Health, Safety, and Environment
Human Resources
Department/Unit Emergency Response and
Business Continuity Planning Guide
Introduction
Two cornerstones of the University of Regina’s Mission are to:
 Provide high quality, accessible education that prepares learners for productive and
creative lives.
 Produce innovative research and scholarship to expand human knowledge and support
social, environmental, and economic development.
The University’s Emergency Response Plan (ERP) has created a strong foundation to respond
to, and mitigate the effects of, any Emergencies or Disasters which may occur. By definition
however an ERP is reactive in nature.
When activated the ERP serves to provide an operational framework that will protect lives and
reduce damage associated to a natural or man-made Emergency or Disaster. It is reasonable to
expect that during an emergency or disaster interruptions of educational and research activities
are likely to occur.
As opposed to our ERP a Business Continuity Plan (BCP) articulates strategies and actions that
the University of Regina can employ to minimize interruptions to educational and research
activities that may occur as a result of an Emergency or Disaster.
Some examples of the types of emergency or disasters that are most likely to impact the
University include:
Fire/Explosion
Food/water poisoning
Major structural failure
Civil disturbance
Heating/cooling system failure
Loss of utilities
Chemical Spill/release/leak
Vehicular accident
Public Information emergency
Biological emergency
Pandemic
Tornadoes/severe winds
Hail/severe rain
Floods
Snowstorms/blizzards
Regardless of the type of Emergency there are 4 potential impacts on your Department in one
of 4 ways. In a disaster you could experience some or all of them.
 Loss of location:
- may be limited or total, teaching or administrative (this may lead to
a loss of a critical support such as a paper based storage room or
a piece of specialized equipment damaged by fire or water).
 Loss of Technology: - access to one or more critical support systems (Electrical Power,
Banner system, etc)
 Loss of Vendor:
- may be internal or external (food services, print service etc)
 Loss of People:
- This Business Continuity Plan template does not specifically
address the reduction in employees created by a “Pandemic”
scenario. That said it does serve to prioritize Core Services by
Recovery Time Objectives and identify Mission Critical Services,
providing a framework that could be utilized to reallocate Human
Resources in the case of an event resulting in a reduction of
available faculty or staff.
Department/Unit Emergency Response & Business Continuity Planning Guide - page 1
Consider the following scenarios as they would relate to your own Department:
During the 6th week of classes at 5:00am on a Monday morning a fire extensively
damages the 5th floor of the Administration building. There is significant water
damage to floors 1 to 4 of the building. It is expected that the 5th floor will not be
able to be reoccupied for at least 6 weeks. Approximately ½ of the office space
in floors 1 to 4 of the building will not be available for at least 2 weeks. The
Human Resources office space, physical storage, and computers have all been
damaged beyond repair. The offices of Print Services and the Registrar are
flooded and will not be able to be occupied for at least 2 weeks. At this point it is
unknown the extent of damage to records and equipment in Print Services and
the Registrar’s Office.
As people from the President’s Office, Human Resources, Print Services, the
Registrar’s Office and others begin to arrive for work at 0800 they are not allowed
access to the building.
As the VP or a Director of Human Resources how would you begin to get
organized? How would you communicate? Where would you meet? How would
you identify alternate work space? What equipment or systems do you need to
establish new work space? Which services will you be able to continue to
provide? Which services will be temporarily suspended? What responsibilities
lie with Human Resources as opposed to Facilities Management, Office of the
Registrar, or Information Services?
Sound unlikely? Recall that in January of 2014, 1 broken sprinkler line in the
North Residence Tower necessitated the evacuation of ½ the entire building
ultimately resulting in the Faculty of Grad Studies and External Relations being
displaced from their work areas for two weeks.
Alternatively, suppose a small fire has occurred in the Information Services
server room located on the 5th floor of the Classroom building. While the fire and
resulting damage has been largely contained to the server room the University’s
e-mail system and all network drive access is not functioning. After an initial
period of confusion and damage assessment, Information Services has
communicated that they are implementing their Disaster Recovery Plan however
web servers, GroupWise, Webmail, File Servers, the VOIP phone system,
Banner and UR courses will not be available for 1 week.
How will the loss of these services impact your Department? How will they
impact your ability to ensure the service your department provides continue with
as little interruption as possible? For that matter which services will you continue
to be able to provide, which must be temporarily suspended or modified? What
alternative processes will you need to implement to minimize any disruption to
the services you provide?
The following is an Emergency Response/Business Continuity planning guide*. This document
is intended to assist Vice-Presidents, Associate Vice-Presidents, and Directors in completing
their Departments or Units written Emergency Response and Business Continuity plan
(template attached).
Completion of the attached template will serve to establish the framework necessary to answer
the questions above and ensure your department/unit is able to respond effectively to whatever
Department/Unit Emergency Response & Business Continuity Planning Guide - page 2
type of event may occur while incurring as minimal an interruption to teaching or research
activities as possible.
*This template was developed in part based upon Business Continuity Planning
principals/templates provided to the University of Regina by the BCP unit of the Government of
British Columbia.
Department/Unit Emergency Response & Business Continuity Planning Guide - page 3
Preparation
It is highly recommended your department leadership team take the University of Regina
Business Continuity training. To arrange for this training module contact Wally Hurlbert the
University of Regina Emergency Management Consultant at 306-337-3115 or by e-mail at
wally.hurlbert@uregina.ca
It is important that your leadership team be familiar with other university policies, procedures
and resources and how they integrate with your Department’s Business Continuity plan.
These include:
 Emergency Management Plan (link) http://bit.ly/EM-plan
 Emergency Preparedness and Procedures Guide (link) http://bit.ly/EP-guide
For further information or assistance, call Health, Safety & Environment at 306-337-3115.
*This guide and the attached template were developed in part based upon Business Continuity Planning
principals/templates provided to the University of Regina by the BCP unit of the Government of British Columbia
Planning Principles
1. To safeguard the health and wellbeing of individual members of our University community.
2. To protect the academic mission of the University through continuity of core services.
3. To protect of the long-term interests of the University.
Planning Assumptions
Contextually this process contemplates events ranging in duration from 1 day to 1 month and
magnitude from several offices to loss or damage of 1 building.
Service interruption will be considered in the short, medium and long term with those being 1
week, 2 weeks, and 4 weeks or greater respectively.
While it is impossible to know how long a possible I.S service interruption will last or specifically
which systems may be affected for planning purposes utilize a short, medium and long term
perspective based upon the length of outage being <1 day, <4 days or a maximum of 1 week
respectively. IS will attempt to bring services back online in the following order:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Web Servers Institutional web to access university information and to access
university applications from outside the university
GroupWise
Email - internal and external for faculty and staff
Webmail
E-mail for students
File Servers Network disk storage and group disk shares. The following network
drives will be recovered: S:, T:, U:
Oracle
Oracle production instances will be recovered: PROD (Banner), KLAS
(Class), MART (Fast)
Banner
The university's primary administrative system
Department/Unit Emergency Response & Business Continuity Planning Guide - page 4
In the event of an emergency or disaster faculties/departments/units will continue to be
responsible to provide their core services. As examples:

It will continue to be Facilities Management’s (FM) responsibility (working in conjunction
with the Registrar’s Office and others as needed) to identify alternate temporary
Administrative space allocation.

It will continue to be the Registrar’s Office (working in conjunction with FM, Residence
Services, and others as needed) to identify alternate temporary teaching space
allocation.

It will continue to be Information Services responsibility to provide computers and
equipment as needed for alternate space (this does not preclude planning for faculty or
staff to work from home on personal computers as needed until alternate space can be
identified and equipped).

By utilizing the principles established above and completing the attached template it is
the responsibility of individual departments to:
o Identify core services they provide which may be impacted by an event.
o Identify and prioritize the order in which core services they provide will be
resumed.
o identify how many offices, workstations, computers and telephones would be
needed to re-establish core services in temporary office space.
These concepts of organizational interdependence and coordination of planning/recovery efforts
are key to the successful implementation of a BCP.
Communication during an emergency and in the initial phases of the recovery process shall
utilize pre-defined channels in accordance/alignment with the University’s Emergency Response
Plan and the Incident Command System (see appendix 1)
University services critical to the health and welfare of the campus community that are
especially important during an emergency or a disaster include Campus Security, Residence
Services staff, Food Services staff, Facilities Management staff, Information Services staff,
Communications staff and Human Resources staff (HR).
Faculty and staff (managerial positions especially) in less critical service operations may be reassigned or co-opted to help out in other ways during the University’s time of crisis.
Provision may be made for certain staff to work from home (if, for instance, work space at the
University has been disrupted,). Staff that will need adequate remote connectivity (computing,
network, and telecommunication) should be identified early in the planning stages.
Contingency plans should be made to care for mission critical equipment.
Because of their distinct geographical locations, the College Avenue Campus may or may not
be affected the same as the main campus.
In order to maintain services provided by commercial tenants for as long as possible during an
emergency or disaster, mutual aid agreements with Chartwells and other service providers will
need to be pursued by the University.
The University’s communication plan for disseminating information should include identification
of pre-planned reception centres as well as targeted messages for parents and families of
students, tenant organizations, and affiliated colleges (Chartwells, retailers, day care, etc.).
Department/Unit Emergency Response & Business Continuity Planning Guide - page 5
Where possible, senior university officers and leaders within the university community will
participate in business continuity/emergency preparedness related exercises to build employee
confidence and improve decision-making processes. Like any situation, people tend to cope
better if the situation has some familiarity.
The University will form relationships through collaborative planning and personal/professional
networks that might provide assistance during an emergency or disaster (Regina Police Service,
Regina Fire and Protective Services, Canadian Red Cross, Regina Public/Separate Schools,
etc)
The University should not assume that external assistance will be provided during a disaster,
given the wide-scale demands and limitation of resources.
Department/Unit Emergency Response & Business Continuity Planning Guide - page 6
Definitions
Core Service: Main service(s) provided by the business unit that cannot be interrupted or
unavailable for a sustained period without having a negative impact on the organization. Core
Services also include activities which must be done to protect the assets or reputation of the
University of Regina.
Critical Activities: Those activities required in order to ensure core services can be provided.
Mission Critical: Core service(s) that, if they are not performed, could lead to loss of life or
constitute a risk to personal safety.
Process Steps: (relates to critical activities) Processes are the series of tasks performed to
complete a critical activity.
Recovery Time Objective (RTO): The number of hours or days in which you need to recover a
resource or resume a core function. For example, you might determine that customer service
must be functioning again after an interruption within one (1) day. The RTO is one (1) day. You
might decide, on the other hand, that the RTO for your e-mail system is four (4) hours. If a core
service has an RTO of less than 1 day it should be considered as a mission critical service.
Unit Operations Centre (UOC): A pre-identified location where key staff members meet when
an emergency occurs. Activation of a department’s UOC will be initiated at the direction of the
area AVP or the VP Administration.
Vital Records: Are those containing information essential to the conduct of core services
operations and which would be impossible or highly expensive to replace if they were destroyed
through sabotage or inadvertent loss.
Department/Unit Emergency Response & Business Continuity Planning Guide - page 7
Business Continuity Plan Template
Instructions: Complete Sections 1 – 4 at the department level.
Utilizing this document as a guide, initial completion of the attached template should start at the
department level. For example, in HR ideally the initial sections of the template (1 to 4) would be
completed at a meeting which included the AVP Human Resources as well as all of the HR
Directors. Once sections 1 to 4 have been completed at the department level, sections 5 to 8 of
the template are to be completed at the operational level. As an example the Director of HSE
would work with his/her personnel to complete sections 5 to 8.
* Note, when completing the attached template, insert additional lines in tables as needed.
Upon completion of sections 1 to 8 of the template all the documents from your department are
to be amalgamated into a completed Department Plan and forwarded to the Emergency
Management Consultant for review.
1.
Emergency Preparedness/Business Continuity Contact information
Complete Table 2.0 on your template. In the event the AVP is unavailable, they are
responsible to identify two individuals to act in their place during an emergency.
2.
Emergency/Continuity Plan Coordinator
Select an individual from your department/unit as your representative to coordinate the
completion of the plan (emergency/continuity plan coordinator). This person will also be
responsible to liaise with the Emergency Management Consultant to facilitate completion
of the overall Department Plan.
Insert name of this individual in table on your template.
Table 2.0 Department Emergency Response Plan
(insert name of your Department/Unit here)
Name
Work Phone
Home Phone
Cell Phone
Department/Unit Head
1st successor
2nd successor
Emergency/Continuity Plan
Coordinator
Alternate Plan Coordinator
Date Plan Finalized/updated
2.1
Unit Operations Centre (UOC)
This section will inform staff where to meet in an emergency or disaster and ensure twoway communication between the University’s Emergency Operations Center/Emergency
Management Group and Department’s Unit Operations Centre.
Emergency Meeting Location, (primary meeting location may be in your own building,
the alternate must be in another). When confirming your secondary meeting location with
Department/Unit Emergency Response & Business Continuity Planning Guide - page 8
the appropriate booking entity ensure that the space is not “double booked”. Double
booked means that another department/faculty has also booked the identified space as
either their primary or secondary meeting space.
Table 2.1 Emergency Meeting Location
Department of (insert name) Emergency Meeting Location
Primary Emergency Meeting Location
Alternate Emergency Meeting Location
3.
Determine Operational Planning Groups
Determine the number of Operational Planning Groups you will need to create for your
Department. Associate Vice-Presidents are primarily responsible for determining which
departments or units require a separate plan. Enter your operational planning groups in
table 3.0.
A good way to start is to simply break down your department into functional groups as
per the organization chart. When assessing whether a business unit needs a separate
plan consider the unit’s role in supporting the Departments Core Services and whether
the unit has unique objectives or needs that cannot be adequately addressed under the
Department plan. In some cases individual units may not need to create their own plan
but can be combined with another unit (e.g. Discrimination, Harassment, Prevention and
Conflict Resolution Services may combine with Employee Relations to submit 1 plan)
Table 3.0 Operational Planning Groups
Department of (insert name) Operational Planning Groups
4.
Planning Group 1
Payroll Services
Planning Group 2
Health Safety and Environment
Planning Group 3
Employee Relations
Core Services Identification
Utilize table 4.0 to list the Core Services that each Operational Planning Group
identified above that are necessary to ensure operational continuity and/or recovery.
Remember; “Core Services” are defined as the main service(s) provided by the business
unit that cannot be interrupted or unavailable for a sustained period without having a
negative impact on the organization. Core Services also include activities which must
be done to protect the assets or reputation of the University of Regina.
Utilizing Human Resources, Health Safety and Environment as an example it would look
like this.
Table 4.0 Core Services Identification
Planning Group 2: Health Safety and Environment (HSE)
Core Services:
1. Chemical Safety
Department/Unit Emergency Response & Business Continuity Planning Guide - page 9
2. Radiation and Biological Safety
3. Industrial/Construction Safety
4. Emergency Management
5. Administrative Support
5.
Critical Activities/Process Steps
Sections 5 to 8 are to be completed at the Operational Planning Group Level (Unit
Director and direct reports)
Examine the Core Services identified in step 4 and break them down into the supporting
critical activities in each area.
As a sub heading under each Core Service Critical Activity identify process steps that
must taken to complete each Critical Activity. Process steps are the high level series of
tasks performed to complete a Critical Activity.
Building on HSE, Emergency Management as an example:
Department: Human Resources:
Planning Group: Health Safety and Environment
Core Service:
1. Chemical Safety
2. Radiation and Biological Safety
3. Industrial/Construction Safety
4. Emergency Management:
Critical Activities:
a Emergency Planning
b Emergency Notification System
c Business Continuity
d Emergency Response
e Training
f Fire Safety
Process Steps:
Respond to Fire Safety Enquires
Maintain Emergency Warden System
Conduct Yearly Fire Drills
Conduct regular Fire Inspections
Investigate Fire Incidents
Enter your Core Service, critical activities and process steps in table 5.0:
Table 5.0 Critical Activities/Process Steps
Planning Group 2: Health Safety and Environment
Core Service 4: Emergency Management
Critical Activities: 4 (a) Emergency Planning

(insert process steps)
4 (b) Emergency Notification System

(insert process steps)
RTO
15
0
Department/Unit Emergency Response & Business Continuity Planning Guide - page 10
4 (c) Business Continuity

(insert process steps)
4 (d) Emergency Response
4 (e) Training
4 (f) Fire Safety

Respond to Fire Safety Enquires

Maintain Emergency Warden System

Conduct Yearly Fire Drills

Conduct regular Fire Inspections

Investigate Fire Incidents
15
0
30
15
One of the keys to Business Continuity Planning is to anticipate potential interruptions to
critical activity process steps that may occur as a result of an emergency or disaster and
to eventually (later in the plan) develop backup processes or alternatives (mitigation
strategies).
To assist in identifying the highest priority core services assign each core service a
Recovery Time Objective (RTO) utilizing the following guidelines. A RTO may be in
hours or days however the time unit must be specified. Generally the lower value the
RTO has the higher the priority a core service will be to the faculty/department/unit.
RTO Assumptions – The All Hazard Scenario
To determine the RTO of a process, use the ‘yellow tape’ scenario. Imagine arriving at
work to find it cordoned off. You have no building, no desk, no phone, no computer and
no data. How long can you stand in the parking lot doing nothing before undesirable or
unacceptable effects occur as your core service is not being provided to the
organization?
The first reaction is often “It needs to resume immediately”, but does it? Remember, a
Recovery Time Objective really tells us ‘the time to impact’. The shorter the RTO is, the
more severe the impact. A process that has a short RTO is essentially saying that its
absence will create an intolerable risk to the organization in a very short period of time.
If your immediate reaction is, “It has to be up in 2 days”, ask why. What will happen if it’s
not? What’s the impact? From an organizational perspective, does it really need to be
functional within 2 days?
This type of scenario is called “All Hazard” because it starts with no available resources
and works through the identification of what will be required to resume.
On Table 5.1 in your template fill in the RTO for each critical activity listed under your
planning groups core services. Once RTO’s have been assigned for each critical Activity
resort the table under each core service listing those critical activities with the shortest
RTO first and the rest in descending order.
6.
Mission Critical Services
Mission Critical Services are defined as: Core Services that, if they are not performed,
could lead to loss of life or constitute a risk to personal safety.
A process will only be “Mission Critical” if it impacts the University in one of the 2
following ways:
Department/Unit Emergency Response & Business Continuity Planning Guide - page 11
Health & Safety Impact: occurs when the loss of a core service will threaten the life,
safety or health of faculty, staff, students or visitors to the University of Regina.
Legal/Regulatory Impact: occurs when the loss of a core service will cause legal,
regulatory or legislative violations such as legal liabilities, fines, contractual penalties and
late fees.
The concept of mission critical exists to ensure that in the situation where the entire
campus must be evacuated the UEOC is able to communicate directly with individuals
responsible for the mission critical services to ensure they are able to implement
emergency or contingency processes as needed.
At a macro level the University has deemed the following departments as providing
mission critical services. Associate Vice-Presidents, Deans and Directors for
departments listed below are responsible for identifying which of the core services they
provide are mission critical and ensuring that in the event of an emergency, appropriate
levels of these services are continued:







Facilities Management:
o Heating Plant
o Campus Security
Student Services:
o Residence Services & Conference Services
o Food Services associated with Student Residences
Faculties:
o Safety Sensitive Research Projects
o Animal Care
Information Services
External Relations, Office of Communications
Human Resources Department
Health, Safety & Environment
Complete table 6.0 by listing those services your Operational Planning Group feels
should be considered mission critical. Supervisors must ensure that alternative faculty or
staff backups are sufficiently cross-trained to assume responsibilities for mission critical
services in the event of an emergency.
Table 6.0 Mission Critical Services
Planning Group 2: Health Safety and Environment
Mission Critical Services:
Mission Critical Service 1:
Emergency Management
Rational: Health Safety
Impact/Risk: Key to set up/operation/Response of U of R EOC
Recovery Time Objective: Immediate
Mission Critical Service 2:
Emergency Notification
Rational: Health Safety
Impact/Risk: ENS is a life safety component of Emergency Response
Recovery Time Objective: Immediate
Department/Unit Emergency Response & Business Continuity Planning Guide - page 12
7.
Resource Requirements Worksheet
The objective of the Resource Requirements Worksheet is to record all of the resources
required to support the process steps of your core services. This will provide a snapshot
of the infrastructure needed to re-establish the faculty/department/unit so it is able to
provide its core services if it is negatively impacted by an emergency.
A “work station” is comprised of a desk, chair, computer/monitor/keyboard and phone.
“Specialized equipment” is any equipment that is essential to complete core functions.
Internal/External Dependencies are products/services, suppliers/providers, or systems
upon which your department/unit depends to accomplish the process steps of a core
service. Internal is internal to the U of R. External is external to the U of R. In the event 1
person is responsible for two critical activities list a/a where appropriate to identify that it
is the same person/piece of equipment identified in each instance.
When recovering a planning group’s core services, generally mission critical activities
and critical activities with an RTO of less than 21 days will be recovered first. For this
reason when completing the Resource Requirements Worksheet list only core services
that have critical activities with an RTO of less than 21 days.
Table 7.0
Resource Requirement Worksheet: Health Safety and Environment
Core Services
Service:
# of
staff
# of
work
stations
Internal
Dependencies
External
Dependencies
Hardcopy
Documents/
Forms
Specialized
Equipment
Requirements
(printer, etc)
#1 Emergency
Response
1
1
t-drive
CW 113
LI 250
RCP, EMS,
RFPS, City of
Regina,
Printer, Lap top,
cell phone, EOC
box, EOC phone
splitter, charging
station.
#2 Emergency
Notification
1
(a/a)
1 (a/a)
I.S. Alertus
Server,
Internet
Connectivity
None
Event Log, Sit
Rep Form,
Incident Action
Plan, Emergency
Procedures
Manual,
Business
Continuity Plans,
space plans.
None
Computer (a/a)
3
4
5
Totals
8.
Mitigation (To be completed at the Operational or Unit Level)
This section utilizes the internal/external dependencies, hardcopy forms, and specialized
equipment listed in section 7 to either identify an alternative service provider or source of
specialized equipment. Where an alternative service provider or source of specialized
equipment is not available, identify an alternative strategy to be able to continue to
provide the service.
Step 1: Key Internal and External Dependencies
Use table 8.1 to list the cores service internal and external dependencies that you
identified in step 5. These key dependencies will enable staff to anticipate potential
Department/Unit Emergency Response & Business Continuity Planning Guide - page 13
interruptions to critical activity process steps that may occur as a result of an emergency
or disaster and to develop alternative service providers or strategies.
Table 8.1
Key Internal and External Dependencies worksheet: Health Safety and Environment
Service
#1
Emergency
Response
#2
Emergency
Notification
System
Internal
Dependencies
(name & phone #
as needed)
t-drive,
CW 113, LI 250
External
Dependencies
(name & phone #
as needed)
RCP, EMS, RFPS,
City of Regina,
Alternate
Provider
(name & phone
#)
No other
providers for City
of Regina
Emergency
Response
Services
I.S. Internet
Connectivity, U or
R Network
Alternate Strategy
(Details)
Ensure hardcopy of all forms,
emergency response
procedures manual, space
plans in EOC box. Utilize staff
from Aspen Medical clinic for
medical emergency, Campus
Security within confines of their
authority for RPS
UPS for Network Hubs, Wifi
and Network drops available in
both EOC’s. VPN connectivity
for Emergency Planner from
home.
Step 2: Key Hardcopy Forms and Specialized Equipment
Use table 8.2 to list the cores service hardcopy forms or specialized equipment that you
identified in step 5. Listing the key hardcopy forms and specialized equipment required
to ensure critical activity process steps dependent upon them will continue to be able to
be performed will assist in developing alternate equipment providers or strategies.
Table 8.2
Key Hardcopy Forms and Equipment worksheet: Health Safety and Environment
Service
Hardcopy forms
Specialized
Equipment
#1
Emergency
Response
Sit Rep form,
UEOC Event Log,
Incident Action
Plan,
ICP Event Log,
Emergency
Response
Procedures
Manual,
Space Plans
Printer, Lap top, cell
phone, EOC box,
EOC phone splitter,
charging station
#2
ENS
Alternate
Provider
(name & phone
#)
Alternate Strategy
(Details)
Ensure hardcopies of all
forms/documents emergency
response procedures manual,
space plans in EOC box.
All forms available online via
HSE/Emergency Resources
All forms downloaded onto
thumb drive attached to UEOC
key.
Alternate printers identified for
each EOC location,
instructions on Emergency
Contact List
HSE unit, Director and EPC all
equipped with laptops for
multiple redundancy
2nd phone splitter located in
EPC office
No alternate charging station,
staff to utilize their own
charging devices
Create 2nd EOC supply box
kept in alternate location, cost
would be aprox $500.00
Copy on backup server with
Department/Unit Emergency Response & Business Continuity Planning Guide - page 14
Emergency
Notification
System
9.
automatic switch over –check
with Information Services to
determine cost and feasibility.
Server/Software
Department/Unit Communication Plan
Upon receiving notice of an emergency or pending emergency the department/unit head
or successor will take action to ensure the appropriate message is communicated to
those who work within the department/unit.
*Note the U of R’s Emergency Notification System will be utilized to facilitate “On
Campus” notification and communication during an emergency.
9.1
Emergency Contact Information
Complete table 9.1. Keep hardcopies as necessary to ensure your ability to
communicate if access to computer systems may not be available. This section assists
your faculty in establishing a phone tree and subsequent branches. The phone tree and
branch concept will ensure rapid communication between relatively large numbers of
people.
The department administrator should be the primary phone contact responsible to
activate your phone tree. The faculty administrator will decide how many “branches”
your faculty needs based upon your total number of faculty and staff. They will also
determine who will be the primary and alternate contacts responsible for each branch of
your tree.
Use table 9.1 to list your primary contacts.
Table 9.1 Emergency Contact Information
(Insert name of Department/Unit here)
Position
Name
Office phone
Home
Cell
Department
Administrator
9.2
Set up a Faculty/Department/Unit Phone Tree.
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
Utilize the list above to fill in the primary contacts for each branch of your phone
tree in Table 9.2.
Insert the names and contact information for the remainder your faculty and staff
into branches on the phone tree.
Designate the second person in each branch as an “alternate contact”.
Branches should contain up to a maximum of 8 people.
Be sure your branches have all the necessary contact information.
Primary and alternate contacts should only receive the contact information for
members in their specific branch.
Advise primary and alternate contact personnel working the branches that the
information they receive is confidential and they need to take reasonable steps to
ensure it is kept in a secure place inaccessible to the public.
Update your tree at least once a year or as necessitated by changes in personnel.
Department/Unit Emergency Response & Business Continuity Planning Guide - page 15
Table 9.2
Internal Phone Tree for (insert name of department/unit here)
Office Phone
Branch 1
Home Phone
Cell Phone
Name (primary contact insert here)
(insert Alternate contact here)
Branch 2
Name (primary contact insert here)
(insert Alternate primary contact here)
9.3
“Mission Critical” Emergency Contact Information (Department
Administrator)
This section is to be completed after the operational planning groups have completed
section 6, Mission Critical Services. These are the key personnel who perform mission
critical functions in an emergency and may need to be contacted after hours.
Once completed for each operational planning group they will all be amalgamated
together for the department.
*Note; some departments/units may not have any core services that are considered
“mission critical”. In that event omit this step.
Table 9.3
Mission Critical Emergency Contact Information: (Insert operational group name here)
Mission Critical
Process
Position
Name
Office
Home
Cell
1:
2:
9.4
Set up a “Mission Critical” Phone Tree (Department Administrator)
1) Repeat steps 1-7 from section 9.2 above.
Table 9.4
Mission Critical Internal Phone Tree for (insert name of department/unit)
Office Phone
Group 1
Home
Cell
Name (primary contact insert here)
(insert Alternate primary contact here)
Department/Unit Emergency Response & Business Continuity Planning Guide - page 16
Group 2
Name (primary contact insert here)
(insert Alternate primary contact here)
10.
Activation Process: To be completed by the Emergency/Continuity Plan
Coordinator
Amalgamate all “operational group” plans into a single document Department
Emergency Response/Business Continuity Plan.
Modify the description as needed to identify how your Department/Unit will initiate your
Emergency Response/Business Continuity plan when an Emergency necessitating its
activation occurs.
Example:
1. Leadership Team meeting to discuss event and impact upon Core Service
delivery/critical activities.
2. Leadership Team meeting to discuss next steps dependent upon scenario;
- Assessment of BCP plans: what missed, still feasible?
- Review of BCP to determine alternatives/strategies.
3. Leadership team assess/establish prioritized action plan.
4. Utilization of Emergency Communication Plan as necessary.
5. Implement BCP.
Department/Unit Emergency Response & Business Continuity Planning Guide - page 17