Your business continuity plan is worthless without a proper communication blueprint in place. Your strategy should focus on: Who should know what, why, when, and how. Let’s discuss.  

 

We all know a business continuity plan is now more than necessary for all types of organizations looking to establish resilience and uninterrupted operations under all circumstances.  

No matter what, your organization should have a well-documented and thoroughly - tested plan in place. Communication is part of this plan, defining what each involved party should do prior to executing a plan, during the execution, and after it. It also includes details on what to share, with whom, why, and by what means.  

Here is a 5-points strategy aiming to help you communicate effectively the plan details towards all involved parties.  

Here is the list.  

Point 1: Share EVERY detail with senior management 

The senior management of your organization should be aware of every detail in your plan, communication including. It is obviously critical that your plan meets business objectives and is aligned with all necessary security requirements against data and information breach.  

Point 2: Share the importance of the plan with select people 

Be prepared that not everyone in your organization will relate to the importance and the value of your plan. To overcome this, you need to engage with the right people, the ones positioned strategically in every department/business unit.  

Point 3: Share employees only the most accurate details – not necessarily every detail 

Non - managerial employees may sometimes find it difficult to identify the details of your plan. Therefore, you should share only what is important. Do not overload staff with information and do not expect them to evaluate everything the right way. By all means, document what you share and keep this information easily accessible by everyone at all times.  

Point 4: Educate staff on emergencies

It is important that your staff understands not only that they should do “this and that” but also “why” they should do something. Knowing the “why” will keep them engaged and results will be better in case of emergency.  

To that, educate staff on what they should do in case of a disaster regardless if it is influenza, earthquake or flood. Teach them personal protection and team safety at the same time. Talk to them about effective response strategies and about possible implications they should be well prepared about.  

Point 5: Evaluate and validate the communication tools you are using.  

Test the above actions with various communication channels and pick the most effective and efficient ones to use in case of emergency.  

Think security, accessibility, ease of use, connectivity. Do not exclude insecure communication channels. When things get tough, such channels may prove more than useful.  

Got more questions on business continuity? Do not hesitate to contact our team at Lamda Hellix. Please click here.