It is the stuff of disaster movies, buildings collapsing, tornadoes taking everything in its path, and so forth. But, are these sheer flights of fantasy, or should you be prepared for these types of scenarios? A lot of modest business owners might not have a contingency plan in place, but if the worst-case scenario was to arise, would you know what to do? So, are there any ways for you to cover your bases, with regard to any type of disaster?
Prepare
Fail to prepare, prepare to fail! Having a contingency plan, regardless of the worst-case scenario, is essential. In preparing a worst-case scenario, you need to think about what could feasibly happen to your business. Not just the common issues like data breaches, and the like. But also, other issues that you might not consider.
Power cuts are something that can drastically impact every business now. We place such a reliance on tech to do the job for us, that one simple power outage is going to cause major upheaval. There are alternative power sources you could take advantage of, such as generators, but if this isn’t feasible, and you are concerned about how much productivity your business is going to lose, are there any alternate working options? For example, can you encourage your employees to work at home?
This could be a bit of an expense, but, if your employees have the technological means to do so, or you can provide them with emergency laptops and tablets, this, at the very least, keeps the business ticking over.
Encouraging Failsafe Options In Your Employees
When understanding how to implement an effective failsafe plan, you should hand it over to employees for suggestions. Because they are the ones that will be directly affected, if your business was unable to function, you will lose money, and this directly impacts them. So, as well as the aforementioned home working option, is there anything that your employees would prefer to see to ensure that they are catered for in this instance? Ultimately, it depends on the emergency scenario, but you still have to pay them, regardless of the circumstances.
Cascading The Information Effectively
In times of crisis, communication is vital, and this can be achieved by planning and preparing a suitable action plan in case of an emergency. But also, when it comes to crafting these bibles, they can very easily be ignored, and not updated, so when an emergency does arise, everybody is ill-equipped to deal with it.
While there are common health and safety regulations that have to be complied with, when you are constructing an action plan, you need to make it part of the policy to update it to reflect the changes in your business but also cascade it to your employees so they know what to do.
We should always be prepared for the worst-case scenario, and it’s surprising how many businesses aren’t prepared at all! It’s not difficult to concoct a plan of action, but also, by encouraging viable alternative options in your employees, it is going to provide that safety net that could potentially save your business.
This is a collaborative post.
