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Create your business continuity plan (with free template)

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As a small business owner you may have been alarmed by the events and uncertainty of the past few years. Since COVID first hit, a barrage of tough trading conditions has seen countless businesses forced into administration or even company liquidation .

With a background of Brexit, pandemics, lockdowns, the Great Resignation, an in-and-out-and-in-again recession, and other current stressors – you will need a clear plan in place to keep operations running smoothly in these uncertain times – one that focuses on the continuity, survival and durability of your small business. That’s where a Business Continuity Plan can be essential.

You may have heard about Business Continuity Plans (BCPs), but don’t know exactly what they are or how to go about creating one. Whilst many small businesses have insurances in place, far less know they need a BCP or some kind of framework to deal with unexpected or unpredictable events.

We’ll guide you through the process here, explaining the key considerations and elements. By the end of this article you’ll know how to write a thorough and workable BCP, using the free template provided to get started .

In this article, we will cover:

What is a business continuity plan, why is a business continuity plan important.

• How to Create A Business Continuity Plan

Next Steps: Testing and Reviewing Your Plan

Our below guide will give you detailed advice on how to write a quality BCP.

But first, you need to know what to include – and that’s where a high quality template can help.

We recommend using the free clickup.com BCP template to ensure nothing gets missed. Every step involved in the business continuity plan – coordinating your emergency response, forming your strategy to get back up and running and communicating with your customers – is already mapped out for you, ready to be filled in with your details.

We recommend creating an account with Clickup to use this free template – doing so means you may be able to keep your business protected financially and otherwise in the event of an emergency. You can see the template below, or click to try it for yourself by signing up to Clickup.

Business continuity is the ability of an organisation to continue production and delivery to an acceptable standard following a disruptive incident. A Business Continuity Plan details the steps and strategies to how you intend to do that.

Your Business Continuity Plan can take many different forms – a paper document that you could store away in a filing cabinet, or a digital document that you store on your computer (or multiple if you want to be really safe).

Ultimately it is the emergency strategy you use if you want to get your business on track in terms of regaining customers (and to avoid losing them to competitors) from supply chain issues, for example, to fixing physical damage to products or property, recovering from any losses of particularly significant people, and keeping the business from fully having to close down due to significant negative events.

You would normally use it as soon as you possibly can after said negative events to mitigate as much damage (whether physical or representational) as you can. This would also inspire confidence about you to your team and show the leadership needed to deal with stressful situations when it’s most needed.

The state of the world leaves much to be desired right now. We are seeing such unprecedented upheavals in almost every sector of everyday life – from the cost of living, to post-pandemic effects, to rising electricity prices and other forms of inflation – that Collins Dictionary chose “Permacrisis” as their 2022 word of the year.

“Permacrisis” perfectly encapsulates the ‘survival mode’ most small business owners are in right now . But having a Business Continuity Plan ensures that your company and its assets are protected and are able to function quickly in the event of a disaster – so that the business survives with as little damage as possible (financial or otherwise).

Your business continuity plan should detail such important aspects such as:

• Coordinating an emergency response
• Dealing with damaged infrastructure
• Timescales for getting systems back up and running
• Strategies for reassuring customers

How to Create a Business Continuity Plan

We know you already have a lot on your plate right now, and creating a new plan may seem like a lot of work with multiple considerations and factors – but not to worry. A solid plan is worth it, as it can be an essential asset for years to come, and we’re here to walk you through making one.

(We’re also assuming you already have your business plan in place, but if not, we also have a guide that will give you detailed advice on how to write a quality business plan here.)

Step 1: What are your potential risks and impact?

• Consider all the potential risks to your company. There are external risks (for example power cuts, natural disasters, cyber attacks and other things that are out of your control for the most part), and internal risks (for example sudden cash-flow issues, tough sales months or losing key staff).
• What parts of the business could they affect? The issues could affect anything from your premises, people, stock and equipment, operations and processes, to technology.
• What could the impact be? You could for example experience a loss of sales and income, increased expenses, decreased customer satisfaction and loyalty, delayed service delivery, poor product quality, or regulatory fines.

Let’s put it together: If you owned a hair salon and a competitor opened up next door .(potential risk), it would affect the volume of potential customers (part of business affected) and there may be a loss of sales (business impact).

Step 2: What are your critical business functions?

• A critical business function is a process that must be restored in the event of a disruption to protect the business and keep meeting expectations (up to the standards of shareholders, for example). A good Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system would help with this process, and you can find some of the best CRM for small businesses here .
• A few different business functions that exist are paperwork, employees, and production for example .
• Using paperwork that was at risk of a fire as an example, a way to mitigate this potential risk would be to have multiple backups , in different locations and the responsibility of different people in the business.

Step 3: Who holds the key roles and responsibilities?

It’s important to consider the key roles and responsibilities in your business because that way, the right information can get to the right people in a streamlined way and issues can be resolved by the right people quickly.

These may include:

• Internal staff (sales leaders, accountants, client managers etc)
• External key players (contractors and service providers, suppliers and distributors, IT consultants, utility companies etc)
• It’s important to have a list of key people (with their documented roles), and other important contacts, as well as clear instructions that clarify their responsibilities in an emergency situation.

Let’s put it together: If there was a security breach in a tech company, the customer service department (internal staff) would need to be alerted who could send out a reassuring email to customers. Next, a call would need to be made to an IT consultant to fix the issue (external key players). At the same time, a senior manager for example (key people) could also send out a message to shareholders to clear up and clarify any incorrect information showing on systems.

Step 4: What is your communication plan?

• Who needs to be contacted: in the event of a disruption or emergency? Some examples may include employees, customers, clients, or suppliers.
• How will you communicate with them: Depending on the severity of the situation and also taking into consideration the tone of your company brand and the mediums your customer base use most, you could use social media, press releases, or an email newsletter for example.
• What will the tone be? The tone can be serious, reassuring, optimistic or anything else you feel most accurately serves the situation, and that would be on brand for your company.
• Test your plan. It is extremely important to make sure your plan works BEFORE it’s put into action. There would be nothing worse than to feel you have a good plan but when something serious actually happens, it all falls apart because it wasn’t properly tested or viable in actual practice.
• The various components of testing may involve training staff, practice drills where you can receive feedback on areas of improvement, and allowing yourself time to make adjustments where necessary. Project management software would be useful in organising all of this with the many different people involved – we have an article on some of the best free project management software here.

When Should You Review Your Plan?

A Business Continuity Plan should be a living, breathing entity just as your company is. As life’s natural changes occur, and shifts in your business infrastructure inevitably occur over different periods of time, you will need to ensure that your plan is regularly updated so it’s the best it can be.

Key factors that should trigger a review include:

• Changes to staff: New staff will need to be informed about the practices of your plans, and sometimes the plan may need to be adjusted to accommodate new staff, if they have specific needs for example.
• Changes to premises: Your plan should include emergency procedures for every physical premise you have, so if there is a change there make sure your plan reflects that to ensure it’s as optimal as possible.
• Changes to processes: If there are changes to your processes, your plan should reflect these changes so that everyone can stay updated and there is as little confusion as possible in the event of anything unexpected.

How Often Should You Review Your Plan?

• Timeframe: An annual review is good practice to review and update your business continuity plan, because usually in that amount of time a business, the environment of the business and the world would have naturally changed and evolved to some extent.
• Who to update: You should inform anyone within your company that the changes will affect, such as staff and employees, who will need to know in order to adjust their behaviours and processes and move forward safely. (You can use your list of key people for this).
• How / where to store your BCP: As mentioned above in the ‘critical business section’, it’s important that your BCP is stored in a few different locations, and accessible to the people who may need it.

Your business continuity plan should not just be something you create then never intend to action. You never know when an emergency event will come into play that could potentially break your business in some way or another, and you can use the free template provided by Clickup to rectify that.

Hopefully you’ll never need to use your plan, but in the worst case scenario, you can rest assured that you have yourself and your business covered.

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Free business continuity template

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Getting started with the business continuity template

Using this business continuity template.

When filling out this business continuity plan, it helps to have scenarios in mind. Think about what you’d do if some of these things below went wrong. They could be crises within the business or in the world around you.

• Included Losing key staff or a big client
• Included Failure of critical equipment
• Included Fire
• Included Shipping and supply chain issues
• Included Natural disasters
• Included National or global financial shocks

Resources for resilience

As you work through this business continuity plan template, you’ll see ways to make your business stronger. You may want to know more about:

Types of business structure

Your business structure can affect your levels of legal and financial protection.

Learn about business structure

Types of business insurance

Insurance can cover things like property, staff, public liability and business continuation.

Learn about insurance

Find a bookkeeper or accountant

Accoutnants and bookkeepers can help build financial resilience into your business budgets.

Find a financial advisor near you

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Xero does not provide accounting, tax, business or legal advice. This template has been provided for information purposes only. You should consult your own professional advisors for advice directly relating to your business.

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Access Xero features for 30 days, then decide which plan best suits your business.

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It’ll never happen to you. Fires, natural disasters, sudden illness; these are things that happen to other people. Right?

Sure, the chances are slim, but accidents happen. In 2013/14 there were 2,500 fires in industrial premises in the UK, 246,000 workplace injuries occurred, and 180 workers were killed on the job.

The floods in the winter of 2013/14 affected more than half a million businesses around the UK, and many of those were unable to operate at all due to cut-off transport links or flooded premises which prevented them from taking delivery from suppliers or servicing their customers.

The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic is another example – who saw the damage the coronavirus dealt coming when the first case was reported in the UK? You can never be too careful when it comes to preparing for the worst, because you simply never know what may be around the corner.

As many freelancers and small business owners work from home , the odds of a disaster striking are higher than for a salaried employee surrounded by fire extinguishers and trained first-aiders. Residential fires were almost 15 times more frequent than workplace fires, with 39,600 requiring attendance from the fire services last year.

All of this should hopefully convince you that, while the odds are still small, disaster can strike, and as a responsible business owner you need to be prepared – especially if you have employees who are relying on you for a paycheque. That means having a business continuity plan.

Business insurance should be your first stop to make sure money isn’t an issue if the worst should happen – speak to a professional insurance specialist to make sure you have all the cover you need.

Insurance will cover the costs of getting your business back in operation after a catastrophe – but it won’t be much help if all your customers have switched to other suppliers in the two weeks it took you to re-open your office. You also need to plan for your business operations to continue (even in a vastly reduced capacity) if, for example:

• Your office burns down
• You have a catastrophic loss of data (e.g. you don’t back up your work and you lose your laptop with months of client work on it)
• Heavy snow, floods or other adverse conditions mean you or your employees can’t get to your office
• A key member of staff is suddenly unable to work

Many businesses are effectively location independent nowadays, so adverse weather isn’t as much of a challenge as it was historically. Similarly, data loss isn’t the huge risk it used to be now that most company email and storage is hosted by Google, Microsoft, Amazon or other providers who look after data on our behalf. Even so, a business continuity plan is essential as your business grows – and if the worst should happen it could very realistically save your firm from going under.

Business continuity plan basics

When putting a business continuity plan together consider when it will have to be used – probably in the midst of a disaster, emergency, or other incident which is likely to cause stress.

Your continuity plan, therefore, should be as detailed as possible, with simple steps that people can follow even if they are extremely pressured or rushed – think of it as an IKEA instruction manual to rebuild your business.

It should clearly set out who will have responsibility for each task that needs completing, what order they should be completed in, and where the relevant person can find the materials or equipment they need to complete their task (e.g. post redirection forms if your office is inaccessible, or a cellular internet connection that can be used if your office broadband goes down).

Events that will lead to your business continuity plan being needed – “incidents” – will usually fall into one of a few categories:

• Premises incident – a fire, flood or other event that renders your office out of action
• Infrastructure incident – your electricity, plumbing, broadband or other utility is out of action to such an extent that business cannot be conducted as normal
• Staff incident – a family emergency or injury means a member of staff is unable to work suddenly

Your continuity plan should cover every possible incident within these three categories.

The contingency plans for premises and infrastructure incidents may well end up being the same, as the end result of either type of incident is that you cannot work from your office. However the process for fixing the incidents will be totally different – premises incidents may involve health and safety considerations and building work, whereas infrastructure incidents will probably involve waiting for your utility supplier to fix the problem.

Test runs are important

Should disaster strike you don’t want to discover that your business continuity plan doesn’t actually work – you’ll have other stuff to worry about!

For this reason it’s important to test your plans. Organise a dry run during a quiet period and simulate a power cut or an earthquake – you could even turn it into a fun team building exercise.

Walk through every step of your continuity plan and ensure each task is achievable, straightforward and necessary.

Keep it current

Businesses – especially fast-growing young businesses – change, so make sure your business continuity plan is updated regularly to include new systems, providers, members of staff, premises and / or equipment.

If you change your plan significantly, it’s definitely worth another dry run to make sure the updated plans work.

Grab our business continuity plan template

We’ve put together a handy template if you’re putting together your own business continuity plan, based on the actual business continuity plan we use here at Crunch. Download it, fill it out, test it, and be prepared.

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Business Continuity Plan Examples

We all buy insurance to provide us with peace of mind that should something go wrong, there is a safety net in place. Even though most businesses have insurance, following a significant incident that causes the company to stop trading for a period of time, a large proportion of these never reopen their doors. 

Having a business continuity plan that can be utilised should certain scenarios arise can often be the difference between a successful recovery and going out of business. Businesses with strong business continuity management programmes are more resilient in emergencies and disasters which is why it's not uncommon for banks and lenders to require a company to have a business continuity plan before they will consider loaning any funds. 

More than 60% of small businesses do not have a formal emergency response plan and some companies can charge significant sums of money to help establish a business continuity plan for a company. A&T's Risk Management led approach means every client has access to a comprehensive Business Continuity Planning toolkit and a template document that can easily be adapted for your business. 

Cyber breaches are increasing daily and it's not just the huge organisations that are targetted. In fact, the smaller businesses are commonly targetted because they don't necessarily have an IT security team working for them. Many businesses are not aware of the cyber risks they face and are seldom prepared for a major cyber-security event. These events can cost companies serious sums of money and the reputational damage can be catastrophic. In addition to the Business Continuity Plan, A&T can provide a Cyber-continuity and Incident Response Plan Toolkit which has very detailed plans to help a speedy and effective response should an incident occur. 

To see Business Continuity Planning Services that A&T can offer your business, click on the document download below or speak to a member of the team today. 

More than just insurance

Every A&T client not only gets great service on their insurance programme but also gets complimentary access to a Risk Management Resource Library, including the full Business Continuity Planning Toolkit. 

Speak to a member of the team today to find out how else we can help. 

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A step-by-step guide to writing an effective business continuity plan.

Posted Aug 30, 2022

What is a business continuity plan?

A business continuity plan is a written document that describes the emergency procedures that should happen if a business-critical process fails.

Several sources can threaten businesses. Sometimes, disruption can take the form of Force Majeure circumstances, like extreme weather or political unrest. Other circumstances are less obvious, but just as disruptive: supply chain issues, web server downtime or power outages can leave permanent damage to a business’s finances after a certain amount of time.

Businesses must prevent unwanted downtime to ensure critical functions and services aren’t affected. The best way to ensure a consistent and effective response to potential issues is to implement a robust, documented business continuity plan.

Learn more with our in-depth guide to business continuity.

What is the purpose of a business continuity plan?

A strategically structured and rehearsed business continuity plan provides a number of benefits to both employees and the company itself.

With improvements to communication, technology and resilience, here are a number of examples of the positives that you can expect from a business continuity plan:

Helps your business to survive a disruptive event — Ensuring you have a robust plan in place will enable your business to recover in the shortest possible timeframe from an incident.

Protect your organisation’s reputation and brand — Whether it’s in the eyes of the public, suppliers and/or clients you work with, showing that you can respond well to the unexpected will instil confidence in your business and help to mitigate any negative feelings due to disruptions.

Strengthen your relationship with third parties and subsidiaries — With an effective business continuity plan, you’ll demonstrate that your company is being run well from the top down. By showing that you’re a reliable partner that can be depended on, you’ll attract new business and solidify your relationship with current clients and service providers.

Ensure staff safety — The well-being of your employees is a natural factor in a business continuity plan. By ensuring your team is looked after and knows what the procedure is during disruptions, you can establish clear roles and responsibilities to keep everyone under your care safe in an emergency.

Meet regulatory standards — Globally, there are corporate governance regulations that require directors and key stakeholders to exercise reasonable care, skill and diligence to mitigate risks facing an organisation. With an effective business continuity plan in place, you can ensure you’re meeting the requirements of a growing body of legislation.

What does a good business continuity plan look like?

The three key elements of a business continuity plan are:

1. Resilience

Businesses can increase their resilience by designing critical functions and infrastructures to protect against specific scenarios. Examples include; data redundancy, staffing rotations and maintaining a surplus of capacity. If implemented efficiently, resilience in business continuity can even keep essential services running on-site or remotely without interruption to daily operations.

2. Recovery

There’s no way an organisation can prepare for every eventuality. But with rapid recovery, you can future-proof your business by ensuring you have strategies in place to restore business functions in an emergency. With recovery time objectives for different systems, you can analyse and prioritise which needs recovering first.

3. Contingency

A contingency plan ensures that an organisation has procedures in place to distribute and delegate responsibilities for a range of external scenarios. These can include replacing hardware, sourcing an emergency workspace and contracting third-party vendors for assistance.

Who is responsible for a business continuity plan?

To ensure your organisation’s readiness, it’s important to designate who will be responsible for implementing and managing your business continuity plan. For small businesses, a single individual could be tasked with writing a business continuity plan. Or for larger organisations, a whole team could be involved with developing a business continuity plan.

In such cases, business unit leaders — such as payroll, corporate travel, human resources and security — will be given the responsibility of creating their respective unit’s business continuity plan with a program manager overseeing the process.

It is essential to make sure each person understanding their responsibilities and that there are clear lines of communication between employees and external stakeholders, in order to keep everything as smooth as possible during an disruptive scenario.

What is the first step in writing a business continuity plan?

The first step you should take when preparing to write a business continuity plan is to conduct a full Business Impact Assessment (BIA).

A BIA predicts the consequences of a significant disruption to your business processes. It clarifies the potential losses that could be incurred in each circumstance.

A BIA should include the following:

Potential losses — What would your lost sales and income look like for each hour of downtime, or each day?

Delayed sales — Could disruption create cash flow issues for you by delaying your sales or income? If so, to what extent? What lines of credit would you have to rely on?

Increased expenses — How much would you have to spend on resources to mitigate the issue? Think about things like overtime, outsourcing, and costs associated with expediting business-critical activities.

Regulatory fines — How much could you be fined by regulators for breaches to things like data privacy or health and safety?

Contractual penalties — Are there any charges you could incur for failing to meet SLAs with your business partners?

Customer satisfaction — How much damage to your public reputation could a disruption have? You can quantify by thinking of the number of additional negative reviews you could receive for each day of delays.

Delay of new business plans — Would you need to push back any planned launches or new business agreements while you deal with disruptions?

Writing your plan: Step-by-step instructions

Identify your business-critical processes — Critical business processes are those necessary for the survival of the company in the case of loss of revenue, customer service interruption or reputation damage. E.g. Manufacturing — what you would need to keep your production line going. Finance — how to recover important documents that contain sensitive information. IT — is home working feasible for your business?

Specify the target recovery time for these processes — How long would it take for the loss of a business-critical process to do irreparable damage to your business? Your target recovery time for each process you identified should be within this window. Determine how long you could tolerate a disruption: this is known as a recovery time objective (RTO). Your business continuity plan should enable you to mitigate disruptions within this time window.

Define the specific resources needed for each process — Once you’ve identified how long you’ll need to restore a process, you’ll need to outline everything you’ll need to do so, and plan within that time frame. You could split this into internal resources (key people in your organisation, passwords, office space, specialist equipment) and external resources (e.g. supplies, transportation). Along with identifying how readily available they can be, and for how long you’ll need them.

Describe the steps needed to restore each process — If your business is disrupted by an IT failure, fire, flood or an extreme weather event, what is your plan to address this? Devise a backup plan for each key operation you have, detailing who to contact, what resources you’ll need, and how much you might need to spend in order to restore each process.

Decide on a schedule to update the information — Once you’ve compiled the above 4 points, you’ll have a strong business continuity plan that you can action. But it won’t be bulletproof forever. As your business evolves, so will the technology it uses and the relationships it has. Therefore, you need to plan ways to keep the information up-to-date. It might be that you decide on a regular date that the whole plan needs to be revisited, whether that’s yearly, quarterly or even monthly. Alternatively, you might decide it’s better to update small elements of the plan as and when they change: e.g. if a password to a critical folder is changed, there’s someone in your organisation who is responsible for updating your business continuity plan accordingly.

What are the four P’s of business continuity planning?

The four P’s of business continuity are:

People — This covers your staff, customers and clients.

Processes — This includes the technology and strategies your business uses to keep everything running.

Premises — Covers the buildings and spaces from which your business operates.

Providers — This includes parties that your business relies on for getting resources, like your suppliers and partners.

You can use the four P’s when reviewing the initial draft of your business continuity plan to ensure you’ve considered the impact on each of them at every stage.

For example, how might your plan to recover important documents out of working hours impact your staff? How hard would it be to access the premises? When should you notify your clients and business partners?

What is the most important part of a business continuity plan?

Every element of your business continuity plan is important, but perhaps the most critical part to get right is how you plan to respond to potential issues. It’s advantageous to have precise calculations about potential losses and the impact of your business relationships, but without a clear and effective way of reacting to disruptions, your business will incur serious — and sometimes irreparable — financial damage.

Business continuity plan template

We’ve prepared an example business continuity plan to get you started.

1. Objective of the plan

Open with a short summary of the ‘why’ behind the how. Explain clearly and succinctly that the aim of your business continuity plan is to protect your business in the event of a disruption to business-critical processes.

2. Business-critical processes checklist

Your plan will need to contain a list of its most important processes. Below are a few examples:

3. Recovery plan

For each critical function you listed in step (2), you’ll need to specify a comprehensive, tailored recovery plan that should be followed in order to get the process back up and running within your RTO.

4. Contact list

Create lists of staff, suppliers and insurers that should be contacted in case of an emergency.

List of key staff: example

Supplier list: example

List of insurers: example

Ensure your business continuity

If you want to protect your business against all eventualities, putting in place reliable business continuity plans is a crucial step.

CMAC specialises in providing emergency assistance to businesses experiencing transport disruptions to keep things running smoothly and minimise potential losses. Learn more about CMAC’s full suite of industry-leading recovery solutions , from ground transport to emergency accommodation.

Other useful guides

What is Business Continuity and why is it important for your business? | CMAC Group

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How to create a business continuity plan – with free template

Deleted: Comprehensive BCM (business continuity management) measures are essential for responding effectively to a disruption and providing a minimum acceptable service during a disaster.

A crucial aspect of BCM is the development of an effective BCP (business continuity plan).

What is a business continuity plan?

A BCP consists of the processes and procedures an organisation needs to ensure its critical business processes continue operating during a disaster.

All of this information is put into a document, which is regularly tested, developed and improved on to make sure the organisation has recovery strategies in place for a range of threats.

The BCP is often considered the heart of a BCMS (business continuity management system).

Who should have a business continuity plan?

All organisations, no matter their size, should create a BCP.

Every organisation is at risk of a disruptive incident. Nearly half of UK businesses suffered a cyber attack or security breach last year alone.

Failure to plan could have disastrous consequences for your organisation, potentially resulting in your organisation suffering irreparable damage.

Free BCP template

To help you with your BCP, we’ve created a free downloadable template.

It outlines the elements that should be included in a BCP, and makes it quick and easy to tailor the documentation to your organisation’s requirements.

Download our business continuity plan template >>

What should a business continuity plan include?

• Purpose and scope

Details of the plan should be provided and any exclusions must be explained.

• Responsibilities

You should select a business continuity team, comprised of a select group of employees who are responsible for carrying out the plans.

• Plan invocation

Details of how and when the BCP will be invoked.

• Developing the BCP

Information in the plan must be understood by and accessible to everyone in the organisation.

• Communications

How, and under which circumstances, the organisation will communicate with employees and their relatives, key interested parties and emergency contacts.

• Stakeholders

Provide information relating to essential stakeholders, including their contact information.

• Document owner, approver and change history record

The business continuity manager is the owner of the BCP and is responsible for ensuring that the procedure is reviewed and tested regularly.

• Change management

The document must be published in a place that is available to all members of staff, especially those directly involved in the BCP, and in all appropriate formats (digital, hard copy, etc.).

Benefits of a business continuity plan

Creating a BCP will make it easier for your organisation to cope in a crisis and minimise the business impact for you and your customers.

It also demonstrates to customers and investors that your business is prepared for anything, thereby gaining their confidence and giving you a competitive edge.

A BCP can also reduce or even avoid the risk of losing revenue if you are hit with a disruption. Returning to work as usual as quickly as possible minimises the disruption to your business operations and therefore helps you get back to generating revenue.

Organisations that aren’t prepared often appear incompetent. This can damage their reputation and brand image, putting many people off associating with them, which could lead to a loss of customers.

Protect your business with IT Governance

You can find more guidance on business continuity planning with IT Governance’s Business Continuity Risk Management Pack .

Developed by experts, this tool enables organisations to develop a business continuity plan tailored to its specific individual risk appetite. 

You’ll also ensure that your organisation is fully prepared to recover critical business functions as quickly as possible in the event of a disruptive incident.

A version of this blog was originally published on 16 November 2018.

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Business continuity planning guidance and template

Business continuity planning: guidance and template §.

As a care provider, you should have a business continuity plan to help you manage situations that may not happen, but could have a major impact on your business and your ability to provide care if they did.

The CPA has developed guidance to help you to develop your plan, as well as a template plan that you can use to either create or update our existing plans.

Access updated information on escalation processes – including the DHSC letter issued to care providers on 21 December 2020.  This sets out steps that care providers can take in the event of, for example, disruption to supplies or travel.

Business continuity planning guidance – Updated 25 June 2021 – CPA §

From exceptionally bad weather, a fuel shortage or a flu outbreak, to financial or quality problems, there are many circumstances that can disrupt the services that adult social care providers run. 

This guide has been written to help you to develop plans to ensure continuity of care and support, and to ensure that your business can continue, if a problem occurs. 

It doesn’t cover everything – but it’s a good starting point. It is primarily about how you might go about maintaining services rather than about how best to resolve specific issues.

As well as making good business sense, your local authority or healthcare commissioner and the Care Quality Commission will also expect you to have a business continuity plan in place.

Business Continuity Management is about “Identifying those parts of your organisation that you can’t afford to lose – such as information, stock, premises, staff – and planning how to maintain these, if an incident occurs.”

What you need to put in place will depend on the size and type of your organisation. A single local service may simply need the kind of plan discussed in this guide. A large national or regional organisation will need a more sophisticated suite of well-developed organisational policies and plans.

Business continuity plan template – Updated 25 June 2021 – CPA §

This Word template will help you create or refresh your business continuity plan to prepare for situations that, should they arise, could have a major impact on your business and the people who use your services. 

It provides an overview of the detail and risk you should consider as part of a robust plan, regardless of the service you provide. It does not cover everything that might be needed by individual businesses, so please use it as the basis for your plan, adding anything specific to your service and reflecting your existing business continuity plans. Please use this document alongside the CPA’s business continuity planning guidance.

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A Deming Cycle Approach to Business Continuity Strategy

Building your business continuity strategy on a Design-Test-Reflect-Iterate cycle lays a solid, adaptable foundation to manage dynamic risks.

How to Build Your Business Continuity Strategy

It’s not a question of if but when a business will encounter disruption. Challenges are inevitable, whether natural disasters, cybersecurity breaches, or other unforeseen emergencies. How your company responds will determine its trajectory.

Forty-three percent of small businesses affected by a natural disaster never reopen. But a business continuity strategy can prevent your business from living the statistics. We’ve talked to financial, aerospace, and telecom industry leaders to understand their business continuity strategies. Read on to learn about crafting an adaptable, systemic approach to navigating expected and unforeseen challenges.

Download Our Business Continuity Checklist

A cyclical approach to business continuity.

Business is not static, and neither are the threats to operations. Organizations need dynamic frameworks to navigate uncertainty in an environment characterized by constant change and evolving risks. That’s why many companies turn to the Deming Cycle, also known as PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act).

• Plan: Develop a robust continuity strategy
• Do: Execute the preparedness measures
• Check: Assess effectiveness through testing
• Act: Adjust based on feedback for continual improvement

A business continuity strategy ensures your organization can maintain operational resilience during and after a crisis. With a systematic approach, you can manage various disruptions effectively. But first, you need to understand the potential threats to your business and how those threats would disrupt operational continuity.

This assessment process is critical for your initial planning and as an ongoing pulse check to ensure your business continuity strategy is effective—considering how your organization’s vulnerabilities and risks are changing.

• Design: Develop the initial framework
• Test: Implement controls to assess functionality and performance
• Reflect: Evaluate outcomes and identify critical optimizations
• Iterate: Adapt the strategy for improved business continuity management

Better business continuity planning with SAC Wireless

On The Employee Safety Podcast , we spoke with Larry Pomykalski, Director of National Programs & Business Continuity at SAC Wireless. Larry underscores the need to cast a wide net when planning for interruptions. The plan should be broad enough to encompass a broad range of scenarios while maintaining business processes. By continuously evaluating and adjusting plans based on feedback and changing circumstances, it’s possible to minimize business disruption and speed recovery.

Larry notes that while it’s impossible to foresee every disruption, having a variety of plans enables organizations to modify strategies quickly to suit the current situation. By identifying critical business functions and establishing recovery time objectives, businesses can prioritize risks as they develop effective mitigation strategies tailored to their specific needs.

“Remain open-minded; be imaginative about what you can and can’t see impacting your organization.[…] That’s the first step in tracking potential threats,” Larry advises.

1. Design a working business continuity management strategy

Identify stakeholders and plan leaders.

A business continuity management (BCM) team is responsible for implementing your plan, so choosing the right people is vital to success. It’s typically an interdisciplinary team made up of individuals from various departments and roles within the organization, including:

• Business Continuity Manager: This individual leads the continuity program’s development, implementation, and maintenance.
• Risk Management Specialist: They identify, assess, and prioritize risks to the organization’s operations.
• IT Director/Manager: This leader ensures critical IT systems and infrastructure resilience.
• Operations Manager: Their role involves coordinating continuity efforts across departments and ensuring operational readiness.
• Human Resources Manager: They are responsible for developing employee safety, communication, and workforce continuity plans.
• Facilities Manager: This leader addresses physical security and facility-related risks.
• Supply Chain Manager: They are responsible for assessing supply chain risks and developing strategies for continuity.
• Legal and Compliance Officer: Their responsibilities include continuity plan compliance with regulatory requirements and contractual obligations.
• Communications Coordinator: Their main task is to develop communication protocols and channels for internal and external stakeholders during emergencies.
• Team Leaders: These individuals act as boots on the ground, providing direction and guidance to workers on the floor, in the field, or wherever they’re located.

By assembling a diverse and capable team with representation from these key areas, organizations can effectively address all aspects of business continuity planning and enhance their resilience to disruptions.

Assess potential risks and impacts

Only by knowing your risk profile inside and out can you manage and mitigate the risks to business continuity. The more you know, the more proactive you can be.

Assessments come in different forms. A threat or risk assessment considers the potential causes of disruptions, such as natural disasters, cyberattacks, power outages, supply chain interruptions, public demonstrations, public health risks, and many more. On the other hand, a business impact analysis focuses on the impacts that arise from these emergencies and disruptions, such as downtime, travel delays, compromised data, increased costs, facilities damage, delayed or lost income, regulatory fines, reputational damage, and more.

Begin with both types of assessment to understand the vulnerabilities and risks that could threaten business continuity.

Navigate resiliency challenges with regular assessments

Regular vulnerability assessments are crucial to maintaining business continuity, especially in the face of evolving challenges, such as a geographically dispersed workforce and climate-related disruptions. Jeff Dow, Manager of Protection and Resiliency at a major financial organization, highlighted the importance of staying vigilant during a recent interview on The Employee Safety Podcast .

Jeff’s team recognized that transitioning to a hybrid work model, with employees across 49 states, introduced new risks and vulnerabilities. They conducted thorough risk assessments to identify potential threats related to remote work, like extreme weather events.

They concentrated on three assessment methods to adapt their plans supporting business continuity:

Set your recovery time objective (RTO)

When setting a recovery time objective (RTO), you must consider your organization’s specific needs and priorities. Start by evaluating the criticality of each business process or system, considering factors such as customer expectations, regulatory requirements, and financial implications. Determine the maximum tolerable downtime for each function, keeping in mind that mission-critical systems may require a shorter RTO than less essential processes.

Once you’ve defined the RTOs for your key business functions, develop comprehensive strategies to achieve them. This may involve implementing redundant systems, establishing backup procedures, and investing in technologies that minimize downtime. Review and update your RTOs to ensure they remain relevant and aligned with your evolving business needs.

Remember to conduct tests and simulations regularly to validate the achievability of your RTOs and identify areas for improvement in your recovery strategies. Setting realistic and achievable recovery time objectives can enhance your organization’s preparedness for disruptions and minimize their impact on your operations and stakeholders.

Develop plans to prevent, mitigate, respond to, and recover from business disruptions

You might as well consider every version of your business continuity plan (BCP) a rough draft. Until it has been tested, you can’t be sure it’s comprehensive or effective enough to safeguard your business operations. Here are some necessary elements to consider for your dynamic strategy:

• The tools and the team to monitor threats and determine their potential impacts on your organization
• An emergency communication plan and a software system to keep everyone connected during expected and unexpected crises
• Backup plans, equipment, locations, power, and any other redundancies that will keep operations running

Read more about the business continuity planning process on our blog.

2. Test your plan during actual and simulated emergencies

Train employees.

In the previous step, you determined which stakeholders need to be involved in the planning and preparedness efforts, risk mitigation, response procedures, disaster recovery, and any other elements of your business continuity strategy. This next phase involves preparing these people for their responsibilities. Here are suggested trainings tailored to each stakeholder’s role within the business continuity framework:

• Business Continuity Manager: Training should cover developing and maintaining the continuity program, including risk assessment methodologies, plan development, testing protocols, and coordination with departmental stakeholders.
• Risk Management Specialist: Offer detailed training on risk assessment techniques such as scenario analysis, impact assessment, and probability assessment.
• IT Director/Manager: Conduct technical training on data backup and recovery procedures, system redundancy configurations, cybersecurity best practices, and incident response protocols.
• Operations Manager: Provide training on crisis management principles, including incident response procedures, business impact analysis, and resource allocation strategies.
• Human Resources Manager: Offer comprehensive training on crisis communication strategies, employee safety protocols, and workforce continuity planning. Include modules on remote work arrangements, employee assistance programs, and psychological support during crises.
• Facilities Manager: Review building security systems, access control protocols, emergency response drills, and facility maintenance procedures.
• Supply Chain Manager: Provide training on supply chain risk management techniques, including supplier assessment methodologies, inventory management strategies, and alternative sourcing options.
• Legal and Compliance Officer: Cover topics such as data protection laws, industry standards, contractual obligations for continuity services, and legal implications of business disruptions.
• Communications Coordinator: Provide comprehensive training on crisis communication strategies, including message development, media relations, stakeholder engagement techniques, and communication channel management.

By providing detailed and targeted training to each stakeholder, you ensure they have the necessary knowledge and skills to contribute to the organization’s business continuity efforts effectively. Of course, a significant part of that training is testing the skills they’ve learned.

Conduct drills and other exercises

Emergency drills , full-scale simulations, and tabletop exercises can test your preparedness, response, and recovery plans. These exercises allow you to identify weaknesses and gaps in your plans in a controlled environment, enabling you to address them proactively before a real crisis occurs. By simulating various scenarios, you can evaluate the effectiveness of your communication protocols, decision-making processes, and resource allocation strategies.

Involving key stakeholders in these exercises fosters collaboration, enhances coordination, and increases familiarity with their roles and responsibilities during emergencies. Regularly conducting drills and exercises ensures your team remains well-prepared and agile in responding to unexpected events, strengthening your organization’s resilience and ability to navigate challenges effectively.

After-action reviews following exercises, not just actual emergencies, are essential for continuous improvement and learning. These reviews provide an opportunity to evaluate the effectiveness of your response and recovery plans in a structured manner before putting them to the test with your business on the line. By examining what went well and what could be improved, you can identify lessons learned and best practices to incorporate into future planning efforts.

On top of that, conducting after-action reviews fosters a culture of accountability and transparency within your organization, encouraging open communication and constructive feedback among team members. This process allows you to iterate on your strategies and capabilities, ensuring you are better prepared to handle real emergencies when they arise.

Activate the plan as any actual threats or disruptions arise

Hopefully, you’ve been able to prioritize training and exercises before a significant crisis hits. Doing so ensures that your team is well-prepared to execute the plan with confidence and efficiency when it matters most.

However, even if you haven’t had the opportunity to conduct extensive training beforehand, your preparation through drills and simulations will still significantly enhance your response capabilities. Remember to remain agile and adaptable during emergencies, leveraging the knowledge and experience gained from training to make informed decisions and effectively manage the situation.

3. Reflect on the plan’s effectiveness and its need to evolve

Perform after-action reviews.

After-action reviews (AARs) enhance business resilience by providing a structured post-crisis evaluation and improvement framework. These reviews thoroughly examine the response to a crisis or disruption, aiming to identify strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities for enhancement. They allow you to test your business continuity plan and management systems in real-time to address any gaps. Typically conducted shortly after the event, AARs gather input from key stakeholders involved in the response effort, including frontline responders, managers, and support staff.

Conducting an AAR begins with a comprehensive review of the incident, including the timeline of events, actions taken, and outcomes achieved. This retrospective analysis allows participants to understand what transpired during the crisis and how the organization responded. Facilitators guide discussions by prompting participants to reflect on their experiences, share observations, and identify successes and improvement areas.

Central to the AAR process is emphasizing open and honest communication, creating a safe space for participants to voice their perspectives and insights without fear of retribution. This collaborative approach fosters a culture of continuous learning and improvement within the organization. By soliciting feedback from all levels of the organization, AARs capture diverse perspectives, enriching the insights gained from the review process.

Determine gaps and necessary contingency plans

The ultimate goal of conducting AARs is to distill lessons learned from the crisis response and translate them into actionable improvements to the organization’s business continuity plan and risk management strategy. This may involve updating procedures, refining communication protocols, or investing additional resources to address identified gaps. By leveraging the insights gleaned from AARs, organizations can strengthen their preparedness for future crises, enhancing their resilience and ability to navigate adversity effectively.

Boeing’s all-hazards approach to business continuity

An effective business continuity plan relies heavily on the team’s ability to collaborate seamlessly, even across physical and geographic boundaries. On The Employee Safety Podcast , we spoke with Keith Berthiume, Enterprise Emergency Preparedness Program Manager at Boeing, to understand why Boeing is an excellent example of an agile, collaborative approach.

Keith underscores the significance of assembling diverse teams to evaluate impacts, recognize critical needs and functions, and coordinate responses promptly. This real-time collaboration has proven instrumental for Boeing, enabling the company to swiftly adapt and respond to evolving situations, such as the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Boeing’s success highlights the importance of effective communication and coordination within the organization and with external stakeholders, including service providers and off-site teams. Businesses can enhance their resilience and readiness to navigate complex, unforeseen disruptions by fostering collaboration across boundaries.

“Having senior leaders all together on a team is a significant force multiplier because the executives at the highest level of the company are able to ensure implementation of integrated and coordinated response, seamless coordination, and a unified direction from the leadership team,” Keith told us.

4. Iterate on your strategy in light of dynamic risks

Adapt to company changes.

The after-action reviews are what keep the cycle turning. While the advance threat and impact assessments help you align with and prioritize what you know, post-event reviews are about opening up to what you don’t know—or what you didn’t know with the most recent iteration of your plan.

You may only know about certain vulnerabilities once you are in an actual or simulated emergency. So, looking back and acting on those learnings is foundational to business continuity.

Adapt to changing risk

Twenty years ago, businesses rarely considered the effect that a prolonged pandemic could have on their ability to operate. Continuity plans were based more on immediate threats like natural disasters or economic downturns.

However, the landscape has shifted dramatically, emphasizing the need for organizations to adapt and expand their risk management strategies to encompass emerging threats such as pandemics. The global impact of COVID-19 has underscored the importance of proactive planning and preparedness for unforeseen events that can disrupt operations on a massive scale. As businesses navigate the complexities of this evolving risk landscape, it becomes increasingly crucial to prioritize resilience and agility in their continuity planning efforts.

In response to the lessons learned from COVID-19 and other emerging risks, business leaders can take proactive steps to stay ahead of future challenges. To adapt to changing risks, you should:

• Conduct regular risk assessments to identify vulnerabilities.
• Diversify supply chains to mitigate disruptions.
• Prioritize employee well-being and flexible work arrangements.
• Implement cross-training programs to ensure redundancy in critical roles.
• Maintain adequate financial reserves to weather economic uncertainties.
• Strengthen cybersecurity measures for remote work environments by implementing multi-factor authentication, encryption, and regular security training.

Organizations can also make use of various technologies for proactive threat monitoring. Threat intelligence platforms can help them discover cyber risks, while real-time alert tools can keep them ahead of natural disasters or other widespread disruptions.

Strategic Planning to Keep the Wheel Turning

Business continuity planning is not a nice-to-have but a necessity in today’s unpredictable world. Whether it’s a natural disaster, cybersecurity breach, or other unforeseen emergency, the ability to respond effectively can make or break a business. As industry leaders and best practices highlight, adopting a structured approach like the PDCA cycle is essential for building resilience and adaptability.

Learning from business continuity strategy examples, companies can prioritize collaboration, real-time communication, and flexibility in their response efforts. Download our business continuity checklist for a template to help guide you on solid business continuity planning.

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Business Continuity Checklist

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