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Pre and Post Loss Planning for a Municipality
The idea behind these guidelines is to help you start the Risk Management Process and work towards mitigating any risks you foresee and putting a plan in place to minimize the disruption to your operations should a catastrophic loss occur.
PRE-LOSS PLANNING
The first step in any Risk Management Process is identifying what risks your organizations faces. Risk is the possibility that a loss of property or injury may occur. We suggest that your organization starts by putting together lists of the risks your organization can face. We recommend the following be considered at the beginning:
The second step involves evaluating what processes and policies your organization already has in place to help mitigate these risks already. We recommend that before you pour resources into mitigating a risk you make sure if another department is working on the risk or policy already exists to help. An example is that should you have any worker safety concerns it may be better addresses through your organizations Occupation Health & Safety Committee then addressed here. However, should you evaluate your current procedures and policies to see if there any gaps:
The third step is to put together comprehensive plans to mitigate any identified risks when it is recognized that a current procedure or policy is not in place. There are many different strategies that can be put in place to mitigate risks and there is no one right answer. After you have created your plan then all you need to do is implement it. We recommend you look at the following when looking at this step:
The last step involves monitoring the progress of your plans, reassessing the risks your organization faces, and educating the members of your organization to inform them of the plans you have implemented and to keep them involved in the process.
Each step should be broken down into parts if possible to make the process easier to complete and try to get input from as many members of your organization as possible. If you follow the guidelines set out you should be able to work your way through the risk management process.
POST-LOSS OBJECTIVES
Hopefully all of your work in the Pre-Loss Planning stage leads to your organization never losing the use of a facility but should the worst happen then it is best to have a plan in place to help minimize the disruption. Your organization needs to look at what steps need to be taken to get the operations back up and running as soon as possible. This step is much more subjective as only your organization can identify what they need to have in place.
You should first identify which operations are critical to your organization. Once you know which operations then you need to identify what you need to resume operations, both personnel and equipment. Lastly you will need to know where your operations can resume if you have lost use of the original building.
When it comes to planning personnel that need to be involved in getting your organization back operating it should work along the lines similar to an Incident Command System. There needs to be a commander or leader who sets the objectives for the organization after the loss and prioritizes resources. There then needs to be the operations & Logistics component which puts any plans into action. Communications is vitally important as both internal members of your organization and the public need to have up to date information including providing updates to social media in a timely manner. And lastly, the finance component so that all costs are tracked as these may need to be submitted to your insurer and to provide accountability and transparency for any follow up afterwards.
Next the plan should include identifying another location in which you can operate and making provisions for moving to that location as soon as possible. Then you need to identify a source in which you can acquire the equipment you need for your operations and how you would go about getting that equipment in place. This can include budgeting and reassigning of personnel if necessary.
Once you have the frame work in place to provide man power, equipment and a temporary facility for how you will resume operations then you can work on individual details making sure all concerns are covered. In addition, we recommend a yearly review of the plan to make sure that it is current and that nothing has been missed.
It is always hardest to start the steps but once the plans start to come together then maintaining the process is much easier. With both Pre-Loss Planning and Post Loss Objectives are in place your organization should be able to manage the risks faced effectively.
For any questions or more information please contact our risk management team!
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