In Jasper, there are many types of situations a business could face.
Emergency situations - like a power outage, forest fire or chemical spill - can cause interruptions to a business' normal operations. These situations are hard on a business owner and the team of people who work there.
What can businesses do to prepare?
Check out our Business Continuity Guidebook and Workbook to help prepare your business for any situation.
Think about what could go wrong
Think about what could happen and what the effect(s) on your business would be.
Here are some things to think about:
- Loss of power, water, gas, phones or internet access
- Theft or loss of inventory or equipment
- Damage to the outside or inside of the building (vandalism)
- Loss of people's personal information, electronic data or files (cyber attack)
- Employee injury or illness
- Damage to the roads or sidewalk outside of your business
- Disruption from service providers, such as strikes
- Natural disaster like storms, flooding, forest fire, chemical spill
- Evacuation because of a natural disaster
Things you can do today:
- Draw out evacuation routes, emergency exits and meeting points. Display these plans where your staff can read them
- Make a list of passwords, building codes and phone numbers. Is there a 2nd person other than you who can be aware of these, too?
- Think about what you could do if you lost power, water or gas. For example, could you use a generator if you lost power?
Think about what you would do
Think about each situation you've imagined and create an action plan for each scenario.
For example:
Hazard = fire inside the business.
- What can you do to reduce this risk now?
- What can you do to protect your business should this situation happen?
- What steps will you take if a fire happens?
- How will you communicate with your staff, customers or the media in this situation?
- What would you need to do to get back up and running?
Test and update your plans
You've thought about the emergency situations your business might face and about what you might do in each situation.
Make sure your plan doesn't just sit on a shelf!
Things you can do today:
- Talk to your staff about emergency planning
- Ask your staff about their personal/family emergency plans
- Ask your staff about any hazards they identify either in or around the business
- Review your business' emergency plans once a year and make updates
- Prepare a go-kit with paperwork, back-up hard drives and other important items
- Take steps to prevent an emergency (for example, FireSmart the outside of your property)
- Put a copy of your 'Business Continuity Plan' into your go-kit
Talk to your team about your work in emergency planning. Talk to other business owners about their plans.