Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery Teams

Different individuals in your organization make small but significant efforts that collectively contribute to the overall success of your business continuity and disaster recovery (BCDR) plan – be it during the initiation, execution or maintenance phase. Individuals with similar skill sets are also grouped into teams that address specific focus areas.

It is important to define the responsibilities for different roles within teams to offset the impact of contingencies such as attrition, new recruitments and temporary unavailability or job profile changes of staff. This also eliminates overlapping responsibilities and gaps in profile descriptions for various teams.

A good practice is to involve your HR department while outlining profiles for different teams. In general terms, team descriptions have the following attributes:

Crisis management teams (CMT) closely resemble your enterprise’s organizational hierarchy. This is because they are composed of key personnel from across the company and possess the competencies to effectively respond to the repercussions that follow any major crisis scenario.

Decision making falls under the purview of the crisis management team and, if required, they can even collaborate with the management and leadership teams to take action on pressing matters. They are responsible for optimizing the use of assets and resources as well as monitoring the effectiveness of BCDR plans. Besides initiating, executing and maintaining business continuity and disaster recovery plans, the crisis management team also has the authority to modify plans in order to adapt responses to specific scenarios.

Company management is responsible for overall business operations across the organization. Selecting the right members from your management panel will depend on your resiliency objectives and the combination of skills you wish to leverage. Managers are directly involved during all crucial phases of BCDR operations such as:

Damage assessment teams are made up of executives from different departments such as Admin, IT, Human Resources, Operations and Security. You could add members from other teams as well, depending on your organization’s business model. The size of the damage assessment team depends on the size of your organization. In a small firm, the company head, IT in charge and office manager would suffice. But in the case of a multinational with locations spread across the globe, you would need several damage assessment teams or even a mobile unit that can fly down to the branch location and assess the damage in less than 24 hours. You can also have a damage assessment team for each location and the mobile unit can be called in when reinforcements are required. For instance, the local team could handle onsite flooding and similar incidents. The mobile unit can supplement recovery efforts during more severe incidents such as fires, earthquakes and so on.

Assessing the impact on operations is a vital aspect of any BCDR plan. This task can be added to the damage assessment team’s portfolio. But since this segment of business activity is directly linked to the organization’s revenue, some companies prefer a standalone operations assessment team that can assess how their production lines are being affected during a disaster and suggest a suitable course of action.

IT infrastructure is vital to any business in today’s world. Your IT team plays the important role of coordinating with different teams such as the damage and operations assessment teams while streamlining processes that involve systems and applications. In generic terms, your IT team’s composition should possess combined expertise on the following areas:

The scale and complexity of Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery plans can necessitate a separate team that provides administrative support to the entire organization. Typical tasks could include

If evacuation becomes necessary, as in the case of a cyclone or a flood, then a transportation team would be necessary for moving critical components of your business such as documents, equipment, staff and so on to a safe location. Transportation would be necessary as part of your preventive measures, for instance, before the onset of an approaching hurricane, or even after a disruptive event. Managing BCDR transportation requires a thorough understanding of the organization’s business activities, the various constraints along the road and the possible workarounds for the same.

Communicating the exact state of affairs to interest groups such as vendors, investors and stakeholders during a disruption is crucial for avoiding ambiguity and misleading information. If the nature of your business operations attracts a lot of publicity, it would be prudent to put together a specialized media relations team that proactively takes the initiative to ensure the accuracy of information that is broadcasted about the company during a crisis. Your company’s reputation and brand perception depends on how effectively the media relations team handles this responsibility. Even if the company is at fault for a mishap due to negligence or an error, with a little tact, the media relations teams can sway public opinion in your favor.

Despite elaborate preparations and mounting the best efforts, crisis situations are extremely stressful and take their toll on all people involved. Attending to the immediate needs of all employees and staff members is the primary focus area of the HR department. Tasks include:

Legally binding tasks can be handled by in-house teams or outsourced to an external agency in which case a capable employee can liaison between the organization and the vendor. Legal teams ensure that your organization steers clear of statutory pitfalls, regulatory violations, stays compliant and adheres to industry standards and best practices – a crucial factor, especially in industries with strict monitoring controls such as banking, finance and healthcare.

One of the first issues to be addressed immediately after a major disruption is the health and safety of personnel. Your organization’s security team could be experts with specialized know how on the domain or individuals from teams such as Facilities and Human Resources. Enterprises put together a dedicated security team in large office locations where stringent rules and tight exit and entry protocols become necessary. Needless to say, key members of the security team should also be included while developing a BCDR capability. Adequate training would be necessary if you’re putting together a security team that consists of individuals from other teams who have no prior knowledge or experience in the domain. This is crucial, especially in the event of a catastrophe or crisis when official agencies such as fire and police squads prioritize rescue efforts at schools, day care centers, nursing homes and medical institutions. So your security team should have the wherewithal to respond to the crisis situation at hand until official teams can arrive on the scene.

Procuring equipment and supplies varies from company to company. In large corporations, this activity is handled by a dedicated purchasing department. Extensive planning is required to purchase, track and manage the equipment and supplies that Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery teams make use of before, during and after a crisis. Factors to be taken into consideration include:

Such information can be shared with trusted vendors and your organization can reduce the turnaround times for purchases during disasters.

The procurement team needs to be well staffed in order to avoid single points of failure. Multiple employees must be granted authorization to purchase emergency supplies so that if the primary staff member is unavailable, alternate resources can step in. Also, the purchasing cost limits set for each individual must map to the type and number of equipments and supplies they have been assigned.