"Ready Or Not, Here I Come..."

A crisis or an emergency can happen anytime.

This can be a super typhoon, flooding, earthquake, volcanic eruption and landslide or fire, massive outage of gasoline, power, telecom, water or food. It can also be an active shooter, bombing, coup d’etat, or long-term main road construction causing prolonged traffic. Recently, the world experienced the Covid-19 pandemic and is still in the process of surviving it.

Once a year, YOU AND YOUR TEAM must review and develop the framework of your overall business continuity plan. Specifically, those that can affect your critical functions to produce your products and services so you continue to generate revenue. You must identify the minimum acceptable results during various levels of an emergency situation. This must include business & risk assessment, data recovery plan, IT continuity plan, compliance documentation, resource plan, testing & audit, coordination with government units, people movement & management, Org structure & roles of Committees, and, communication strategy to all stakeholders.

In the BPM industry, it is bare minimum that our frontline Associates need to be trained, have the required machines & tools, connectivity, management support, and, performance & compliance monitoring whether working in the office or from anywhere.

One of the activities I recommended and implemented by 2 of my organizations is a 100% evacuation drill. This is a scheduled Team-level evacuation drill which includes orientation and actual evacuation going to the evacuation site by ALL Associates including new hires. This ensures 100% of all Associates know exactly what to do & where to go in an orderly manner. I have also recommended Table Top exercises to 1 of my organizations who did not do it in the past. Meanwhile, I have also raised red flags on impressive BCPs that look great on paper but not implemented.

*About the photo

This applies to your family too. In my family, we regularly discuss topics about what to do in various types of crisis and emergency situations. They know where the fire extinguisher, emergency kits and key to the emergency window exits in each room are located. We conduct an annual fire drill at home. While it does not flood in our community, my family knows how to go up our roof if the need arises. I have 2 large water tanks at home that can last for 2-3 weeks. I recently installed a solar power system c/o my best friend Booie.

This photo was during Elisa’s birthday kiddie party in Jollibee in 2015. My family agreed to meet at the nearest Jollibee (wherever they may be) as our rendezvous when a massive earthquake or crisis happens. Even if the building is no longer there or even if it takes a couple of days, we shall meet in Jollibee.

#businesscontinuityplan #bcp #beready #safetyfirst

#ONETeam #SNAPS #SageandNotableAdvisesfromPatrickSalazar