Excellent thread particularly the Business Continuity aspect. I have been pedling this post around a number of Flu blogs and wikis and think it will fit in nicely here. I am working on addiing further information to it so that it can be used by anyone with an interest.

From this and the burgeoning numbers of FluBlogs and FluWikis we can see that there is a growing threat and we can glean ways of preparing and protecting ourselves, our families and our pets. But what about our livelihoods? What I haven’t seen much of (and this will be vital to continuing to survive when this catastrophe hits – and, let’s be under no misapprehension here, from all the signs it’s going to) is Business Continuity.

There must be millions of visitors to this and many of the other flu related pages who are directors/managers of businesses - large, medium sized and small, that will want to continue to trade and flourish, not only after but also during a pandemic.

Question for you. What are you doing about it NOW? For goodness sake don’t wait until your first employee is gripped by a sneezing fit – you’re way too late then. Start to think about:

What are your critical areas of business?

Can you suspend your less important business areas?

How are you going to deliver your critical services when you’re running at decreased staffing levels of 30% to 50%?

How can you utilise staff freed from the less important tasks to support and reinforce critical areas?

Do your suppliers and partner agencies have Business Continuity arrangements in place?

If not how can you obtain critical supplies when your normal supplier folds?

The list is endless.

There must also be millions of visitors to these pages who are in gainful employment and would want to remain so after having survived the rigours of a pandemic.

Questions for you.

Does your employer have business continuity plans?

Do you know what they are and how you fit into them? If you don’t know, badger your line manager to find out (carefully, remember you still want the job after the pandemic).

Somewhere in the region of 70% of businesses that do not have a Business Continuity plan fail in the first year after being affected by a major incident. There is so much information on the web about business continuity that this really shouldn’t become a huge issue. Detail a member of staff to become the Project Manager for getting this off the ground, give them management support, a PC with internet access and let them get to it. Or do it yourself – but DO IT!

I think it was General Patten that said “I’d rather have a good plan today than a perfect plan in two weeks from now”

As opposed to the Captain of the Titanic “Full speed ahead and bugger the icebergs”

Do we call you General or Captain?

I thought I had just better add a few links to get those of you who are interested started off:

http://www.thebci.org/

http://www.survive.com/

http://www.business-continuity-and-...ry-world.co.uk/

http://www.business-continuity-online.com/

http://www.continuitycentral.com/

http://www.londonprepared.gov.uk/business/businesscont/

http://www.mi5.gov.uk/output/Page267.html

http://www.business-continuity-world.com/

http://www.newbusiness.co.uk/cgi-bin/homepages.pl?id=23

http://www.drj.com/new2dr/model/bcmodel.htm

I hasten to add that I am not connected in any way with any of these organisations. They just happen to be the first ones of any real use that appear on a Google search.

Good luck

Here’s some excellent information for businesses which walks you through putting your own Business Continuity plan togehter. The site is London Prepared and is a joint venture by the local authorities and the emergency and health services within the capital.

To get you up and running I think that these pages are invaluable.

http://www.londonprepared.gov.uk/bu...ont/under10.htm
http://www.londonprepared.gov.uk/bu...10to50staff.htm
http://www.londonprepared.gov.uk/bu...0to250staff.htm
http://www.londonprepared.gov.uk/bu...50plusstaff.htm

I hear what you say on this Sage, and it's a sorry but true story almost everywhere. In the UK BC was considered a black art but at least the government has forced it upon all Category 1 emergency responders by means of legislation - The Civil Contingencies Act 2004. This also gives local authorities the added responsibility of providing BC advice and assistance in a limited form to local businesses to help them put their own arrangements together.