The worst and most typical reaction for humans when confronted with high uncertainty is to freeze.
This also holds true for businesses.
Natural disasters such as hurricanes, floods, fires, earthquakes – even a pandemic — can severely interrupt our lives. For businesses, having a disaster recovery plan in place can help make your organization less vulnerable and provide a framework for a return to business as usual.
A disaster recovery plan is a document that details how your business will recover from a catastrophic event. It’s crucial to have one and to make sure employees, vendors and all stakeholders understand it.
The experts says the best disaster recovery plans touch on as many disaster scenarios as possible. Besides the most common ones like fire, earthquake, floods, hurricanes and tornadoes, planning for a pandemic should also be factored into recovery plans. However, unlike most disasters that focus on the recovery of physical property, a pandemic plan should highlight the best way to keep employees safe as well as productive.
Due to the spread of COVID-19 coronavirus, remote work is suddenly an overnight requirement for many. Companies set to recover best from the coronavirus are those that have implemented well thought out strategies about working from home. This includes having an adequate remote infrastructure in place so employees can file work and communicate with others.
And while the consequences of a pandemic event are hard to predict, business recovery could very well hinge on the condition of supply chains. Established hubs and supply networks could experience limitations in capacity and availability so that even if materials are available, they would be stuck elsewhere. A business continuity and disaster recovery plan should factor this into the pandemic equation and consider alternative routes and means of transportation.
Another factor to consider in a recovery plan for a pandemic is how consumers will react after lockdowns and other mobile limitations are lifted. There’s a very good chance that people will be reluctant to come in contact with crowds even after the all is clear sign. Businesses that can do so, might want to ramp up online selling rather than displaying products in public forums.
As with other types of disasters, having the proper insurance coverage can help keep businesses afloat. In addition to coverage for your business property, insurance packages such as business interruption, loss of use, and extended coverage will help protect against closures or the interruption of your operations.
True, few insurance policies cover pandemics because the risk is not well understood and difficult to price. But now, huge interest from companies looking for protection against business interruption suggests that pandemic policies are the next big thing in commercial insurance
Want to learn more? Tonex offers Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Workshop, a 2-day course that gives participants the skills to identify critical continuity needs resulting from natural disasters like the coronavirus pandemic, hurricanes, floods or wildfire. Disaster recovery strategies from mechanical or facility failure are also covered.
For more information, questions, comments, contact us.