Don’t Miss These Issues in Your Credit Union Business Continuity Plan!
You may feel confident that your business continuity plan for your credit union is complete. But is it, really?
There are many issues, items, and tasks on which credit unions frequently fall short in their business continuity planning. But don’t sweat it yet! We’ll show you today which things credit unions leave out most frequently.
Read this blog, take note of the most frequently missed credit union business continuity planning items, and then double-check your plans. You may be surprised by your omissions!
Who’s on Your Crisis Management Team?
Your business continuity plan for your credit union is a proactive plan that outlines what to do in the event of any interruption to your credit union’s operations. Sometimes, those interruptions are major. Major interruptions call for a crisis management team.
Your crisis management team should consist of personnel who fill particular roles needed to resolve any number of crises. In fact, these people may be selected by the role they already fill in daily operations. With that in mind, make sure they know they’re on the crisis management team!
A few members of your crisis management team should be authorized to declare disasters. And no, this doesn’t mean someone who just shouts, “I declare disaster!” when something bad happens!
The people who can declare disaster are actually the people who determine when any of the following need to be put in motion:
- A business continuity plan
- A disaster recovery effort
- A crisis management team effort
If your credit union’s business continuity plan doesn’t include a crisis management team, you’ve got some work ahead of you! If you do have a team, then you need to make sure they know who they are. Finally, you need to determine who among the team is authorized to declare a disaster if need be.
Do You Have Detailed Business Continuity Plans?
This might sound like the most inane question ever, but we’ve seen enough half-baked plans to ask:
Is your credit union’s business continuity plan detailed?
Look, we get it—you’re not in the business of business continuity planning! You’re in it to take care of your members. But part of taking care of your members is knowing what to do in any given situation, even if that situation is terrifically inconvenient for everyone.
We’ve seen a lot of high-level business continuity plans here at Ongoing Operations. Often, plans will have only a couple of steps outlined. Usually, we see some vague-but-good initial steps like “notify the staff,” or “report to an alternate site.”
It’s a great start, but you can probably see where those plans fall short. Once the staff is notified and arrives at an offsite location, then what? There’s still work to do!
How do you handle contaminated cash? How do you handle injuries or fatalities? How do you alert your members?
Remember that details matter. Detailed plans are the difference between chaos and order. If you want to give your credit union the best chance to maintain business continuity, then build your plans from the ground up. Go step by step, and make sure you have a plan for continuing all operations.
Further Reading
Well, that wasn’t so hard, was it? The two things that most credit unions miss on their business continuity plans are simple:
- Who triggers business continuity and disaster recovery action
- Detailed steps, tasks, and plans at the granular level
If you’d like to read more about how you can keep your credit union running no matter what comes up, follow our blog! Or, if you want to navigate your own way through this world, follow the links below!
Business Continuity Planning (BCP) and Business Impact Analysis (BIA)
Credit Union Business Continuity Planning vs. Disaster Recovery: What’s the Difference?
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