Boeing’s most significant effort to improve quality has been opening discussions about bringing Spirit AeroSystems, which builds fuselages for the Max and many parts for that and other Boeing planes, back into the company.

Mistakes made at Spirit, which Boeing spun off nearly 20 years ago, have compounded the company’s problems. Bringing the work of the supplier back in-house would, in theory, give Boeing more control over the quality of manufacturing key airplane components.

Calhoun said the two companies were making progress in talks “and it’s very important.”

Calhoun had been a Boeing director since 2009 when he became CEO in January 2020, replacing Dennis Muilenburg, who was fired in the aftermath of the Max crashes. In 2021, Boeing’s board raised the mandatory retirement age for CEO to keep Calhoun in the job.

He oversaw the Max’s return to service after a worldwide grounding that lasted nearly two years, and orders for the plane quickly picked up. Since then, however, a series of manufacturing flaws have delayed deliveries of new 737s and larger 787 Dreamliners to airlines, forcing the carriers to reduce growth plans.

Boeing has not filed its proxy statement for 2023, but previous filings show that Calhoun received compensation valued at more than $64.6 million from 2020 through 2022. Almost all of it was in the form of stock awards, options and bonuses.

The company, based in Arlington, Virginia, has lost more than $23 billion since Calhoun took over, although most of that is residual damage from the two Max crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia. Boeing shares have fallen more than 40% in that time – 24% since the Alaska incident, through trading on Friday.

Last week, Chief Financial Officer Brian West warned that Boeing burned between $4 billion and $4.5 billion more cash than it expected in the first quarter as it slowed down airplane production after the Alaska Airlines accident.

The company tapped former Qualcomm CEO Steven Mollenkopf to become the new board chairman and lead the search for Calhoun’s replacement.

Some Boeing critics in Congress said the shake-up in the top ranks is not enough and that Boeing needs to worry more about safety and less about producing more airplanes. That view is shared by a leading Boeing whistleblower.

“It is going to be hard to fix the culture, but the people at Boeing (who build planes) are capable of it,” said Ed Pierson, a former manager at Boeing’s 737 factory who is now director of a safety foundation . “Those employees need to feel valued and supported instead of (management) just directing them and pressuring them to produce planes.”

The focus on Boeing since early January took some of the surprise out of Monday’s news. Citi analyst Jason Gursky called the shake-up “both predictable and thoughtful.”

Some analysts had viewed the fast-rising Pope as a likely successor to Calhoun. Gursky said, however, that her move to lead commercial airplanes opens the way for an outsider to become CEO.

Before her promotion to chief operating officer at the beginning of the year, Pope, 51, was president and CEO of Boeing’s services business, where she dealt with both airline and military customers. She served as chief financial officer of the airplanes division before that.

Richard Aboulafia, a longtime aerospace analyst and now a consultant at AeroDynamic Advisory, said the management shake-up “is likely to be a pivotal moment in Boeing’s history, and probably a very positive one,” but the outcome depends on the next CEO.

Rebuilding Boeing will be “very hard, and a long road,” Aboulafia said. Putting people with technical skill in higher leadership positions would be a plus, he said.

He said Patrick Shanahan — a former Boeing executive and acting U.S. defense secretary during the Trump administration who has led Spirit AeroSystems since the fall — would be a “great choice.”

Cai von Rumohr, an aerospace analyst at financial services firm TD Cowen, said the management changes are “a partial step toward changing its culture to underscore safety and rebuild investor confidence in the company.” He said the fact that Calhoun gave more than eight months’ notice will help the Boeing board make “a considered decision” instead of “a knee-jerk reaction.”

The CEO of Irish airline Ryanair, a major Boeing customer, welcomed the management changes, including the replacement of Deal at the head of the commercial airplanes division. Michael O’Leary said in a video posted on X that Deal did a good job at Boeing sales, “but he’s not the person to turn around the operation in Seattle, and that’s where most of the problems have been in recent years.”

Shares of The Boeing Co. rose about 1% in trading Monday.

AP Business Writer Michelle Chapman contributed to this report from New York.