• Employers should have procedures in place for protecting equipment, identifying sources of backup equipment, and preserving important company records.

Protecting facilities, equipment, and vital records is essential to restoring operations once an emergency has occurred. Employers should establish procedures for:

• Fighting fires.
• Closing or barricading doors and windows.
• Shutting down equipment.
• Covering or securing equipment.
• Moving equipment to a safe location.

Other steps to take include:

• Identifying sources of backup equipment, parts, and supplies.
• Designating employees to authorize, supervise, and perform a facility shutdown.
• Training employees to recognize when to abandon shutdown effort.
• Obtaining materials to carry out protection procedures and keeping them on hand for use only in emergencies.

Preserving records

Preserving vital records is essential to the quick restoration of operations. Vital records may include:

• Financial and insurance information.
• Engineering plans and drawings.
• Product lists and specifications.
• Employee, customer and supplier databases.
• Formulas and trade secrets.
• Personnel files.

When analyzing vital records, employers should consider:

• Classifying operations into functional categories, e.g., finance, production, sales, administration.
• Determining essential functions for keeping the business up and running, such as finance, production, sales, etc.
• Identifying the minimum information that must be readily accessible to perform essential functions (for example, maintaining customer collections may require access to account statements).
• Identifying the records that contain essential information and where they are located.
• Identifying the equipment and materials needed to access and use essential information.

Next, a procedure should be established for protecting and accessing vital records. Among the many approaches to consider are:

• Labeling vital records.
• Backing up computer systems.
• Making copies of records.
• Storing tapes and disks in insulated containers.
• Storing data off-site where they would not likely be damaged.
• Increasing security of computer facilities.
• Arranging for evacuation of records to backup facilities.
• Backing up systems handled by service bureaus.
• Arranging for backup power.