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A business recovery plan outlines the steps and actions you need to take when your business operations have been disrupted.
It is, in essence, a set of directions on how to recover the critical operations of a specific business area after a disruption occurs. The fact that you’re crafting one now demonstrates a high level of commitment to protecting your company in the event of an emergency as well as serving your customers through thick and thin. But not every business recovery plan is created equal. Let’s take a closer look at what distinguishes successful recovery plans from those that are destined for failure.
Elements Of A Successful Business Recovery Plan
While a good number of businesses have recovery plans, I’m willing to bet that most of them wouldn’t actually be used in a time of need. Why? They’re trying too hard. A 100-page manual isn’t ideal in a time of high stress. While it’s commendable to be thorough, a plan filled with industry jargon and extraneous information will always get left on the shelf.
In writing a recovery plan, you should strive to include only concise, executable instructions rather than informational descriptions. Doing so will ensure that your plan is useful—and actionable—should it ever be needed.
Download this free guide on creating and implementing a business recovery plan for a sample recovery checklist and the types of disruptions your plan should cover.
Every business recovery plan should include the following three components:
- Information on how to activate your plan.
- Recovery checklists by type of disruption.
- Critical supporting information.
Information On How To Activate Your Plan
Before any recovery steps can be taken, you need to outline some directives that will set the plan up for success. In other words, certain things need to be understood at the outset of a disruptive event. Without some specifics to lay the groundwork, your plan won’t ever get off the ground.
For instance, your plan should outline the following:
- A primary team leader and an alternate team leader who are responsible for business recovery actions.
- Members of the core recovery team.
- The individual responsibilities of the recovery team members.
- How the team will be assembled.
- How the disruptive event will be assessed.
- Who will determine if the recovery checklist should be activated.
- How the plan will be communicated to employees.
This section of the plan ensures that the situation will be assessed and that key team members will be assembled quickly and efficiently. It also lays out the process for communicating with your employees should the plan need to be activated—a critical step for starting the plan off right.
Download Now: The Complete Guide To Creating & Implementing A Business Recovery Plan
To find out more about the other components (including the four categories of disruptions, sample tasks in all phases of managing a crisis, critical supporting information, and a sample checklist so you can make a business recovery plan template of your own), get our free guide on how to create and implement a business recovery plan. Your plan is a key component of your company’s survival strategy, so take the time to do it right.
Michael Herrera
Michael Herrera is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of MHA. In his role, Michael provides global leadership to the entire set of industry practices and horizontal capabilities within MHA. Under his leadership, MHA has become a leading provider of Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery services to organizations on a global level. He is also the founder of BCMMETRICS, a leading cloud based tool designed to assess business continuity compliance and residual risk. Michael is a well-known and sought after speaker on Business Continuity issues at local and national contingency planner chapter meetings and conferences. Prior to founding MHA, he was a Regional VP for Bank of America, where he was responsible for Business Continuity across the southwest region.
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