Record keeping

It is necessary to identify the changes that occurred to your business. Recovery allows for the state of business resilience to be tested. If successful, business resilience is confirmed and established for that degree of disruption.

For staff, keep records of what they have done for feedback and constructive criticisms. Making sure that they can reflect on how they dealt with a crisis and discuss opportunities for improvement should be no different to regular performance reviews.  For assets, there may be things that were left unattended as they were not important at the time. Restoring services that were unavailable will signal the transition into normality to your stakeholders.  Communicate this to staff and stakeholders.  Ask them for feedback on their experience and include this into your new ‘normal’.

For example

Let say that you own a manufacturing plant and a disruption occurs in your upstream supply chain. This disrupts your ability to process raw materials and distribute them to your customers. Your business continuity plan foresaw such a threat and you prearranged alternative suppliers for you to maintain operation. 

Recovery here would identify whether your upstream supplier can return to operational status quo or not. If not, then your business may have to adapt to the business environment of paying a higher premium for materials. You may need to readjust costs and look for alternative sources of profit margins to maintain business continuity in the long term. Remember to adjust your cash flow forecasts accordingly. 

Diversification of clients, products and services will reduce your risk profile.