Protecting your business
Is your business resilient?
Did you know that independent research commissioned by the British Insurance Brokers Association has revealed that 45% of businesses have no, or at very best, rough plans to deal with the effects of flood or storm damage? This is despite the £3billion of flood claims from 2007 and that 80% of businesses affected by a major incident close down within 18 months. [Source http://www.biba.org.uk/]
What types of risk do you need to consider?
The Sussex Resilient Forum partners have worked together to produce the Community Risk Register. A copy of the full Community Information on Risks document can be downloaded here. We have also provided a simple Business Continuity template for you to use. These are the typical Business Continuity risks we think you should consider:-
• A sudden and significant reduction in staff. This could be for a number of reasons, including Pandemic Flu, severe weather, industrial accidents or transport accidents.
• Loss of utilities i.e. gas, electric and water for a considerable time. Loss of utilities can occur for many reasons, including severe weather, loss of critical infrastructure or industrial accidents.
• Significant disruption to transport. Transport can be affected by many things, including severe weather, fuel shortages, transport accidents or even Pandemic flu.
• Denial of access to a site or geographical location. It could be that you are unable to get into your building because of a fire or flood within the building. It may, however, be because of external influences such as external flooding, severe weather, industrial accidents or even animal diseases such as foot and mouth.
• Loss of your IT systems. Any loss of IT systems could be within your own building, but it may also be caused by loss of power, industrial accidents or even severe weather causing power blackouts.
• Interruption
to your supply chain. This could be because your
suppliers have encountered a problem and they do not have a
business continuity plan. It could also be a problem in
delivered caused by fuel shortages, reduction in their staff,
severe weather or even transport accidents.
• Extreme weather. With the changes in our climate we could be facing more severe winters or even flooding.
More information of the risks mentioned above can be found under Top risks in Sussex