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It is becoming common for businesses to experience operational outages due to hacking, data loss, or rogue employees. In this blog post, we will show you how a business disaster recovery policy can help you plan, mitigate, and recover from those disasters.
What is a business disaster recovery policy?
A business disaster recovery policy outlines an organisation's steps to recover from a catastrophic event that could significantly damage its operations.
The policy typically includes:
Procedures for restoring critical systems and data
Identifying and mitigating potential risks
Ensuring the safety of employees and customers
A well-designed disaster recovery policy can help companies minimise downtime, reduce financial losses, and maintain business continuity during and after a disaster.
Is it also known as a Business Continuity Policy?
Yes. A Business Disaster Recovery Policy is often called a Business Continuity Policy. Whichever term you choose, the aim is to safeguard and mitigate potential risks.
Why and when is a business disaster recovery policy needed?
A business disaster recovery policy is needed to ensure effective company operations in a catastrophic situation such as a natural disaster, hack, or system failure.
Such an event can cause significant disruptions to a business's operations, resulting in lost revenue, damaged reputation, and even legal liabilities.
The ideal time to implement your policy is on day one of your business, but if you are reading this blog post days, weeks, or years into that business, it's time to put pen to paper.
What are the four major elements of a typical business disaster recovery policy?
You'll need to include four critical elements in your disaster recovery plan, and these are:
Risk assessment - You must identify potential risks and hazards impacting your critical operations and assets. By running your risk assessment thoroughly, you should be clear on your business's vulnerabilities.
Disaster response - You should create a transparent chain of command, communication protocols, evacuation procedures, and other critical information necessary to manage a crisis effectively.
Disaster recovery - You must create a clear directive for handling disaster events, including who needs to act, when, and how, plus which tools, systems and alternative setups you need to keep working. Within this plan, you should also outline any compliance notices and guidelines that should be followed.
Testing and maintenance - Regular disaster recovery plan testing ensures effectiveness and can identify any gaps or weaknesses that must be addressed. Additionally, it should be updated and maintained over time to remain relevant and practical.
Who should be involved in creating your disaster recovery policy?
Several business stakeholders will be involved in creating your disaster recovery plan. These include:
Executive Management
Your executive management team should be involved in your plan for disaster recovery, as they are responsible for your business's overall success. They can provide insight into the business objectives and priorities, which can help shape the disaster recovery strategy.
IT Department
Your IT department is responsible for the company's technology infrastructure and should be involved in creating the disaster recovery policy. They can provide information on the organisation's IT systems, applications, and data, which can help identify risks and develop a mitigation plan.
Operations Team
Your operations team is responsible for the organisation's day-to-day operations. They can provide insight into the critical business processes that need to be prioritised during a disaster and help identify key personnel who should be involved in the recovery process.
Human Resources
Your human resources department should be involved in the business recovery plan as they are responsible for the organisation's workforce. They can provide information on employee roles and responsibilities, which can help identify critical personnel who should be involved in the disaster recovery process.
Legal and Compliance
Your legal and compliance teams should be involved in creating the disaster recovery policy. They can provide insight into the legal and regulatory requirements the organisation needs to comply with during a disaster.
By involving these groups in creating your disaster recovery policy, you can ensure that it is comprehensive, effective, and aligned with the overall business objectives.
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