Continuity and contingency planning is about being prepared for all types of disruptions, for example, an earthquake, broken equipment or losing a supplier — and quickly getting back on your feet.
Use this step-by-step guide to get your plan sorted. It’s vital to your business’s survival.
A business continuity plan (BCP) pinpoints the most important parts of your business, identifies potential risks to these critical pieces and prepares you to recover as quick and easy as possible. Contingency planning is a crucial part of continuity planning — it means having a backup if your original plan no longer works. It’s your plan B.
Your BCP shouldn’t be limited to what to do after a natural disaster. It should cover any risks or threats that could disrupt your most important business activities.
Emergency plans cover in-the-moment procedures in a crisis, for example, a natural disaster. BCP covers how you’ll get core parts of your business up and running again.
Business owners aren’t legally required to do business continuity planning (BCP) but there are many reasons to put time and energy into it. Many small businesses struggle to reopen after a disaster. Planning greatly improves the likelihood that your business will survive — so it should be on your must-do list.
Other reasons to do BCP:
This guide will get you thinking about how to protect the most important aspects of your business.
As you go through each step, consider:
It’s important to think of different options rather than absolutes.
Questions to ask:
These might be staff or business partners — or your board, if you have one.
Questions to ask:
Dahlia runs a café and both her servers are off with the flu. But she has a plan in a place for this situation — Student Job Search. She already has a job ad written up and on file, plus job search login details and instructions on how to post an ad.
She gets the ad up first thing in the morning. Temporary servers are in their aprons by the lunch rush.
Just like the rest of her employees, these casual workers need an employment agreement.
Dahlia uses business.govt.nz's online Employment Agreement Builder to quickly put together simple and legally safe agreements. She keeps these on file for next time she needs to call on these workers, or hire new casual employees.
Type of employment agreement: Casual employee(external link) — Employment Agreement Builder
These might be suppliers, service providers, clients or regular customers.
Questions to ask:
Questions to ask:
Questions to ask:
After the Christchurch earthquake, two panel-beating businesses could no longer work from their premises. They both had access to a temporary workspace, but it wasn’t big enough for all their workers.
Partnering up was an obvious solution — the owners had already been thinking about sharing a space due to rent rises.
They decided to offer a 24-hour service, with staff working in shifts around the clock in the temporary workspace.
This short-term solution — which drew on their contingency planning in case of rent rises — meant they could keep revenue coming in after the emergency.
Questions to ask:
Cover your assets(external link) — Resilient Organisations
Questions to ask:
Questions to ask:
Questions to ask:
Much like emergency plans, a business continuity plan shouldn’t sit on the shelf. It needs to be tried and tested with relevant staff at least once a year. This doesn’t need to be expensive or time-consuming.
Run 20-minute stress test exercises where you give staff a scenario to plan for. Rather than fixating on the cause of the disruption, e.g. a natural disaster or power cut, focus on how to manage the consequences:
No two crises are the same. But together, you may find similar solutions to different situations. Your plan will change as your business evolves, so make sure you debrief after each test and update the plan if necessary.
Staff need to know what to do even if you’re not available. Make sure your plan is easily accessible.
For a downloadable guide and template that walks you through important steps of BCP, see Wellington Emergency Management Office’s website Get Prepared.
Prepare your business(external link) — Get Ready
Resilient Organisations has resources to help small businesses thrive in any environment.
Guides for businesses(external link) — Resilient Organisations
Earthquake preparedness checklist [PDF, 356 KB] — Resilient Organisations