10 point checklist for disaster recovery

10 point checklist for disaster recovery

HR, Legal and Media Communications Disaster Recovery 10 Point Checklist

A list of 10 questions to rank how comprehensive your organization’s processes are around disaster recovery and business continuity plans.

• Is there a consistent security, safety, and HR approach across all service areas and lines of business?
• Is there a business continuity champion within

HR

Legal Department and

Media Communications

• Do you regularly involve, brief, and train staff on the organization’s business continuity plans?
• Is a Social Media channel established?

Has this been communicated to everyone with the enterprise?

Have pre-approved messages been written for each stage of the recovery process?

Do you have an enterprise information line or HR incident line?

Have your response plans considered duty of care and reputational implications?

• Does your plan include cross-training of both in-house and out-house staff?
• Do you have a detail organization chart with job descriptions, role definitions, and responsibilities for all major and minor participants during the recovery process?

Are responsibilities and succession planning defined in the plan?

Is it clear how communication with staff will be handled?

Does your plan cover common people-related impacts, such as unavailability of key players?

• Do you review all enterprise policies to consider whether they will hold up during a crisis?

Have you considered how you will deal with staff with special needs requirements at any disaster recovery center or alternative site?

Is all staff contact data, including next of kin, current? Is it updated at least quarterly or when there are staff changes?

Do you have a process for locating staff to ensure that they are safe?

Have you reviewed your travel and purchasing policies to accommodate the need for flexibility during and after an incident?

• Does your testing go beyond a regular disaster recovery – business continuity tests?
• Do you have sufficient flexibility in contracts to deal with the need for change of location, extended working hours or other changes to working terms and conditions?
• Do you have established methods for monitoring threats and receiving government advice, for example, for pandemics?

Scoring

Score one point for each area and sub-point covered in your plan. Deduct one point if it is absent and score zero if you don’t know! Ranking Matrix scoring table:

• 0–15 points – Revisit your disaster recovery business continuity plan retest your plan on a quarterly basis.
• 16–20 points – Work on improving your plans implementation and retest your plan on a semi-annual basis
• 20+ points – Review and retest you plan at least on an annual basis