Commercial Insurance Blog

Business Catastrophe Planning Made Easy - How to Begin

Planning for something catastrophic can seem overwhelming. At Gordon Atlantic, we hope to make it a little easier with our How to Begin Guide. 

  •  Create a concise central list with all employees' personal contact information including home and cell phone numbers, as well as personal email addresses. Provide a hard copy of this list to top management. Provide a list of managers' non-work contact information to employees that work with them. Both lists can be used to notify of sickness or other personal emergencies. 
  • Assemble a list of your physical plant service providers, including their contact information, address, email, and telephone numbers. This gives you the ability to reach them on an as-needed basis, especially if you need to while out of the office. Some suggestions for the list include plumber, electrician, general carpentry, and landscaping/external grounds as well as utility providers: water, electric, and telecommunications. 
  • If your business relies heavily on information processing, ask your IT service provider if they have off-premises backup and restore services readily available, with someone to speak to 24/7. In the event of a disruption of service, you will be prepared with a good list to refer to. 
  • With hurricane season underway, having things such as a generator, and cable internet connection with automatic fail-over in place, can be the difference in opening your doors the morning following a storm, and needing to close down for a few days while you wait for Eversource to come reboot your power. 
  • Use tools available online: consider keeping an evolving document on google docs or another cloud-based secure location so that anyone in the company can access it. 
  • Now that your catastrophe plan is well underway, let the members of your team know. Assembling your top tier employees to announce and modify your plan ensures everyone is on the same page and knows what to do in the event that it is needed. Consider that the top three most common business-killer disruptions arise from wind, water, and fire, a good opening question in your first meeting could be to ask what would need to be done after a hurricane, fire or flood. For example, ensuring that all employees are properly equipped to work from home if the current space is damaged.
  • Final Step: Take time to develop a generic press release (ready for post-catastrophe modification) with a three-part message: acknowledging your loss, assuring customers of continued service (with resumption date as applicable), and details of any temporary new location, phone, or other business contact details. Designate your lead "press contact" person. Only that person should speak with the press to ensure a consistent, practiced message.

There are more detailed disaster plan templates available online and through associated industry resources; or contact the professionals at Gordon Atlantic Insurance/ Alera Group. Just having a list of critical service providers and employees, and communicate responsibilities, already puts you ahead and keeps you better prepared. 

Most importantly, the next time something unexpected interrupts your day, week, or year, this exercise can be a life saver, or a business saver. 

Read Alera's prediction on the Future of Insuring Against Disaster. 

Should you have any specific questions, please call Gordon Atlantic Insurance toll free at 1-800-649-3253.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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