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:
- understanding your organisation and where it is vulnerable
- identifying essential activities, staff and infrastructure
- deciding what you can do to make your business more resilient
- documenting what to do and who is going to do it
- testing your plan/procedures and discussing simple scenarios
- amending your plan following any learning from tests
- reviewing plans regularly and checking details are up to date
- making sure that staff are aware of any changes
- embedding business continuity into the organisations structure
View the business continuity management generic lifecycle.
For more information contact businesscontinuityplanning@hackney.gov.uk.
External resources
- London Prepared business continuity resources
- Business Resilience – a Guide to Protecting Your Business and People
- British Standards Institute (BSI) – ISO 22301 Business Continuity Management
- National business resilience planning assumptions – Cabinet Office
- Resilience in Society: Infrastructure, Communities and Businesses – Cabinet Office
- Expecting the unexpected: Business continuity in and uncertain world – National Counter Terrorism Security Office (NaCTSO)
Page updated on: 4 August 2019
Emergency Planning and Response Team
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