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Business Continuity Planning – Emergency Messages

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Business Continuity Planning – Emergency Messages

Protect Yourself When Disaster Strikes at WorkSo you’ve got a BCP, now what?

Good, you’ve decided to make yourself a Business Continuity Plan (BCP) and are ready to move forward into the unknown with the comfort that comes from being protected. Smart move. But now you’ve begun to wonder if you’ve made it properly, if you’ve completely outlined your contingencies and how to proceed in an event that shuts down your office’s daily operations for a while.

That’s to be expected. This is a big decision and could be the make-it-or-break-it maneuver for your company. Good thing for you that, with our PBX Parachute service, this is also one of our areas of expertise!

Communications Are Key

Like in almost anything, effective communications will be pivotal for success as part of your business continuity plan. While each BCP is going to be tailored specifically to the business it is supposed to protect, there are a few essentials to consider. Conversely, unclear, panicked, or incomplete directions will not help the situation, and in many cases they only make things worse. That’s why it’s important to get these down early and well before they are needed to make sure your team hears what they need, when they need it most.

By leveraging the employee hotline feature of your automatic telephone failover system, PBX Parachute, you can give clear instructions that you’ve recorded prior to any emergency-taking place. Here are some items to be sure to cover therein-

  • Make sure the first priority is that everyone gets to safety in the event of an emergency by directing them to the company’s standing emergency protocols
  • Once everyone is safe and secure, instruct them to proceed to whatever rendezvous point you’ve established for a head-count and further instructions
  • In the event of a total disaster, chain of command instructions are helpful reminders for your leaders to keep order and your team to know who to trust
  • Remind them that all essential business will continue as is appropriate from alternate locations and that those employees will have already received instructions on how to access their work phones from their online portals
  • Commit to recording any updated information as it comes available to this same hotline, or through whatever secondary method you’ve deemed best for you

Remember the Circumstances

Though there is a lot of ground to cover in the details of emergency messages, remind yourself that keeping it clear, calm, and concise will help your team almost more than anything else. Furthermore, making sure the information is current is important, so it is best to review it quarterly, yearly, or whenever you make changes to your safety protocol as appropriate.

Ideally your employees will never need to listen to this message, but that’s no reason to not have it. If you need help with this or any other aspect of your BCP and telephone failover management, we can help you get started with your disaster preparations. We’ve been protecting companies like yours for years and are eager to make sure you feel secure knowing you’ve got your work family taken care of.

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