Most businesses are exposed to risk and they probably know there are significant challenges ahead. There can be great differences in the extent organizations establish plans for handling incidents and crises. Here are four good reasons why you should plan for the next crisis:
1. All risk preventive measures have weaknesses
Preventing risks from turning into incidents is good practice, but so is being ready to handle the outcome if the preventive risk mitigating measures do fail. Even though your organization is doing everything it can to protect the workforce from cuts, access to first aid kits is provided. And even though you have routines and installations to prevent fires from starting, you also have fire hoses or fire extinguishers available.
2. Protecting your work force is both a moral issue and required by law
Most risks only cause harm when they happen. Taking this fact into account, having measures in place to protect those closest to harm is inevitable. Planning and practicing may also contribute to significantly minimizing any impact on people and environment.
“When written in Chinese, the word ‘crisis’ is composed of two characters. One represents danger and the other represents opportunity.”
John F. Kennedy, 35th U.S. president.
3. Loss of production may severely impact your company survival
Any incident may directly or indirectly impact an organizations ability to operate. A loss of access to vital information will freeze processes depending on that information. A disruption to a physical production line or the loss of a factory facility will halt production of goods. An impact from an incident may cause massive media attention and possibly loss of reputation. Dealing with such effects can be very time consuming and recovering from them may take a long time.
4. A plan gives you peace of mind
Having a functional plan in place will give owners and employers greater peace of mind. Knowing that the organization will function effectively to reduce the impact from an incident or a crisis, and that measures to ensure business continuity all the way through will be taken, gives reassurance. Additionally, research shows that employees in organizations that take incident and crisis planning seriously, feel safer and experience higher levels of wellness and well-being, and as a result are more productive and happy at work.