Which businesses should have a business continuity plan and why are they necessary?

Posted By on May 17th, 2019

The short answer to the question about which businesses should have a business continuity plan is that all businesses should have one. Regardless of size, industry sector or geographic location, all businesses should have a robust tried and tested business continuity plan.

It is a legal requirement for all UK companies to have basic emergency procedures in place. This includes making sure that all employees know the emergency evacuation procedures, what to do in the event of a fire breaking out, and what actions to take if a colleague is injured.

The UK Companies Act 2006 requires directors to exercise reasonable care, skill and diligence ‘when performing their duties’. This stipulation includes minimising risk within their business which can be achieved by having a business continuity plan.

Those businesses offering essential services, including digital service providers, need to evidence their incident response capability. It’s also becoming more common for businesses to insist that suppliers set out their business continuity plans as part of the tender pitch process.

Notwithstanding the legal requirements and potential demands as part of a pitch document, the importance of business continuity plans should not be under-estimated by any business. A well thought through plan will enable business owners and the business continuity team to manage the process of recovery following a disaster and ensure the business gets back on its feet faster than a business without a plan.

If you don’t have a business continuity plan for your business, then you shouldn’t delay any longer. Make sure you put one in place as soon as possible. Start by doing a risk assessment. Consider the risks your business faces and the possible disasters that could occur. Once you have a full list of the risks you could face, think about how you would address these and how you might stop a disaster from happening in the first place.

Your business continuity plan will fall out of the risk assessment. There are plenty of templates available online to help get you started. Or you could create one using First Recovery’s BRIO system. This allows you to create your own bespoke plan online, which can be accessed whenever you need it. It takes you through the whole process step by step and also allows you to allocate parts of the plan to different individuals. They can then access this and focus on their own particular responsibilities, without being distracted by other parts of the plan that are not relevant to them.

If you’d like the support of a specialist team to be by your side in the event of a disaster then why not talk to First Recovery to find out how we can help? Get in touch today  – your business continuity is assured in our hands.