Hurricane season is here – are you ready?

June 1 marked the official start of hurricane season.  Hurricane Matthew was a big wake-up call last year for us in South Florida, and a good practice run for hurricane preparedness.  Is your business ready for a hurricane?

There are several things to consider in making sure you are prepared.

Business Continuity – what happens if your office is shut down for a day?  2 days?  A week?  A good business continuity plan helps you think about and prepare for all types of disasters.

IT systems – is your data properly backed up?  Do you have a plan in place to move it to the cloud or restore it after a disaster such as a hurricane?  Now is good time to look at your procedures.

Phone systems/services – what happens if your phone system goes down?  Is it in the cloud or do you have plans to move it to the cloud?  Do you have a backup plan if your phone system or office is down?

Hurricane preparedness procedures – do you have an updated plan?  Now is a good time to brush it off and check it.  Add or change processes if necessary. Think about what happened after Matthew and what you could have done better.  Having a process in place saves you time when a storm approaches.

Employees – one thing that many businesses forget about in their hurricane planning is their employees – are you giving them adequate time to prepare their homes/families?  Many businesses stay open with approaching storms until the last possible moment, then have their employees assist with shutting down the office, without factoring in the impact this may have on the employees and their families.  Now is a good time to poll employees and ask for what support or help they might need when hurricanes approach.

If you have questions about your business’ hurricane preparedness, contact your ComRes representative today!