The Simple Business Continuity Plan Template for Any Organization

Got a Plan?

Business interruption is a constant threat, so it’s important to always have a business continuity plan in place, not just when immediate threats are present. 

Due to the Coronavirus, your company may have already experienced a decline in employee productivity, a drop-in sales revenue, a financial impact due to stock market crash, delays in shipments, and a slew of other complications. 

Why Have a Business Continuity Plan? 

The effects listed above are common in any business interruption scenario, and each company is impacted differently depending on the industry they are in. One thing all these companies have in common is that their highest cost is their people. A significant drop in employee productivity and efficiency can be a nightmare to overcome and can greatly impact your bottom line. 

If you don’t already have a business continuity plan, there are some steps you can take to prepare for a multitude of business interruptions. Let’s begin with phase 1.  

Phase 1

1. 1. Determine the scope of your plan.
   2. Outline your key business areas.
   3. Identify what your critical business functions are.
   4. Figure out the dependencies between the multiple business areas and functions.
   5. Identify acceptable downtime for each of the critical functions.
   6. Organize the following details to create a plan to maintain operations.

Now that you have your basic business continuity plan mapped out it’s time to add some action items to get you off on the right foot. 

Phase 2 

1. 1. Establish a flexible worksite policy, such as work from home. 
   2. Select a process to communicate information to employees. Whether this is via email or a staff chat platform like Slack or Teams, it’s crucial that you can communicate quickly and easily with your staff. 
   3. Implement technology to provide secure, anywhere/anytime access to your applications and systems; just like if the employee is sitting at their office desk. This could be through a Public or Private Cloud provider or VPN access. 

The final phase is to start testing and implementing your business continuity plan by going over some of the vital divisions within your organization. Those divisions might include the following. 

Phase 3 

1. 1. Resource management
   2. Emergency response
   3. Employee training
   4. Incident management

Turning Plans into Actions

Now that you have the template to create your own business continuity plan, it’s time to turn those plans into actions. Hopefully, this template will help you prioritize your plans and get things moving. Remember to focus on employee communication, access to technology, essential business processes, and your company resources. Then, everything else will fall into place. Happy planning!  

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