A business continuity plan (BCP) tells you and your workforce what needs to be done to keep your business operating in the face of a major disruption. But if your plan is hundreds of pages long, filled with technical details, or hard to parse, it likely won’t help when you need it most.
Your BCP should give your team clear instructions they can understand and follow under pressure. Here’s how to create a practical business continuity plan that works in the real world.
What is a business continuity plan?
A business continuity plan outlines how your business will continue operating during and after a disruptive event, such as a:
- Cyberattack
- Power outage
- Natural disaster
- Hardware failure
- Public health emergency
- Or other major unforeseen disruption
A good BCP identifies your most important business functions and the resources they depend on, and provides instructions on how your team can maintain or restore them.
Your plan doesn’t need to cover every possible scenario that can disrupt your business, but it should include the ones most likely to affect businesses in your location, industry, and vertical.
The dangers of an overly complex BCP
When developing a BCP, businesses may be tempted to account for every possible disruption and create detailed procedures for each scenario. However, trying to cover every contingency can make the plan unnecessarily complex. An overly complicateddisaster recovery plan can create problems of its own.
If employees cannot quickly find the information they need, they may hesitate or make decisions without guidance during an emergency. A plan that is too difficult to follow will fail when stress is high and time is of the essence.
You may also have difficulty keeping a lengthy plan current. Contact information, software, vendors, office locations, and employee responsibilities can change frequently. An outdated BCP may contain instructions that no longer work.
On top of all that, if your BCP is too hard to follow or update, no one will want to practice it or go through the trouble of making changes, making it effectively useless.
How to build a business continuity plan people will actually use
Consider what your employees actually need to know during a disruption and organize your plan around those needs.
1. Identify your critical business operations
Start by determining which activities your business must maintain to keep generating revenue. You may not be able to operate at full capacity during an emergency, so establish your priorities.
Consider:
- Which systems and applications are essential?
- Which employees or roles are needed to keep operations running?
- Which vendors and services are mission-critical?
- How long can each critical function remain unavailable?
This process helps you focus on essential operations and reduce your RTO.
2. Identify your biggest risks
It’s impossible to plan for every eventuality, so instead identify the disruptions that pose the greatest risk to your business and why.
Be sure to include common disruptions that most kinds of businesses are at risk of, such as:
- Ransomware
- Prolonged internet or power outage
- Severe weather (whatever is typical in your area)
- Loss of office access (such as with the COVID-19 Pandemic)
Then, make a list of what needs to be done to mitigate these risks before and after an incident. Your IT provider can help you assess technology-related risks and identify weaknesses in your infrastructure.
3. Create clear response procedures
Gather feedback from the people who will actually be using this plan to create straightforward instructions. During an emergency, employees should not have to interpret complicated technical language or search through dozens of pages to figure out what to do.
Your procedures should explain who makes key decisions, who contacts employees and vendors, how employees communicate, and how critical technology systems are restored.
Also be sure to keep your BCP and emergency contact information easy to access, even when the office is unavailable.
4. Assign responsibilities and prepare resources
With the broad plan in place, assign specific people responsibility for important tasks. Avoid giving critical responsibilities to only one employee when possible. Each role should have a backup if the primary person is unavailable.
Also make sure your team has access to the resources required to work during a disruption. Your IT team or managed services provider (MSP) can help you determine which technology resources should be included in your continuity strategy.
5. Practice, review, and update regularly
A BCP that isn’t rehearsed or kept current will likely fail. Run simple exercises that walk your employees through realistic situations:
- Start with a short discussion or tabletop exercise
- Observe your employees’ responses
- Afterwards, identify anything that caused confusion or did not work as expected.
- Document the results and update the plan accordingly
For ultimate peace of mind, contact XBASE for a customized business continuity plan that is both easy to follow and created with your unique threat profile in mind. We’ll ensure that your team can react quickly and decisively to prevent costly downtime from damaging your business.