Survey looks into business continuity plan efficacy during major incidents
- Details
- Published: Thursday, 24 November 2016 08:40
Alarm and Vericlaim have published the results of the ‘Major loss survey 2016’ which was established following an Alarm roundtable event on major losses, in which a recurring theme was that business continuity plans do not always provide user-friendly practical assistance to those dealing with the immediate aftermath of a major incident.
The main results from the survey were:
There is a tendency to be somewhat over-confident in business continuity plans prior to a loss: 40 percent of respondents reported lower confidence in their BCP plans as the incident unfolded as opposed to their confidence in the plan prior to the incident. Only 25 percent of respondents found that the reality of dealing with a major loss was better than they thought beforehand.
The practical value of business continuity plans needs to be improved: More than half of respondents rated the practical assistance offered by a BCP following a major incident as one or two out of a possible score of five. This backs up anecdotal evidence from loss adjusters of BCPs being outdated, too generic or simply just too long to read and assimilate when fast action is required.
Two thirds of people don’t have an established guide in place for the insurance aspects of a major loss: plans for dealing with insurance are noticeably more prevalent where people have experienced a major loss previously.
Using the survey results, Alarm and Vericlaim have created a major loss best practice guide, based on the experience of Vericlaim adjusters in dealing with serious incidents. The guide is available to all Alarm members and can be downloaded from here.
