Business recovery planning

Business recovery is the return to operations following a disruptive incident, disaster or emergency.

A recovery plan will help you respond effectively if an incident affects your business. It supports decision-making and aims to shorten your recovery time and minimise losses.

Your recovery plan is part of your business continuity plan (BCP).

What to include in your recovery plan

A business recovery plan includes:

• strategies to recover from a range of incidents
• timeframes to recover business functions (e.g. restoring IT systems or replacing lost stock)
• a description of key resources, equipment and staff required to resume operations
• checklists to ensure all actions have been done.

Find out more about identifying and managing risks to your business.

Designate a recovery team

As with the incident response plan, consider a team to manage business recovery.

Your team can include internal staff and external advisors like your accountant, legal representative or business mentor.

To prepare your recovery team:

• clearly define roles and responsibilities
• train your team in recovery tasks and emergency procedures.

Make sure your team understands employment entitlements during natural disasters and emergencies.

Communicating during recovery

It is important to communicate regularly with suppliers, customers and staff during recovery.

You should provide status updates and explain any changes that you've implemented to restore operations (e.g. establishing contracts with alternative suppliers or changes to opening hours).

Stages of recovery

Initial stage

Timeframe: Hours to days.

Activities in the initial stage of recovery include:

• returning to your business site only when safe
• protecting yourself and your staff when returning to the site
• staying alert to dangers if the emergency event is not yet resolved
• monitoring emergency updates and broadcasts
• working with insurance companies to assist in recovery
• securing the business site if necessary and safe to do so.

Early stage

Timeframe: Days to weeks (and up to months).

Activities in the early stage of recovery include:

• working with professional advisers (e.g. accountant, business mentors to design financial recovery and approach banking or other financial support to maintain cash flow whilst recovering)
• forecasting cash flow over a prolonged period (e.g. 3–36 months)
• insurance rectifications to premises and equipment
• relocation or 'building back better'.

Long-term stage

Timeframe: Months to years.

Activities in the long-term stage of recovery include:

• re-negotiating loans
• reviewing emergency plans and kits
• new products and services
• thanking customers, community and celebrating overcoming the incident with staff.

Also consider...

• Learn how to write a business continuity plan.
• Read more about preparing an incident response plan.