Fire. Flood. Tornado. Power outages. These are just a few of the problems that could affect your business and your family.
Disaster doesn’t have to strike your business directly to affect it. A flooded inventory room or a direct hit by a tornado will affect your business, but if one of your major suppliers has a major problem, or your customers are dealing with something like a fire, it affects you, too.
The old adage is true. The best defense is a good offense, and creating contingency plans for emergency situations can help save your business even in the most extreme situations. We’ve provided an online toolkit to get you started. Building a continuity of operations plan (COOP) for your business or organization is the first step to protecting your family and your investment. Click on each item to visit a page where you’ll find links, downloadable documents, information and contacts to help you plan for an emergency.
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1.Get your family and your employees’ families prepared first.
“If they are worried about their families, they won’t be able to do their jobs.” Lt. Col. Dave Young |
Create a home emergency kit.
Create a home communications plan.
Maps, a thumb drive with pertinent family documents like wills, insurance, scans of birth certificates, etc. are also helpful.
Consider sending an electronic copy of your critical personal and professional documents (wills, birth certificates, mortgages, etc) to a family member in a different geographic location.
Also include written printouts of each family member’s medical history, allergies, and medications in your emergency kit, along with several days’ worth of medications in case pharmacies or hospitals are unreachable or not functioning.
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2. Get informed.
Understand your business and what disasters can happen where your business is located regionally and specifically.
People get into trouble when they have a “lack of imagination of how bad a problem could be.” –Lt. Col. Young. |
What natural disasters are common in Lawrence, or could happen in Lawrence?
Is your business located in a flood plain?
Is your business near a place that uses, produces or transports chemicals that could spill? (think I-70 or K-10)
Where does your power come from?
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3. Identify your business’s Essential Functions.
What is an essential function? An essential function is what MUST happen in your business for it to continue to operate. Separate the “have to do” from the “nice to do” by asking what are your most important obligations legally or financially?
These need to be very specific to avoid confusion or ambiguity. Consider how you will focus your remaining resources, and what resources your suppliers may or may not have.
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When developing your Essential Functions, look for words like “must”, “shall”, “will” and “is required” in your company’s business plan, charter or governing laws.
Essential Functions should be written using the S.M.A.R.T. planning acronym
Sample Emergency Plan |
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4. Identify and secure a location from which your business can perform its essential functions if your own facility is not available.
Develop one or two plans for alternate site use—a place where you can move your business functions temporarily while your current location is uninhabitable.
You should consider locations that are unlikely to be affected by the disaster your business is suffering. For example, if power outages are common, choose an alternate site on a different power grid. If flooding is likely, choose a location out of the flood plain.
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Determine how much room and what services you’d need. In COOP terms, the spaces are rated as cold, warm or hot.
- Cold: A cold alternate work site refers to a warehouse-type facility or empty conference room with only lighting, HVAC, and an available phone line. Most alternate work sites are cold sites.
- Warm: A warm alternate work site is not fully functional without adding some minor elements, such as loading software on computers available at the site or bringing your laptops.
- Hot: A hot alternate work site is fully capable of supporting an agency's essential functions. This includes desks, chairs, computers, telephones, internet, and e-mail access, etc. Hot sites require very minimal or no set-up upon arrival but likely are the most expensive to maintain in a ready state.
Evaluate the balance of cost, time it takes to set up and the scope of needs you have when determining an alternative site.
Consider entering into Memoranda of Agreement (MOAs) with similar businesses locally or regionally to secure an alternative site. For example, if you own a restaurant that’s destroyed, find out if there’s a business across town (or a culinary school) that would allow you space to work while your own site is being fixed.
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5. Make backup files of all your vital records.
Statistically, vital records are about 7 percent of the paperwork generated by your company. This information can be stored on one or several flash drives and kept with the emergency totes. |
These records include:
- Legal and financial records
- Personnel records and Social Security numbers
- Payroll and retirement information
- Insurance records
- Your Continuity of Operations plan
- Your business plan
- Any corporate business plans
- Order of Succession
In case of a serious disaster where casualties are high, have a plan for who is in charge if the CEO or manager is incapacitated. Make sure everyone knows the chain of command. Include the chain of command by title, not by person, as who fills a particular position may change, while the position itself should stay relatively constant.
- Delegation of authority
- In a disaster, who is in charge of what?
- Keep it simple
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6. Make a communications plan for your employees.
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Make a staff phone tree that includes cell phones, home phones and regional contacts.
In a disaster, it can be difficult to reach people in the immediate area because cell phone service is jammed with an overload of calls. Include in the phone tree a contact outside the region for each person. For example, a person in North Lawrence may not be able to get through to a person in South Lawrence, but both may be able to call someone in Topeka.
Conduct staff training and an annual review of your disaster/COOP plans.
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| 7. Local Emergency Resources |
Ready.gov
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) website for disaster preparedness. Has tips and tools for both personal and business planning.
Douglas County Department of Emergency Management
Massachusetts, Lawrence KS 66044
(785) 832-5259
Kansas Division of Emergency Management
2800 S.W. Topeka Boulevard
Topeka, Kansas 66611-1287
(785) 274-1409
(785) 274-1426 FAX
Red Cross of Douglas County
2518 Ridge Court
Lawrence, KS 66046
785-843-3550
dgcoks@sunflower.com |