The extreme weather effects of climate change are upending businesses of every sort. Florida, North Carolina, and other places are still reeling from the one-two punch of hurricanes Helene and Milton. Climate change has also spurred devastating wildfires on both coasts, as well as drought, floods, tornados, and temperature extremes. Do you have a crisis management plan to keep your business going under these conditions? While you can’t single–handedly stop a hurricane, you can take steps now – under sunny skies – to help you weather any disruptive storm. As the saying goes, the best offense is a good defense. Here’s how to protect your organization from the potential disruptions caused by climate change.
Step 1: Have a plan.
It might seem basic, but the first step is to have a detailed plan for getting your most important functions and services back on track as quickly as possible following a disruption. What services or processes are essential to doing business? Each department, location, business unit, and so forth needs to create its own plan based on its critical business services and processes, noting who is involved and what the action plan is if a disruption happens. While the details in each plan will differ, there should be some standardization and coordination across all plans. Consistency is especially important with data used in multiple plans and in the language used. A well-drafted plan will include specific duties assigned to individuals or departments across the organization. Knowing in advance what is expected and who is accountable can save valuable time when the real thing happens.
Step 2: Ensure plans are up to date and accessible.
When the hurricane winds are raging, and people are panicking, the last thing you want to do is scramble around to find your most current business continuity plans. Avoid that panic by consolidating your plans into one centralized repository that is easily accessible to all. This also eliminates worries about using different or outdated versions. Having all plans in one place makes it easy to keep them up to date with current resources, facilities, technology, and so forth. With the right crisis management software, you can make global changes once, and the update will automatically cascade through all impacted plans, saving time and increasing accuracy.
Step 3: Identify your crisis management team.
Who needs to be at the center of your crisis response? What roles are needed? When and how do they meet? Given the importance of efficient coordination, communication, and decision-making in a crisis, who is on your team matters. Board-level and C-suite support is essential for a good outcome, as is involving a cross-functional group, including risk management, legal, IT, and HR. Diversity of opinion is important. Delegation of authority is also important to effectively manage through a crisis. The CEO, for instance, is not always the best choice to include on the crisis management team. The CEO’s time may be better spent acting as the spokesperson or on other aspects of running the business.
Step 4: Put emergency notifications in place.
Bad weather often knocks regular communications systems offline. Avoid communication breakdowns by establishing alternate means of communicating outside of regular channels. The crisis management team, for instance, needs to be in constant contact with each other to deal with unfolding conditions. Two-way communication with impacted employees is also important. Dedicated emergency notification software can get critical communications to those affected and make sure they’re safe. You can use this channel to share updates with the group without overwhelming everyone else with information that would be irrelevant.
Step 5: Test and revise to prepare for the next one.
Practice makes perfect, and business continuity and resilience planning is no exception. Prepare for future weather emergencies by exercising your plans using different scenarios, so you can identify and address any vulnerabilities in advance. But be pragmatic. Don’t get distracted by trying to anticipate every single situation. Focus your scenario testing by impact – on people, facilities, technology, suppliers, operations, etc. – and what is required to keep the organization operating. Keep testing and refining your plans until you are confident that you have the muscle memory to hit the ground running when a storm hits. And when the real thing does happen, step back and review your plans. What went well – what did not? What was unanticipated? What information did you wish you had but didn’t? How could your processes be more efficient? Did important information flow freely – or were there breakdowns? What else would have helped you get back on track faster? No two disasters are exactly alike. But learn from Helene, Milton, wildfires, floods, mudslides, whatever other weather crises you faced. Apply those lessons, so you don’t make the same mistakes again. The more you can prepare now, the faster you’ll be able to bounce back from future weather emergencies, no matter where, when, or how they strike.
For more information about business resilience and continuity, download our ebook, Getting Started with Business Resilience, and check out Riskonnect’s Business Continuity & Resilience software.
