Naresh Upadhyayula
Business continuity plan
University of the Cumberlands
Business continuity plan.
The primary goal of the business continuity strategy is the maintenance of the business functions in the event of an emergency. The plan applies to its subsidiaries, the entire locations of the organization as well as all employees. In case there is an emergency occurrence, the emergency management team is charged with the responsibility of announcing emergencies as well as evaluating and putting off of facilities that are required and then contacting employees. The team responsible for the emergency management shall be headed by an incident commander (Wallace and Webber, 2017). The head of the emergency response team shall carry the operations out of the designated emergency operations center.
The emergency administration team has with them the responsibility of identifying the essential business functions which are affected in one way or the other by the occurrence of an emergency. The emergency management team then follows with the initiation of a process necessary for the recovering of every function in the appropriate order.
Emergency Management Team
This team is responsible for the controlling of every technical element of the emergency response. The lead of the group shall be the incident commander. The members of this group or team are charged with the following responsibilities:
- Ordering of facility shutdown
- Initiation of the evacuation of employees as well as customers.
- Declaration of the end of an incident
- Initiation of the emergency response phone tree
Incident Commander
The incident commander is charged with the responsibility of communicating with internal as well as external resources in case an emergency occurs. The person at the same time has the authority or responsibility of declaring an emergency, shutting down of a facility as well as communicating to the necessary departments. According to Graham & Kaye (2015), after a crisis has occurred, the incident commander has various operations which include; conduction of employee briefing, the listing of business top priorities in terms of resuming operations, maintenance of continuous contact with the customers and suppliers to assure confidence, support of detailed records and restoration of equipment and property.
Emergency Operations Center
These shall establish two emergency operation centers. These locations shall be used as designated venues in which the emergency management team is likely to collect themselves in case there is an emergency. The main center shall lo located on campus, and the other one shall be located off-center. The second center is useful, especially if the primary center cannot be used. These centers shall possess various equipment such as Cellphones, facility blueprint, chain of command list as well as interaction information, building security data, and other necessities.
Emergency Communications
The Emergency Operations Center shall have gadgets such as cellphones and laptops; Internet connection is also a necessity which shall be in this center. There shall also be uninterruptable power supply machines, which ensures the constant availability of the internet even when the power goes off.
Employees Training
The employees shall be seriously trained on matters of emergency evacuation as well as business restoration procedures. These include reviewing the disaster preparation and emergency response procedures, the involvement of new employees in the emergency action plans in the employee orientation as well as carrying out of mock disaster pieces of training.
Reference
Wallace, M., & Webber, L. (2017). The disaster recovery handbook: A step-by-step plan to ensure business continuity and protect vital operations, facilities, and assets. Amazon.
Graham, J., & Kaye, D. (2015). A Risk Management Approach to Business Continuity: Aligning Business Continuity and Corporate Governance. Rothstein Publishing.