Don’t get caught unprepared!
Sometimes the worst can happen when you least expect it. Fire, flood, or emergency community evacuations can put your organization under extreme pressure with little to no time to prepare.
Your valuable data can also come under risk from something as seemingly simple as downloading corrupt install files that can infect your system with a virus.
Or, perhaps you’re at risk because all your organization’s IT “secrets” are locked up in one staff member’s mind, with no written procedures or point person to take the reigns if the office expert takes a well-deserved vacation.
Well, don’t fret! Abenaki has 3 simple tips to help your organization get prepped for emergencies.
- DOCUMENT EVERYTHING!
One of the easiest things you can do is to keep a paper or PDF manual backup of key procedures that are part of your daily operations. This could include routine things like performing payroll, or running cheque batches. Be sure when creating these documents to think about how you would explain the step-by-step actions to someone who had never done it before. Write down each step and take screenshots. Maybe even have someone sit in and watch you go through the steps. It’s amazing how we can forget to add steps that are second nature to us because we do it everyday.
A powerful tool we use in the office is OneNote. With an amazing screenshot tool, you can compile a “note” with detailed instructions, then export it as a PDF or print it out and file it away in a procedural handbook for emergencies. - RUN THROUGH EMERGENCY SCENARIOS
This can be a good test to see how well your current plans stand up to an emergency before one actually strikes. Set aside an afternoon once or twice a month when things aren’t so busy (if it’s always busy, run your drill over a lunch break and treat staff to pizza), and run through possible scenarios. What if there’s a fire, flood, or evacuation? While brainstorming with your staff, ask yourself these questions:- Who is responsible for what?
- What is the plan of action?
- Where is our data stored? Do we have recent Data backups?
- Where are our procedural documents? Are they detailed enough?
- Who do we need to contact and how do we contact them?
- How do we get up and running again?
- BACK UP YOUR DATA
If you’re a frequent visitor to our blog you know how much we harp on this one thing. We do that because it’s possibly the most important thing you can do. In fact, if you skip over everything else, at the VERY LEAST, you need to ensure that your organization has a strong data backup system in place. Not sure how to get this in place? Contact us and we can help you set it up, but it needs to be maintained. It’s never a “set it and forget it” situation. We’ve had many clients who neglect this one thing and it can sink them for weeks.
So, we hope that these were helpful. If you need any help getting some of this set up we would be more than happy to assist.
You can never be too prepared for an emergency.