What are the Steps to Disaster Management Planning?

Disasters do not wait for a convenient quarter. A hurricane, fire, flood, earthquake, toxic waste release, computer system crash, power outage, labor strike, community illness, robbery, bomb threat, arson, hostage event, transportation strike, or computer virus can interrupt operations before the company has time to debate who owns the response.

That is why disaster management planning has to happen before disaster strikes. The plan gives employees a practical way to protect people, contain the disaster, and begin recovery when normal roles, vendors, communications, and outside help are no longer reliable.

What Is Disaster Management Planning?

Disaster management planning is the process of preparing a company to respond to any event that will significantly impact operations. It is not limited to dramatic weather events. A useful Disaster Plan accounts for natural or cataclysmic events, human behavior, and technological breakdowns that exceed the company’s ordinary ability to respond effectively.

No one is exempt from a disaster, and most organizations are unprepared if a disaster erupts. The plan should explain disaster procedures in plain language, assign roles before people are under pressure, and define how the business will keep operating during a worst-case scenario.

What Are the Steps to Disaster Management Planning?

The first step is to define the kinds of incidents your company is planning for. The original structure still holds: disasters result from three broad types of incidents, and each type requires a different response path.

1. Natural or cataclysmic events, such as hurricane, earthquake, fire, flood, storm, or pandemic.
2. Human behavior, such as robbery, bomb threat, arson, hostage event, or transportation strike.
3. Technological breakdowns, such as power outage, computer crash, computer virus, system failure, or communications failure.

From there, the planning team documents the likely impact, the decision chain, the emergency contacts, the minimum operating needs, the recovery priorities, and the procedures employees should follow. A company without a disaster plan is like a ship without a rudder: once the tide turns, it can drift into damage that better preparation would have reduced.

How Do You Plan Your Disaster Plan?

The key to disaster management is to have a disaster plan in place before disaster strikes. Your disaster plan should include simple, effective disaster recovery guidelines and disaster procedures for all people to follow, not a binder that only one executive understands.

A practical plan normally includes a business impact review, response roles, emergency authority, facility procedures, employee and customer communication steps, vendor contact paths, technology recovery procedures, records recovery steps, and a testing schedule. Ready.gov recommends that businesses identify their continuity team, compile the plan, and exercise it regularly as part of business continuity planning.

Human beings tend to make inappropriate decisions during a crisis. If your company has a plan already prepared for coping with most emergencies and you have shared the plan with your employees, then you stand a better chance of surviving an emergency and recovering rapidly.

How Do You Plan for an Emergency?

When planning for an emergency, you should be prepared for an event that will cause one or more serious conditions to occur in your community. These conditions may suspend normal roles and routine activities, forcing people to assume temporary powers, duties, and responsibilities they were not trained to handle.

• The governor of the state or another competent authority declares the community a disaster area.
• Martial law is declared, the National Guard is activated, or ordinary civil procedures are suspended.
• Law enforcement agencies are unable to cope with the results, even with assistance from other agencies.
• A large share of the community is injured, unavailable, unable, or unwilling to help in disaster recovery efforts.
• People who remain available must become responsible for the welfare of others, often with limited preparation.

A serious disaster can also create a 72-hour interruption of the services a company normally assumes will be available. The point is not to predict every detail. The point is to test whether the business can continue when the usual support system disappears.

• Basic emergency and transportation services, such as police, fire, medical assistance, and both public and private transportation. Routine calls for service may not be answered.
• Food, water, and survival supplies. Deliveries to food stores, hospitals, and company facilities may be interrupted or redirected.
• Electrical power, sanitation services, and sewer service. Power lines may fail, water flow may be restricted, and sewer systems may back up.
• Vendors and communications. Vendors may be locked out of the affected area, phone lines may be down, and service providers may be serving other clients affected by the same event.

Have you planned for a disaster as if you will not have any outside help for at least three to five days? Your disaster plan should allow you to be self-sufficient during that minimum amount of time, and preferably longer. Technology can help your business during a disaster, especially remote work, online customer contact, supplier communication, and secure access to key records.

What Are the Primary Goals of Business Recovery?

The three primary goals of disaster management planning and business recovery are to protect what is important, contain the disaster, and begin disaster recovery. NIST contingency planning guidance describes the same practical discipline for technology and operations: understand critical functions, plan recovery procedures, and keep those procedures usable before disruption occurs in a contingency planning program.

1. Protect What Is Important

You must eliminate or reduce the potential for injuries or the loss of human life, damage to facilities, and loss of assets and records. This requires a comprehensive assessment of each department within your company to ensure that appropriate steps have been taken.

• Minimize disruptions of services to the company and its customers.
• Implement security measures that reduce financial loss and operational exposure.
• Provide for a timely resumption of operations in the event of a disaster.
• Reduce or limit exposure to potential liability claims filed against the company, directors, officers, and other personnel.

2. Contain the Disaster

Immediately invoke the emergency provisions of your Disaster Management Plan to stabilize the effects of the disaster. Containment gives the company time to assess the impact, protect people, and prevent a localized problem from becoming a larger business failure.

3. Begin Disaster Recovery

Implement the disaster procedures contained in your Disaster Management Plan according to the type and impact of the disaster. Your disaster procedures should prioritize all recovery efforts in a deliberate order.

• Employees: Ensure employee survival as a basic human concern and because employees may help others on company premises when the disaster strikes.
• Customers: Ensure the survival or care of customers affected by the disaster, physically, mentally, emotionally, and financially.
• Facilities: After ensuring the safety of employees and customers, secure facilities as shelter for people and assets.
• Assets: Although assets are often recoverable through insurance, address them after people and facilities are secure.
• Records: Recover and reconstruct important records after employees and customers are cared for, facilities are secured, and assets are audited and stored.

Should Workplace Violence Be Included in Your Disaster Recovery Plan?

Workplace violence belongs in the planning conversation because some disasters are caused by human behavior. Robbery, bomb threat, arson, hostage event, and other violent or threatening incidents can disrupt operations just as surely as a storm or computer crash.

By understanding the cause and effect relationships between personal and work habits, a company’s policies and operating procedures, and the behaviors exhibited by both victims and offenders, you can implement a comprehensive personal and company-wide safety program that reduces safety risks. A workplace violence plan should connect prevention, response, communication, and recovery.

Disaster Management Preventive Action

Your disaster management planning process should include preventative actions designed to accomplish a common goal: prevent people from becoming victims of a violent act, or at least reduce the likelihood of serious injury. Your Disaster Recovery Plan is a strategic planning, training, and reference tool for helping employees decide what to do before, during, and after a violent event.

You have more work to do if you are truly committed to developing a safe working environment for your company. Conduct a survey of employees, contact local, state, and federal emergency and crisis management agencies, ask insurance providers for risk-management material, and use current online resources to learn from similar organizations that have experienced the same events you are trying to prevent.

Developing a Safe Workplace

The process of developing and maintaining safe places to live and work is an evolutionary one. Coping with crimes of violence involves four components that also apply to broader disaster management planning.

1. Planning
2. Prevention
3. Response
4. Recovery

Inattention to one component may jeopardize the success of the other three. Victims who prevent or survive violent events often have a defensive plan of action, consisting of a strategy, thoughtful tactics, and response techniques. Does your disaster management planning process include workplace violence?

How Do Disaster Recovery Plans Support the Business?

The answer to disaster management planning is to have a disaster plan in place before disaster strikes. When planning for an emergency, prepare for an event where you will not have outside help for at least three to five days. As a result, your disaster plan should allow you to be self-sufficient during that minimum amount of time, and preferably longer.

Managing business income loss during a pandemic like COVID-19 shows how recovery is directly related to the detail included in the planning process. Disaster recovery plan effectiveness is based on attention to detail, preparation, and leadership.

The Bizmanualz Disaster Recovery Manual provides structured coverage of disaster planning concepts, including the disaster planning process, disaster recovery plan, step-by-step action plan, workplace violence guidance, sample forms, procedures, and training information. Use it as a reference point for building disaster procedures that employees can actually follow under pressure.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Is Disaster Management Planning?

Disaster management planning is the process of deciding how the business will prepare for, respond to, and recover from events that significantly disrupt operations. It covers natural or cataclysmic events, human behavior, and technological breakdowns.

What Should a Disaster Plan Include?

A Disaster Plan should include disaster procedures, response roles, emergency contacts, communication steps, recovery priorities, and instructions for operating without outside help for several days.

Why Should a Business Plan for Three to Five Days Without Help?

A serious emergency can interrupt basic emergency and transportation services, food, water, electrical power, sanitation, sewer service, vendors, and communications. Planning for three to five days of self-sufficiency gives the company a practical starting point for survival and recovery.

What Are the Primary Goals of Business Recovery?

The primary business recovery goals are to protect what is important, contain the disaster, and begin disaster recovery. In practice, the recovery sequence should prioritize employees, customers, facilities, assets, and records.

Should Workplace Violence Be Part of a Disaster Recovery Plan?

Workplace violence should be included when the business evaluates human behavior risks such as robbery, bomb threats, arson, hostage events, and other safety threats. The planning process should connect prevention, response, and recovery so employees know what to do before a crisis occurs.