A comprehensive awareness and education programme should ensure that everyone within the organisation, from the Chief Executive to the administration staff, knows about the existence of your business continuity plans and their roles and responsibilities within them. 

 

Methods you could try include any, or indeed all, of the following :

• Roadshows and seminars
• Executive and staff briefings
• Newsletters, guidebooks and leaflets
• Videos
• Training courses and workshops
• Incident management and business recovery exercises
• Screen savers
• Posters
• Mouse mats
• Intranet sites
• Games
• Competitions
• Informal chats in the corridor/coffee area/smoking shelter…

 

…in fact, anything and everything that gets the message across.

 

Whatever you decide is appropriate for your organisation, use every means at your disposal to spread the word. The more people who are in the know, the more chance you have of ensuring the success of your business continuity programme.

 

And if you didn’t prepare anything in time for Business Continuity Awareness Week, don’t worry – just choose your own week (or, better still, month or year!) and go for it.