If your company has crisis management, business continuity and disaster recovery plans to ensure resiliency, you should give yourself a pat on the back because you’re in a much better position than many other organizations. Believe it or not, 60 percent of companies admit they have no disaster recovery plan in place whatsoever.

However, having a plan in place to keep your organization resilient doesn’t mean your work is completely done.

Do you really know with 100 percent certainty that your plan enables you to keep all facets of operations running smoothly when a disruption occurs? More importantly, are you certain your entire staff knows precisely what they need to do in order to ensure continuity of operations during a crisis scenario?

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Consider the following four tips as you begin drafting or modifying your plans and you’ll get the peace of mind that comes with knowing you’ll be able to keep business running in any situation.

1. Assess your company for outcome-based resiliency

Instead of planning for specific scenarios (fire, earthquake, etc.), viable plans should be based upon the following four impacts:

  • Denial of people: Whether key team members are absent for an extended period of time or a snowstorm makes it impossible to get to the office, strategies and plans need to be in place that account for the people that keep your organization running. Foolproof business continuity plans ensure that employees are able to do their jobs even if they’re unable to make it to the office.
  • Denial of key suppliers: A business partner that provides you with raw materials for your products experiences a disaster of their own, and they’re unable to fill orders for an extended period of time. Foolproof business continuity plans ensure organizations don’t grind to a halt when one supplier goes down for the count. Backup arrangements are already in place.
  • Denial of technology: A technician accidentally breaks a server and your systems go down. Your business continuity plan needs to include contingency plans that enable your employees to access their critical business applications and data in any situation. Build redundancy into your infrastructure and that won’t be a problem.
  • Denial of facility: A water pipe bursts overnight, and your office is completely flooded. Your business continuity plans need to include directions regarding what your staff should do in the event they can’t work out of the office. Should they work at home? Should they work out of another facility on a temporary basis?

Strategic and tactical business continuity plans address those four key impacts. Threats of a business disruption can vary in scope, duration and severity. By developing your plans based on these impacts rather than exact scenarios, your plan will be able to protect your company whether or not you accounted for the exact event your company is faced with.

2. Understand that backing up to the cloud does not equal business continuity.

Yes, your business probably relies heavily on your computing infrastructure and data. In the event of an emergency, it is critical that you are able to access your systems. You don’t want to lose any of your proprietary data just because your data center floods and servers get ruined, for example.

But business resilience extends far beyond disaster recovery and IT. You may have critical data backed up on the cloud, but this doesn’t mean your IT infrastructure will help you remain operational. Great continuity plans ensure that, no matter what happens, you’re able to rollout new products on time, launch important initiatives and sustain marketing campaigns according to schedule. If you fail to meet industry standards for any reason, among other things, a solid plan and program will help you remain operational. Continuity plans should be comprehensive by design.

3. Be proactive instead of reactive.

Even if you think your business will never face a severe crisis, you have no way of knowing for sure. To paraphrase the Spanish novelist, Miguel de Cervantes, being prepared is half the victory. Believe it or not, the average hour of downtime costs enterprises upwards of $212,100. So at the very least, if your organization doesn’t have a business continuity plan in place and your networks and systems go down, you’re going to be stuck with a hefty bill. Is it really worth testing your luck?

Instead of waiting for disaster to strike before determining how to respond, your organization is much better off doing its due diligence ahead of time. Be proactive. Put together a plan, and also test it on a regular basis. What good is a plan that looks good on paper but fails in practice? Don’t forget to update your plan periodically as new policies, procedures and technologies are put in place.

4. Make sure your entire staff is trained effectively.

Let’s say you’ve drafted the greatest business continuity plan in the world. If your employees don’t know exactly what they’re supposed to do in a crisis situation, that plan really won’t be too helpful.

When you’re creating your business continuity plan, don’t overlook the most important assets of your organization: your employees. You’ll need their skills  to successfully enact your plan. To this end, train your staff thoroughly every time your plan is updated. That way, they’ll be prepared for whatever comes their way.

It’s important to remember your employees are humans—not robots. During emergencies, you may want them to work around the clock until systems are restored and business gets back to normal. However, because you need them to produce to the best of their abilities during crisis situations, you should ensure that workloads are distributed evenly and wisely. The last thing you want is for an exhausted technician to make a huge mistake which sets you back even further.

Putting together a foolproof business continuity plan may take time. But it certainly isn’t impossible. The better your plan is, the happier you and your customers will be should you ever have to use it.