Business continuity management

For any organisation, regardless of its size, planning and preparation is key to ensuring it can continue to operate and survive the impacts of a disruption to business. Business continuity planning involves making documented procedures for the loss or unavailability of the following:

• work locations
• staff/skills
• suppliers/contractors
• specialist equipment
• technology and communications
• data/information

A business continuity plan should guide an organisation to respond, recover, resume and restore its essential activities to a pre-defined level of operation. The process of business continuity management is a continuous cycle and involves:

1. understanding your organisation and where it is vulnerable
2. identifying essential activities, staff and infrastructure
3. deciding what you can do to make your business more resilient
4. documenting what to do and who is going to do it
5. testing your plan/procedures and discussing simple scenarios
6. amending your plan following any learning from tests
7. reviewing plans regularly and checking details are up to date
8. making sure that staff are aware of any changes
9. embedding business continuity into the organisations structure

View the business continuity management cycle (jpeg).

For more information contact businesscontinuityplanning@hackney.gov.uk.

External resources

• • Preparing your business for emergencies – Mayor of London
  • Business resilience: a guide to protecting your business and people – Fire Protection Association
  • ISO 22301 Business Continuity Management – British Standards Institute (BSI)
  • National business resilience planning assumptions – Cabinet Office
  • Resilience in Society: Infrastructure, Communities and Businesses – Cabinet Office
  • Business Continuity Institute (BCI) – training courses, events and free webinars on all aspects of business continuity and organisational resilience