In recent years, hurricanes, tropical storms, and wildfires devastated local communities and businesses alike. Every day people are slowly rebuilding their lives and businesses. If you’re reading this post you may have come through the worst and are looking for ways to be prepared in future. Or you might not have been affected by a natural disaster — but you think having a plan is a good idea. (We agree!)
We spoke to Hunter, Square’s Business Continuity Manager about his work in preparing a business for an emergency.
What is business continuity management? Why is it important?
Business Continuity Management is all about assessing and mitigating risk. It’s about identifying the key risks to your business and thinking about how to be more resilient.
I work with different teams across Square, practicing disaster recovery exercises or simply discussing ‘what-if’ scenarios which are usually based on recent topics from the news. I consider what Square’s duty is to its employees, and to its sellers.
I cover everything from visiting and assessing Square’s new buildings, checking the neighborhood, and physical environment of a new location. I also visit factories where Square hardware is made.
For example, Square’s HQ is located in San Francisco so I have to plan for the fact there could be an earthquake. We have a list of items we recommend for a 3-day emergency kit, but I also consider other factors like where the entire office could relocate to if we weren’t able to come back to the building. We also participate in the an annual earthquake drill called the Great California Shake Out https://www.shakeout.org/california/.
I also work with teams to track any employees who are travelling, and create plans for offices in different locations and the risks there.
Business Continuity is about what do you do before to prepare, what do you during, and what you do after any disaster or emergency.
How did you make the plan for Square?
I make Square’s contingency plans in collaboration with the people who will be involved in resolving the issue. For our natural disaster plan I worked with the Trusty & Safety team to make a list of all of the aspects we’d need to consider if a building wasn’t accessible.
First of all we think about people — is everyone safe? Then we consider the environment, is it safe to go outside? Is it safe to stay inside? From there we consider the impact to a property and work with building management to make sure a property is safe. Finally, when everyone is safe, we consider the business/financial impact.
Square also has an emergency notification system in place so we can let employees know if they shouldn’t go to an office for a specific reason. Similarly, small business owners could make sure they have contact information for each employee.
How often do you update the plan? How do you share the plan with Square employees?
Great question. The short answer is often! We actually have a lot of policy documents that we are committed to reviewing and updating annually. I frequently meet with different teams at Square so I understand what they do and assess how critical that is. We also run through several mock disasters per quarter.
Square is a pretty big organization — what advice do you have for small to medium businesses?
Plan ahead. Have an emergency kit at home and talk to other people! Discuss your plan with employees and see what plans/organizations already exist in your Community. It’s all about planning and practice. It really doesn’t help to have a plan if you don’t let people know about it or try it out frequently,
Can you recommend any resources for business owners?
I recommend checking out your local government Emergency Operations Center. https://www.ready.gov/business/implementation/incident. You could also look up your local Community Emergency Response Team https://www.ready.gov/community-emergency-response-team to find more about what emergency response plans are already in place in your community. I’d also recommend taking a CPR or First Aid training course which are invaluable.
We hope this post will serve as a starting point to preparing your business for a disaster. It sounds dramatic but making a plan will give you peace of mind now, and will help you to keep calm when facing a crisis in future!
Government Resources
Non-profit Resources
Other
- During emergencies local government agencies frequently post updates on Twitter and Facebook.
- Services like Nixel send SMS alerts from local agencies for events like severe weather to missing persons.
This material has been prepared for informational purposes only, and is not intended to provide, and should not be relied on for, legal or disaster recovery advice. You should consult with your own legal, risk, disaster recovery and insurance advisors
️ HelenSeller Community Manager
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