Communicate Your Plan
Your plan needs to be communicated and understood by everyone involved. This sections outlines who you need to consider and some advice on getting across key information to each group.
Below is a list of the key groups or procedures you should bear in mind when communicating your plan, either before or after and emergency.
- Employees
- Neighbours/local community
- Local Authorities and enforcement bodies
- Customers or clients
- Suppliers
- Shareholders and banks
- Media
- Practical actions
- Next steps
Employees
Communicating your continuity plan to your staff is essential as they need to understand what to do if an incident does take place.
- Make sure your management team supports the continuity plan.
- Communicate the plan right down to all staff members.
- Delegate key roles to team members in an emergency and make sure these people understand their responsibilities.
- Set up regular practical exercises to test your continuity plan.
- Listen to your staff's feedback and review your plan when necessary. Make sure any changes are then communicated properly.
In the event of an emergency:
- Let all staff member know as soon as possible.
- Make sure that people who are not at work that day are aware of the incident.
- Tell staff about next steps (when the premises can be used again and intermin measures for working).
- Ask line managers to talk to their teams about the experience and how it will impact their roles.
- Be prepared to organise counselling for traumatised staff member.
Neighbours/local community
Ideally you should make local businesses and buildings aware of your continuity plan, so you can work together if an emergency occurs.
- Circulate your contingency plan to your nearest neighbours.
- Make sure you have chosen different evacuation points, to avoid confusion.
- Consider setting up a ‘buddy system’ with another organisation, where you agree to help each other with staff and resources in the event of an emergency.
Local Authorities and enforcement bodies
If you are faced with an emergency situation, then your first point of contact will be the emergency services via a 999 call. To work smoothly with these experts, you need to be aware of what your local authority and emergency services will do in an incident and discuss your plan with them once it has been developed.
- Contact your local authority’s emergency planning officer and ask them to review your plan.
- Read this description of the role of emergency services in the event of an incident.
- Contact your local fire service for advice on fire procedures.
Customers or clients
To ensure the continuity of your business you will need to reassure your customers and clients that you are prepared for an emergency and if an incident does take place, you will need to let your clients know how they will be affected. Your strategy will depend on your type of business, but some of the suggestions below should apply.
- Make sure you have a plan in place, and be prepared to discuss it with customers, if asked.
- You may have to refer to your plan in contracts, so make sure you are happy with the wording.
- If a major incident occurs, consider getting some updates on your website, so customers/clients can quickly get the details.
- Transfer key numbers to an alternative phone, so people can still get through.
- Ask staff to contact any clients they work with closely to explain the situation.
- Organised an email or paper newsletter where you explain your contunity plan and the extent of the disruption.
Suppliers
You may still have suppliers trying to deliver to you after an incident, so you will need to let them know if there are alternative arrangements.
- Make sure you have an up-to-date contact list of suppliers in your plan.
- Make sure there is a staff member’s name against each supplier.
- Brief staff on alternative arrangements for supplies.
- Ask relevant staff members to contact suppliers to let them know if deliveries need to be sent to a different location or postponed.
Shareholders and banks
An incident could impact shareholders’ confidence in your organisation. You need to make sure they are aware of your strategy for mimimising damage and getting back to business.
- Make sure someone senior in your organisation has an up-to-date list of key stakeholders.
- Contact bank/shareholders as quickly as possible with a report on the situation.
- Be prepared to outline any lossess and give an estimate for when you will be back to normal business.
- You may need to organise loan or overdraft facilities with your bank, in which case you may need to outline parts of your recovery plan.
Media
Skillful handling of the media can prevent potentially negative comments and ensure that if stakeholders or staff members do find out about the incident via the media, you will be a little more in control of what they hear.
- If your business is big enough, nominate an official media trained spokesmen.
- Coordinate media management with the emergency services and other affected businesses i.e. everyone should "sing from the same hymn-sheet".
- Consider the need for a public relations consultant.
- Consider placing adverts in local or national papers to inform the public and customers of the situation.
- Make sure the media knows you had a well-rehearsed continuity plan in place and be prepared to answer questions on how it worked in practice.
Practical actions
Any communication relies on you having the correct technology and procedures in place. Below are some of the key practicalities to remember.
- Ability to divert phone calls to a new location.
- Someone who can update website away from the premises.
- Alternative plan if mobile-phone system is restricted to emergency services use under Access Overload Control for Cellular Radio telephones (ACCOLC) procedures.
- Assignment of diary/log keepers to ensure proper records of messages and decisions, particularly important for any form of future enquiry.
- Plan to get information to all staff if the disaster occurs outside normal working hours.
- Plan for handling calls from relatives if the disaster occurs in business hours or when staff are travelling to and from work.
Next steps
Once you have a business continuity plan that you and your staff have approved, you need to make sure it actually works, so the next stage is to practise your plan.
Still need some inspiration? Take a look at some case studies showing how UK businesses have responded to real emergencies.
