Regular Contingency Planning Tasks
An effective Emergency Plan has accurate directions for quickly
assessing damage, quickly dispatching resources to needed locations and
minimizing congestion. To provide effective emergency plans:
- Regularly re-examine all aspects of emergency
preparedness
- Regularly re-define the role of emergency
operating centers
- Regularly re-train employees
- Regularly test employees capabilities
- Ensure emergency drills closely depict real-life
crises
- Regularly update contingency plans
The four common flaws in contingency plans are:
- Plan is not organized
- Plan format is too complex
- Plan is generic or too detailed
- Alternates are not identified or not accurate
1. Plan is not organized
Poorly documented disaster planning may be worse than
useless. In a crisis, people may waste valuable time searching for critical
information.
Does a plan provide essential information for each crisis?
Or is the document just a jumbled mixture of information from many sources?
- Assemble essential information for the right people in
the right sequence
- Organize information in a logical flow of how it will
be used in a crisis
- Ensure that copies of the plan are readily available to
all managers
- Keep information that is used only for planning in a
separate location
Company size determines how many documents are needed. A
small organization in one location may only need a
single document that contains all emergency information. A large company with
multiple locations needs an executive document, a company plan and supportive
contingency plans.
Executive Document
An executive document can inform
upper management what to do immediately in a crisis. It
should identify who is responsible for what and include duplicate removable
information pages of telephone numbers and alternate contact information for
key contacts.
Emergency Plan
An Emergency Plan should provide key policies about
generic disasters. Executives can use it to organize and plan long-term recovery
efforts. An Emergency Plan should create a clear picture of how the
organization will respond to generic disasters.
Contingency Plans
Each contingency plan should provide key policies about
specific disasters. Executives can use them to coordinate emergency actions
as a basis for recovery efforts. Each contingency plan should define a
specific algorithm of "who to contact" and "who does what" while listing all
alternate people and alternate actions appropriate to the defined crisis.
2. Emergency Plan is too complex
Electronic tools used to generating emergency plans can
increase confusion
in a disaster. Important questions are:
- What knowledge is required to access the emergency
planning documents?
- Will computers be accessible to those who need them?
- Will the applications that view the plans be running?
- Will current versions of the documents be available?
- Will emergency staff know how to find what they need in
documents created by other people?
- Have all key people rehearsed the plans?
Store off-site, easily accessible paper copies of
current emergency plans.
3. Plan is too generic or too detailed
Generic emergency plans may look good on paper. But a generic
plan based on false or incomplete assumptions will fail in a disaster.
Although a generic plan may be a useful planning tool, it must be carefully
scrutinized by all stakeholders and tested regularly to ensure that it
is effective.
- Overly detailed plans can be troublesome in a disaster
- The true “worst case” scenario may not have been
identified
- Emergency plans document critical functions in too much
detail
A real disaster will rarely be an exact match an anticipated disaster,
so any plan will probably have serious gaps. Therefore, when planning, focus
on the worst case scenario.
4. Are alternates accurately identified?
A disaster recovery plan becomes out of date, with changes
in personnel, vendors and clients. A disaster recovery plan should
continually validate contact information for essential staff, and provide
alternate means for reaching them should the primary contact fail.
- In a crisis, many people will try to contact managers
and operators
- Expect communication networks to become jammed
- List alternate telephone numbers, and those of people
designated as their alternates
- Consider alternative ways to contact people in the
event of no electricity, no telephone service and/or no internet
Nightmare Scenario
Imagine yourself managing a major disaster recovery effort
using an emergency plan with the above errors!
Before that happens - check each contingency plan for
these common errors and help minimize your organization’s risk - and your
personal risk of losing your job. Create effective recovery plans!
| Martyn Carruthers
was a medical technician and served on Royal Navy nuclear
submarines during the Cold War. He was health physics and
safety officer at English and Canadian nuclear power stations, and Radiation
Protection Officer for the Canadian government, where he worked with Public Health
and Emergency Measures organizations. Martyn also founded
Soulwork
Solutions,
a complete system of coaching and mentorship. |
|
