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Recent Trends in Disaster Planning

After the Covid-19 pandemic, disaster planners in many organizations are blowing the dust off old three-ring binders that contain material compiled in preparation for Y2K. Remember Y2K? Perhaps not. But suffice it to say that this risk prevailed before January 01, 2000. Fortunately, for most organizations it turned out to be a false alarm. A lot of risks have changed since then.

By Guy Robertson

Guy Robertson is a senior emergency planner, auditor and trainer at TMC and an instructor at the Justice Institute of BC and Langara College. He has written five books and hundreds of articles on disaster planning, and offered workshops and lectures at conferences across North America and in the UK.

Old Plan = Risk

Old disaster plans can become risks in themselves because managers assume that those binders will protect employees and operations during all emergencies and disasters. But when an organization’s risk profile changes and employees are not ready for dire circumstances, they could be unprotected from the worst. Operations might stop; closures could ensue. These days, the overarching trend in disaster planning is updating plans, not just once every decade, but annually as our risk profiles change.

Pandemic

When organizations worldwide are updating their disaster plans the most common updates are measures to deal with a new pandemic, an event that many epidemiologists believe is inevitable. While another might not happen for decades, one could strike in a few months, or early next year.

A pandemic can be terrifying, but even a regional epidemic can disrupt lives and the local economy as well as cause serious illness. Organizations developing pandemic preparedness measures are adapting them for use during epidemics and infectious diseases that are site specific. Handwashing, social distancing, and more stringent sanitization in public areas become standard ways to prevent or slow the spread of pathogens.

Succession Plans

Partly as a response to the Covid-19 pandemic, organizations are developing succession plans for all employees, rather than only senior management and IT staff. Covid-19 struck people in all departments and at all levels of corporate hierarchies. Organizations discovered that, while CEOs and senior programmers could be replaced temporarily with the activation of old succession plans, large numbers of junior employees could not be replaced quickly. Chaos ensued in many organizations and led to cancelled product deliveries, delayed service, and, in some cases office and plant closures.

Organizations learned that the loss—temporary or permanent—of one key employee can disrupt operations for lengthy periods. And the definition of the term “key” has been revised to include employees that previously were not considered essential. Consider the plight of a company in Eastern Canada that lost its five mailroom clerks to Covid-19 for several weeks. Owing to increased demand, temp agencies were unable to provide replacement workers. The company’s mail could not be processed, and orders for its products were delayed or cancelled. The company has updated its succession plan to include not only mailroom staff, but also receptionists, executive assistants, cafeteria employees, and janitors.

Climate Change

Recent warnings from governments across North America and Europe have reinforced the fear that climate change will lead to weather events such as freak storms and high winds, flooding, droughts, and dangerously high temperatures. The risk of summer heat waves has increased over the past decade. Hence organizations are developing “cooling centres” for employees and visitors to their sites. Disaster planners advise building managers not to delay the installation or upgrading of air conditioning units in preparation for summer heat. New office signage and bulletin board notices encourage employees to drink water from recently installed water coolers that are available on all floors. Also recommended is the protection of IT hardware, which should not be left in potentially hot spaces during heat waves. These measures are commonsensical; yet it’s worth checking to see if your organization has implemented these risk mitigation measures.

No Binders

It pays to keep plans and training materials current, and in something better than those traditional binders. Consider the development of a website, a popular choice to spread good and possibly life-saving advice.

If you’d like to discuss how these trends can be incorporated into your business continuity or DR plan, or to comment on this article, contact me at

This article was published in the April 2024 edition of The TMC Advisor
- ISSN 2369-663X Volume:11 Issue:3

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