Your main aim is to ensure your business continues operating throughout any emergency. By carefully researching and planning your options before an emergency situation, you can act quickly and easily.
Emergency management & recovery | Maintain ‘business as usual’
Your main aim is to ensure your business continues operating throughout any emergency. By carefully researching and planning your options before an emergency situation, you can act quickly and easily.
Prepare a backup or alternative for all essential tools and services your business needs to keep operating. Remember that local telecommunications, electricity, gas, water and fuel may be severely affected during an emergency.
If your business has been affected, getting it back on track will take time and your backup plan will be crucial. Using your critical business area analysis you can easily identify your key functions and decide the minimal amount of functions needed to continue operations.
Depending on the severity of the emergency, you may need to consider the following:
- Reconnect or establish a backup for your essential services (local telecommunications, electricity, gas, water and fuel).
- Relocate your business to a temporary location (such as a temporary business centre, hotel, someone’s home or an office provided by a service provider).
- Arrange a virtual office service (such as a telephone answering service, mail forwarding, or a remote secretarial service).
- Identify the skills required to perform your key business functions and the employees required to perform these functions.
- Arrange a start date with key employees. If necessary, arrange backup employees who have been cross trained in key areas.
- Set up alternative ways of selling your products (including an e-commerce website or online auction account).
Skill retention strategies
If you have a small organisation with only a few employees, it may be necessary to train staff in all areas of the business. Whether it’s on the job or provided by an external agency, cross training staff can avoid key person risk in the event of an extended emergency.
What to do…
- See our Emergency management & recovery plan template to complete your own critical business area analysis and use our Take action checklist for a quick reference of all the steps you should consider when experiencing an emergency event.
- Contact your local council for disaster-related assistance including possible temporary business centres. For council contact details, visit our Directory of government & business associations.
More information…
- Visit the digitalbusiness.gov.au website for information on how to get started in e-commerce .
- For more general information on training, visit our Skills development & training page.