Has anyone been asked to put together a disaster recovery plan? I've been asked to do this but I'm concerned it's outside my responsibilities. We're a medium-size company with 200 employees. I've done an Emergency Action Plan to meet OSHA requirements, but that's not enough. The task would include steps to get the company functioning properly after the disaster (hurricane, prolonged power outage, earthquake at our CA office). Should the safety department take the lead on this, or HR?

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vc

Our department (EHS) recently completed one of these plans. I would recomend that you work with your facilities management  team and also your HR department on the plan. It is my opnion that Safety should take the lead but obtain the neccesary information - building and logistical from Facilities Mgt and personnel info from HR. Good luck with your plan!

VC,

 Good luck with this one. I'm at a site that has one and it is big. The one thing people don't realize until it is too late is that the actual emergency does not last that long (<8 hours typically). It is the recovery that takes a lot of work and time (100+ hours).

You are going to need top management's participation because it is going to affect every department in some way. You may want to run them through a total facility destruction scenario. Keep it to an hour and explain that this highly unlikely occur. But ask them to assume it does and then have the managers answer the following questions for their department: How are we going to communicate with customers, employees, regulators? Can work be transferred to other facilities if there is one? How is data going to be recovered, generated and preserved? How quickly can we replace product and raw material inventory? Very quickly they will see the breadth and depth of this project. Then ask for their participation or to delegate someone that is competent.

Disaster recovery falls outside everyone's direct responsibilities. It is a facility wide project. If it is your responsibility then you have to act as a project coordinator rather than plan creator.

Keep us posted.

MikeCJ

This is someing I would think would need to be done by a small work group from all departments.  You as the safety professional could lead the group as a facilitator as long as you had a good understanding of the innerworkings of the operations department.

 

I would think it needs to be led by the senior manager at the facility.

Thanks for the very helpful, enlightening comments. This will be a company-wide effort with commitments from senior executives. I, or someone else, will need authority to get operations information from other departments.

Here's what I've got so far concerning issues that have to be addressed:

Conduct risk assessment--what are the possible disruption events and how seriously will they disrupt operations
Communications--how notify key people and all employees, coordinate response and recovery
Human resources--working offsite, closings, absenteeism, layoffs, terminations, medical leave, pay, etc.
Supplies and equipment (what do we get now and how we'll keep supplies coming during recovery)
Procedures for handling customers, contractors, and vendors
Information technology procedures (computer shutdown, backup system, priority systems)
Relocation procedures
Security
Insurance
Damage assessment
Training (who gets disaster training, curriculum, training exercises)
Testing the integrity/effectiveness of the Plan

Yes, this is way beyond the safety function without full cooperation and assistance from every department. If safety coordinates this effort, I'll have to form a committee and get our CEO to endorse this as a priority so that other departments cooperate.

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vc