Business continuity
We've worked with industry experts to create a set of useful videos and resources to help your business develop a bespoke Business Continuity Plan.
Business continuity is all about your organisation's ability to continue delivering products and services during a disruption.
Watch our business continuity videos
Preparing for emergencies
A Business Continuity Plan will help your business during an incident by identifying what is important, such as:
- information
- stock
- premises
- staff
- equipment
- utilities
- cash flow
How to do business continuity
Frequently asked questions
What is business continuity and why do I need it?
Business continuity is about identifying the parts of your business you can’t afford to lose - like premises, staff and IT systems - and planning what you’d do if an incident occurs.
By creating a Business Continuity Plan, you can put steps in place to deal with the unexpected.
What is a Business Continuity Plan?
A Business Continuity Plan is your organisation’s ‘safety net’. It helps you to:
- keep operating during unexpected disruption
- reduce downtime and financial loss
- protect staff, customers and key data
- safeguard your reputation by demonstrating reliability to partners and clients
- recover more quickly after an emergency
What key elements should be in our Business Continuity Plan?
Your plan should outline how you are going to invoke the plan, communicate, manage the response and implement key strategies for recovery (these might include remote working and back-ups). It will also identify roles and responsibilities.
As part of this, it helps to carry out a risk assessment and Business Impact Analysis.
How often should we test and update the plan?
Your plan should be tested and reviewed regularly - at least once a year, or more often if there’s a significant change in operations, staff, technology or risks.
These tests might involve something as simple as ensuring that you have the right phone numbers for staff members and that you can contact people out of hours.
Do suppliers need their own continuity plans?
Who is responsible for business continuity within my organisation?
Ownership typically sits with senior management (owner or director), and requires input from department heads, IT specialists and other critical personnel.
Further advice and information
The Business Continuity Institute - providing education, training, membership, thought leadership and events to help drive impactful change