Disaster Recovery Planning Manual

Be prepared for any emergency or disaster — natural or man-made — with this authoritative disaster guide. Use this step-by-step disaster guide to quickly produce an emergency and disaster management plan.  The Bizmanualz Disaster Planning manual includes prewritten disaster procedures, forms, and a sample business recovery plan to get you started fast.

Does Your Company Have a Disaster Plan?

Disasters like flood, fire, earthquake, and theft can strike your company at any time. Do you know where your employees would report if a disaster happened to you? Do you have an emergency plan in place?  Most businesses don’t.  If you don’t have a disaster recovery or continuity plan, odds are you’ll be out of business within a year.  Small businesses are especially vulnerable. Sure, you probably carry plenty of insurance but: (a) it could take 90 days — or longer! — to get paid; (b) if you don’t have a disaster plan, you’re basically starting over; and (c) how much business will you lose while you’re trying to figure out how to reopen?

Fortunately, there’s a better way. Prepare your business for:

• Floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, and other natural disasters
• Workplace violence
• Computer system crashes
• Power outages

Disaster Planning to Prepare For Disasters

Your recovery from a disaster is directly related to the level of detail you include in your disaster planning process.  Your small business recovery plan’s template effectiveness is therefore based on your attention to detail.  In order to be effective, your company’s disaster management and business recovery plan needs to contain:

• The company’s philosophy, mission statement and goals regarding disaster management planning and business recovery.
• Written and approved executive succession instructions.
• The appointment of a temporary Disaster Management Executive Committee for the term of the emergency, who may also act in the absence of the company’s Board of Directors.
• Clearly defined guidelines and scope of all disaster management and business recovery efforts, based upon a thorough risk-assessment exercise.
• Clearly defined duties, authority and responsibilities for each employee classification, with designated primary and alternate department leaders and staff personnel to manage critical functions.
• A business recovery plan (operations manual) for each office, department, facility and function within the company, and for essential service vendors.
• Designated and equipped sites for assembly of personnel for each phase of the disaster management and business recovery effort.
• A well-documented testing and evaluation process to be conducted at specified intervals, and at least annually.
• A comprehensive training program for all personnel.

Written copies of the final Disaster Management Plan are then distributed to office and department leaders, including a complete list of all emergency response agencies and facilities.

Your Disaster Recovery Plan Outline

Your Disaster Recovery Policies And Procedures Plan could be the difference between a swift business recovery and a long, turbulent company recovery from disaster.  A Good Emergency Management Plan has a structure with five (5) major sections.  Your plan outline should include:

1. Introduction to Disaster Management
2. The Disaster Management Team
3. Emergency Management
4. Emergency Management Preparedness
5. Disaster Management Governance

View free sample disaster procedure templates

1. Introduction to Disaster Management Planning

Addresses the procedure for the formulation of the Company’s policy and procedure mechanism relating to the disaster plan, an overview of the company’s concept of Disaster Planning, and the company’s statement of purpose regarding emergency activation of any of the measures included in the plan.

2. Disaster Management Team

Identifies the team members, their responsibilities, and authorities before, during and after an emergency.  Your disaster recovery will depend on how well your disaster recovery team members understand, and have practiced their roles.

• Identify the individual members of the Disaster Management Executive Committee; assigns powers, authority and responsibilities to individual members; and provides for the termination of status.  Includes the appointment document, and the acknowledgement made by each Committee member.
• Notification of Emergency Responsibilities. Team members must be notified of their duties, attending meetings and remain up-to-date regarding company policies.
• Identify all personnel responsible for the initial and continuing research, development and implementation of the plan, establishes the formal notification and reporting structure for all members of the Disaster Management Team, describes the duties and responsibilities of all personnel and assigns appropriate levels of authority to those personnel.

3. Emergency Management

Emergency Management takes over when the disaster strikes.  Your disaster management team takes over for the duration of the emergency and assists in the business recovery operation.

• Describes the alert scenario for differing levels of emergency, and the stages of emergency used to calculate the most effective response.
• Identifies the Emergency Response Procedures that all employees must be able to identify, prioritize and act upon to diminish the impact of common events.
• Addresses agreements for services and agencies responsible for coordinating disaster management and business recovery efforts in the community.
• identifies the site of primary and secondary Centers of Operations, to be used in the event this plan is activated, an itemized list of supplies and equipment to be distributed to these centers of Operations, and itemized list of supplies and equipment to be stored at each office, and the itemized list of supplies and equipment to be stored at the storage site, if appropriate.
• Contains the disaster management forms to be used by the company during an emergency activation of the plan.

4. Emergency Management Preparedness

• Contains the Disaster Recovery Training Program, to be supplemented with vendor and related information as appropriate.  Including the testing and training requirements to be developed upon the Board’s approval of the plan.  This testing and training program has been developed to address the company’s entire staff regarding policies, procedures, equipment and other topics to be developed.
• Describes the annual evaluation process to be conducted by each department. The annual report, to be issued by the Disaster Management Team Coordinators and approved by the Board, must address the status of each department regarding compliance with established policies and procedures, a projection regarding any new equipment, personnel, policies or procedures required for the coming year, and suggested changes to existing policies or procedures with accompanying rationale.
• Contains each departments and offices recovery plan for resumption of normal services after the disaster.  This section includes identifying information on all personnel, equipment, facilities and supplies, disaster evacuation, assembly and notification procedures, and communications information.
• Contains the LEADERS TRAINING GUIDE used to inform all personnel about the company’s DISASTER MANAGEMENT PLAN.
• Provides for the storage of resolutions and succession documentation, and access control codes and keys for facilities.
• Contains listing of the confidential information retained in a separate binder, and stored with the Disaster Management Plan. This is not to be included in copies of the Disaster Management Plan distributed to individual offices and departments.

5. Disaster Management Governance

Board resolution authorized by the Board, and insures the continuity of management and business operations by providing emergency operating policies and procedures, description of who may declare a disaster leading to the implementation of the plan, assignment of powers, reporting structure, responsibilities and authority for emergency action; provisions for removal of emergency conditions; and the description of locations and powers of temporary main offices.

The resolution signed by the Board’s Secretary upon the Board’s approval, authorizing The Disaster Management Plan as the company’s only plan, and authorizing the Disaster Management Team Chairpersons and Coordinators to carry out all provisions of the plan. The annual re-certification resolution of the Disaster Management Plan based on the recommendation from the Disaster Management Team Coordinators and the Disaster Management Team Chairpersons.

Learn How to Manage the Disaster Recovery Process

Your recovery from a disaster is directly related to the level of detail you include in your disaster planning process.  Your disaster recovery plan effectiveness is therefore based on your attention to detail, preparation, and leadership.  Save time researching laws, regulations, and standards.  Learn…

• How to Manage Disaster Recovery Planning
• How to Manage Emergency Services and Agreements
• How to Manage Operations Centers
• How to Manage Emergency Notifications
• How to Manage Office and Department Recovery

Nobody Is Exempt from Disaster

The key to successful disaster recovery is having a tested, up-to-date disaster plan in place before disaster strikes. Use the manual’s proven scientific model to learn the true scope of the disaster recovery process within your company. Understand the cause-and-effect relationship between a company’s policies and operating procedures and the likelihood of your firm’s survival and recovery. Implement a comprehensive disaster plan and company-wide disaster management program that significantly reduces your company’s exposure to risk.

Who Will Benefit from the Disaster Planning Manual?

The small business recovery plan template is designed especially for those who are responsible for the organization’s safety and soundness: directors, executives, compliance officers, security directors, auditors, and operations managers. The Disaster Planning Manual is a strategic planning, training, and reference tool for helping you to decide what to do before, during, and after a business disruption.

Order your Disaster Recovery manual TODAY! This Disaster Planning Manual is downloadable, meaning all of the disaster documents come in easy-to-edit Microsoft Word templates.  Click here to view a free sample Disaster Recovery procedure and the manual’s Table of Contents.