Good Governance Guides

Good Governance Guide: No 4.3

Category: Compliance
Subject: Disaster Recovery / Business Continuity
Source: Chartered Secretaries Canada

As a matter of good governance and risk management your organization should anticipate the unexpected and plan to preserve the continuity of business while minimizing disruption to service in situations involving calamity or crisis.

Factors to consider in developing your Plan might include the following:

• Appointment of some individual to be the responsibility center for the Plan;
• Providing that same individual with the resources and authority needed to implement and execute the Plan;
• Identification of critical business functions and processes;
• Redundancy for systems – hardware and software;
• Emergency response procedures and controls;
• Protection and recovery of data;
• Additional system requirements;
• Preservation of vital records;
• Legal obligations –e.g. protection of privacy;
• An alternate site to run operations;
• New employee orientation;
• Training of staff;
• Current contact list for employees and external parties;
• Key roles, responsibilities and authorities identified;
• Scheduled review of the Plan and testing; and
• Communications requirements and Public Relations needs.