Businesses can do much to prepare for the impact of the many hazards they face in today’s world including natural hazards like floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes and widespread serious illness such as the H1N1 flu virus pandemic. Human-caused hazards include accidents, acts of violence by people and acts of terrorism. Examples of technology-related hazards are the failure or malfunction of systems, equipment or software.

Ready Business will assist businesses in developing a preparedness program by providing tools to create a plan that addresses the impact of many hazards. This website and its tools utilize an “all hazards approach” and follows the program elements within National Fire Protection Association 1600, Standard on Disaster/Emergency Management and Business Continuity Programs. NFPA 1600 is an American National Standard and has been adopted by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

The five steps in developing a preparedness program are:

Program Management

Organize, develop and administer your preparedness program

Identify regulations that establish minimum requirements for your program

Planning

Gather information about hazards and assess risks

Conduct a business impact analysis (BIA)

Examine ways to prevent hazards and reduce risks

Implementation
Write a preparedness plan addressing:

Resource management

Emergency response

Crisis communications

Business continuity

Information technology

Employee assistance

Incident management

Training

Testing and Exercises

Test and evaluate your plan

Define different types of exercises

Learn how to conduct exercises

Use exercise results to evaluate the effectiveness of the plan

Program Improvement

Identify when the preparedness program needs to be reviewed

Discover methods to evaluate the preparedness program

Utilize the review to make necessary changes and plan improvements