Preparing your business for emergencies
24-10-2022
The UK Government has a webpage with guidance to help businesses identify and prepare for the hazards and threats that may disrupt their operations.
Being more prepared and resilient can give a competitive advantage to your business. The actions you take to make your business resilient will depend on your circumstances and the risks you are comfortable taking. Having assessed these, only you can decide how much time, and possibly money, you want to invest in increasing your resilience. The suggested actions below will get you started, ranging from a free āprint-off and fill-inā plan to more specialised training.
Quick and easy preparation:
- Make sure you have suitable insurance ā theĀ Association of British Insurersprovides helpful information.Ā Commercial property insuranceĀ is particularly relevant.
- Complete theĀ Business Emergency Resilience Group 10 Minute Plan.
- Think through potential disruptions to your company and what you can do about them in greater detail using theĀ Dummies Guide to Business Continuity.
- Put together a ābattle boxā containing important documents and items to keep your business running, in case you have to relocate with little or no notice.
- Consider yourĀ preparation for cyber threats.
More advanced preparation:
- Complete a free Business Resilience Health Check to help you understand how to make your company more resilient in about 1.5 hours.
- Talk to neighbours, businesses and customers about your plans and how you could support each other.
- Test your plan and adjust it where necessary to avoid complications in an emergency.
- Make sure all your staff have copies of your plan and that they know their responsibilities in an emergency.
- Read the guidance for preparing your businesses for flooding and for preparing your premises.