8 Tips for Weathering the Next Winter Storm

Transcription

1 8 Tips for Weathering the Next Winter Storm About Eze Castle Integration Eze Castle Integration is the leading provider of IT solutions and private cloud services to more than 650 alternative investment firms worldwide, including more than 100 firms with $1 billion or more in assets under management. The company s products and services include Private Cloud Services, Technology Consulting, Outsourced IT Support, Project & Technology Management, Professional Services, Telecommunications, Voice over IP, Business Continuity Planning and Disaster Recovery, Archiving, Storage, Colocation and Internet Service. Eze Castle Integration is headquartered in Boston and has offices in Chicago, Dallas, Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York, San Francisco, Singapore and Stamford. Visit us at

2 1. DETERMINE HOW/WHERE YOUR EMPLOYEES WILL WORK IN THE EVENT OF A WINTER WEATHER SCENARIO. Some firms opt to identify a secondary work site, but in the event of a widespread or regional event, you may find that location is inaccessible also. You should also consider if transportation is/will be impacted by the weather. If road conditions are bad or public transportation is shut down, employees will have to remain home. If your firm supports remote access capabilities, ensure employees are prepared with the necessary infrastructure, workload expectations and communication tools. Photo Credit: Wikipedia 2

3 2. ENSURE EMPLOYEES TEST FOR REMOTE ACCESS BEFORE AN INCIDENT OCCURS. If your firm plans to allow employees to work remotely, it is critical that employees understand HOW to work remotely. Provide users with login information and ensure they have the appropriate resources at home to support their needs: Computer/PC/Laptop Required software or applications Mobile phone Power/connectivity Testing is imperative here. If a winter storm strikes and an employee realizes he/she cannot login remotely, you could end up having to shift responsibilities at the last minute or, worse, projects may fall through the cracks. Photo Credit: Pexels 3

4 3. PROVIDE EMPLOYEES WITH QUICK REFERENCE CARDS AND/OR WALLET CARDS WITH HIGH-LEVEL BCP INFORMATION. A great way to ensure employees have access to all the information they could need during a winter event is to provide quick reference or wallet cards. These handy documents should contain the following: Key personnel contact information Alternate site location/directions Remote access instructions Call forwarding instructions Photo Credit: Pixabay 4

5 4. KEEP IN COMMUNICATION WITH YOUR EMPLOYEES BEFORE, DURING AND AFTER A WINTER EVENT. A once-off is not enough during a weather-related event. During any type of disaster, it s imperative to keep employees (as well as investors, clients and other third parties) informed at all times. Try to provide as much information as possible during your updates. Employees should be confident the firm is in full control and business operations will be unaffected by the inclement weather. Provide employee workload expectations, recovery steps the firm is undertaking and how long you expect the situation to last. Post-storm, share what you learned from the experience: the positives and negatives. Employees will appreciate that you are forthcoming and are willing to work to improve procedures. 5

6 5. CONSIDER AN EMERGENCY NOTIFICATION SYSTEM TO ALERT EMPLOYEES AND/OR THIRD PARTIES. Traditional calling trees are cumbersome and time consuming, and s especially outside of business hours can often be overlooked. Automated emergency notification systems (ENS) can quickly and effectively deliver messages to various parties using a variety of methods. When shopping for a ENS system, here are a few features to look for that could serve you well during a business continuity scenario: SMS texting: Unlike calls, texts can be queued if there are service interruptions during a disaster Two-way messaging: Allows users to respond to basic questions if needed Mobile/remote access: Allows the system to be activated remotely or from a mobile device convenient during a storm Scheduled messaging: Having a canned message or scheduling notifications in advance can save time Photo Credit: Pixabay 6

7 6. STORE INVESTOR & THIRD PARTY VENDOR INFORMATION ON A MOBILE DEVICE OR ACCESSIBLE SHARED DRIVE IN THE EVENT YOUR OFFICE/PC ARE UNAVAILABLE. Remote access is critical during a winter storm or other disaster scenario. If your role requires you to be in constant contact with clients, investors or other counterparties, you ll want to consider how to communicate with them if you can t access your primary work environment. Storing contacts on a mobile device is one way to ensure you always have contact information readily available as long as your device is charged! Photo Credit: Pixabay 7

8 7. ESTABLISH CONTINGENCY PLANS FOR CRITICAL ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES IN THE EVENT SOME EMPLOYEES ARE UNABLE TO WORK REMOTELY OR MAINTAIN THEIR WORKLOAD. Realistically, some employees have more mission-critical roles than others. Portfolio managers and investor-facing employees, for example, are likely considered more essential than administrative assistants and marketing execs. In the event essential personnel are impacted by a winter event and unable to perform their duties, you may want to consider a contingency plan that includes other employees who may be able to pick up the slack. Photo Credit: Flickr 8

9 8. CONDUCT BCP SCENARIO PLANNING AND TABLETOP EXERCISES TO ENSURE EMPLOYEES ARE CLEAR ON DISASTER PROCEDURES. The key to successfully weathering a winter storm is ensuring the entire organization understands what s expected of them. And the only way to properly achieve that is through testing. Tabletop exercises are a great way to get your response team working in step. These informal brainstorming sessions encourage participation from management and other key employees. The group typically discusses a variety of potential scenarios and covers all of the actions necessary to ensure employees are safe and accounted for and the business can continue to operate. Firms could also conduct fullscale BCP tests to give all employees the opportunity to participate and share feedback with the group. Photo Credit: istock Photo 9