Stay tuned for part 2 focusing on Securing your business assets (buildings and other infrastructures) next week, and don’t forget to subscribe to our blog.
Unlike other natural disasters, hurricanes have their predictable season. From June 1st until November 30th, the Atlantic Ocean can brew up the some of the worst weather Mother Nature can conjure up. Over the last few years, we have seen storms like Hurricanes Dorian, Sandy, Maria, and Irma, just to name a few, bulldoze their way through the Caribbean and US coastal cities.
Fortunately, the predictability of hurricane season allows business owners time to prepare. Our Hurricane Preparedness Series will help aid your business continuity plans in all aspects of your business from your employees, customers, data backups, to building infrastructure.
Pre Hurricane Season
In a perfect world, all aspects of your business are in order and accounted for. Documents and contracts are organized, all emergency contacts for both the business and employees are updated, and business should continue regardless of the worst hurricane season can bring.
However, business and other priorities get in the way – new Human Resources process you wanted to implement never made it to the top of the priority list. All contracts are still in your DocuSign or stored in a folder in Outlook. Your customer data hygiene methods have not been maintained. All marketing materials are scattered in Google drives, emails, and Slack channels.
► Gather all systems, subscriptions, contracts, etc. from each department.
► Evaluate customer communication software.
► If applicable, provide all administrative login accounts to Human Resources for all software and subscriptions.
► Reconsider IT infrastructure to safely secure your business should your office be physically impacted (how will your employees access critical information?).
► Create a digital and hard copy of all your building/office’s contracts and paperwork.
► Identify a point of contact for all crucial building contacts – this is to connect as quickly as possible post-hurricane should your office be structurally damaged.
► Digital backups for all facets of your business.
► Complete a customer audit and update client database.
► Hurricane Watch, Hurricane Warning, and Post-hurricane Plan
► Encourage sales team to connect with customers to offer additional services or products ahead of time in case production or delivery is delayed.
By completing this checklist, you are well underway to creating a plan should your business be in a hurricane’s path. This might also include a longer-term Post-Hurricane plan should there be significant damage that would prevent an immediate return to the office.
To Download our full Business Hurricane Preparedness Checklist: click here.
Is your business ready for Hurricane Season?
If you would like ColoHouse to help you assess your IT infrastructure or receive a free consultation from our team of experts, please email us at hurricane@colohouse.com.
