What is business continuity "awareness"?

Everyone seems to agree that business continuity awareness is a “good thing”. But ask 10 people what should be in an awareness training programme and you will probably get 12 different answers.  So what is, is good practice in this area?

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First, tailor training to your audience according to their overall role in the programme.  Members of the Incident management team or someone who is responsible for managing a departmental or activity based plan will need very different training to general staff.  In this article I’m going to concentrate on general staff awareness training for incident management and business continuity.

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The majority of people in an organisation won’t have a specific role relating to business continuity – but they will need to know what to during and after an incident and what will happen if business continuity plans are invoked.  The principle to bear in mind, for this particular audience “What do they need to know. So, if you are creating a business continuity awareness programme, here’s a scope for an awareness training initiative that’s always seems to work well:

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  • Explain why management has developed incident management and business continuity plans

  • Introduce the key people and functions are who look after the plan and who will respond to incidents

  • What to do if an individual is the first to notice an incident

  • What to do in an evacuation

  • What to do if the building is lockdown

  • What to do if they can’t attend their normal place of work

  • How they will be advised if a major incident has occurred

  • How to get information during an incident

  • What transport arrangements have been made

  • How to get into any workplace recovery facilities

  • How to work remotely

 

Also, don’t forget that resources are an integral part of any awareness programme. A concise, portable quick reference guide that includes the key information outlined above will ensure that colleagues will always have the relevant information at their fingertips if the worst does happen

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Business continuity awareness is an integral part of any business continuity plan. It helps to ensure that everyone in he organisation understands how the plan relates to them and what is expected of them. Business continuity awareness is covered in the in our free  business continuity training course and an awareness training PowerPoint template is included in the business continuity plan templates download