What to do When Disaster Hits

We all assume it won't happen to us and if you have taken our advice you will be prepared for such an occasion. However, even the most prepared will lose sight of their objectives in a crisis situation, so here is an essential list of things to do when a disaster hits:

What to do immediately following a disaster

• Evacuate the building if necessary
• Is everyone accounted for?
• Inform your staff members of the incident
• Check your staff list and their contact details
• Keep your staff up-to-date with any development regarding the disaster and informing them as to how the situation is being dealt with
• Inform your staff whether they should or should not leave the building
• Contact emergency services/local authority for advice (if relevant)
• Contact utility companies if necessary
• Ensure that everyone who is involved with the business continuity plan been informed
• Inform the top of the staff tree of the incident or those not on company premises
• Ask critical staff to get on with their business continuity responsibilities
• Establish staff information hotline (if organisation large enough)
• Begin media/ public relations process (if relevant)

What to do after the first hour of a disaster (if a move to an alternative site is taking place):

• Contact alternative site/ site supplier
• Check and make arrangements for work area requirements, technology requirements
• Check and make arrangements for resource requirements: office equipment, hardware and software, furniture, machinery
• Is the phone system working remotely from the old site?
• Is the phone system working on the new site?
• Test other utilities at the new site to see if they are working
• Switch off dangerous utilities at the old site

What to do after the first hour of a disaster (if you are staying in your premises):

• Check business recovery objectives
• Check inventory: make sure you have all your contacts, important documents and battlebox items
• Is the phone system working?
• Test utilities to see if they are working
• Are IT systems working?
• Contact insurance company
• Contact Vendors
• Check that everyone on the telephone tree has been contacted and is aware of what is happening
• Start/continue your PR process: check which customers/suppliers you had appointments with today and tomorrow and contact them to inform them of your situation: reassure them that everything is under control, that your business continuity plan has been put into action, that there will be a delay, but that everything will be fully operational within such and such a date

Contents of a Disaster Recovery Box (Battlebox)

• Up-to-date copy of your Business Continuity plan
• Copies of any dormant contracts with external resources such as contractors and copies of employee contracts.
• Building site plan
• Computer back-up tapes
• Software and hardware inventory
• Insurance Papers
• Other essential papers, such as Bank details, sales records, gross profit records
• First Aid Kit

Computer Hardware, Software and Peripheral Inventory

These will be useful for insurance purposes or when you need to re-purchase items.

You should include:

• Software Vendor or Leasing Company Information, as well as Off-site Data Backup information
• Information on your Peripheral Vendor or Leasing Company, as well as your peripheral Support Vendor information

A Description of Your Premises

This should contain information on:

• Location of the emergency exits
• A primary meeting point in case of evacuation
• A fall-back option if you have to evacuate in a different direction
• Details of what the premises contain
• Information that is important and specific to your premises i.e. storage facilities

Our online Business Continuity Plan tool provides a step-by-step guide on what to do on such occasions, however, if you are in the middle of such a crisis and need immediate help, call one of our advisors on 08457 715 715.