Continuous Protection: Updating and maintaining your continuity plan

By Karen Owens
Publisher

This article concludes our four-part series on business and nonprofit emergency preparedness. By identifying risks, building and testing your plan, and keeping your procedures updated, your organization can build lasting resilience against unexpected disruptions. 

A business continuity plan is not a one-and-done project. Your organization changes over time. You hire new staff, adopt new technology, change vendors, add services, move records to the cloud, or adjust how you serve customers and clients. If your emergency plan does not change with your organization, it may not work when you need it most.

The strongest plans are living documents. They are reviewed, tested, updated, and shared regularly. Maintaining your plan helps ensure that contact lists are accurate, recovery priorities still make sense, backup procedures are current, and employees understand their responsibilities before the next emergency arrives.

Step 1: Establish a Maintenance Routine

Set a regular schedule to review your continuity plan at least annually and whenever major changes occur. A move to a new location, a new phone system, a change in leadership, a new payroll provider, or a shift to remote work can all affect how your plan should function. Assign one person or team to own the update process so maintenance does not fall through the cracks. 

Build South Carolina-specific resources into that routine. At each annual review, confirm that staff know where to find the SC Emergency Resources Dashboard, that designated leaders understand the Business Reentry Program, and that any state or local emergency management contacts are current. If your business depends on physical access to a facility after an evacuation order, review reentry requirements before hurricane season—not after the order is issued.

• Review contact lists: Confirm employee, vendor, insurance, landlord, utility, banking, and emergency contacts.
• Update critical operations: Make sure the plan reflects your current services, staffing, equipment, software, suppliers, and recovery priorities.
• Check backup systems: Verify that data backups, remote access, alternate work locations, and communication tools still work as expected.
• Train new staff: Include continuity procedures in onboarding so every employee knows where to find the plan and what role they may play.

Step 2: Build a Culture of Readiness

Continuity planning works best when it becomes part of normal operations rather than something pulled out only during hurricane season. Talk about readiness during staff meetings. Keep printed and digital copies of the plan accessible. Encourage employees to raise concerns when they see a gap. Schedule periodic exercises so your team can practice making decisions before conditions become urgent, using resources such as Ready.gov’s continuity planning guidance.

Because South Carolina operates under Home Rule, local governments may make access and reentry decisions based on local conditions, safety measures, and emergency needs. Include local emergency management offices, county alerts, and municipal instructions in your communications plan so your organization is not relying on a single source of information during a fast-changing event.

After every drill, disruption, or near miss, capture the lessons learned and revise the plan. What information was missing? Which procedures were unclear? Did the communication chain work? Were employees able to access the tools and records they needed? Each answer gives you an opportunity to make the next version stronger.

Preparedness is an ongoing commitment, but it does not have to be overwhelming. By identifying risks, building a plan, testing it, using recovery resources, and keeping the plan current, your business or nonprofit can improve its ability to withstand storms, protect people, and return to service when your community needs you most.