Regardless of how robust your disaster recovery plan is, the success of its implementation will depend on the team that is responsible for it.
Structure your team by ensuring your selected member’s skills match the areas of responsibility. Below is a list of the key team members required and what they should be responsible for. In every case, there should be a primary and secondary member, both of whom will need to be equally briefed.
- Emergency Coordinator – takes ultimate responsibility for emergency planning and implementation
- Evacuation Manager – ensures safe evacuation
- Building Manager and Salvage Co-ordinator – makes building safe and prevents further damage, makes best use of anything salvageable
- Security Manager – ensures safety of plant and equipment
- IT/Communications Manager – ensures retention of vital electronic records, and facilitates communications and rapid IT recovery
- Records and Personnel Manager – ensures paper documents, personnel records’ safety and all Disaster Pack personnel records are kept current
- Relocation Manager – ensures rapid relocation to restart operations
These business critical roles will also need processes with supporting documentation to help them work in the most effective way during a crisis.
Common forms and checklists are:
- Emergency contact form for the premises
- Actions and decisions log
- Emergency Response Team action checklists
- Coordinators action checklist
- Evacuation Manager checklist
- Evacuation Manager’s evacuation plan
- Building Manager and Salvage Co-ordinator checklist
- Security Manager checklist
- IT/Communications Manager checklist
- Records and Personnel Manager checklist
- Relocation Manager checklist
- Re-occupation checklist
For template documents, or to read our Whitepaper on successful disaster recovery planning, visit ‘Disaster recovery planning – how to create a resilient strategy’.