It sounds very serious at first glance and often it can be if you approach any sort of business related incident without a plan. But what is incident management and why should you need a plan?
Incident management or IMP can also be referred to as an incident response plan, risk mitigation plan or an emergency management plan. It is essentially, a well thought out document that details key steps to assist your business to return to normal as quickly as humanly possible following an unforeseen event. You may be thinking that your small business doesn’t really need anything like this, but an incident response plan can cover every eventually from a fire or a PR disaster.
What are the key steps of incident management?
Your incident response plan should consider and include how to tackle the following elements:
- Recognising the incident at hand and identifying it needs a response
- Assessing the situation so that the scale is understood and can be communicated effectively
- Notifying everyone involved or those who might be affected by the incident – this part involves you have relevant contact information
- Arranging the response that should be laid out in your plan – these should be clear, well-defined and can form templates for various scenarios
- Documenting how you go about recovering from it as quickly as possible
- Reporting on how well the plan works – this can be exercised through practice and rehearsal
- Revising and updating the plan regularly to review changes in the business, correct errors or indeed after an incident to ensure it’s improved upon should it happen again
Here’s a great example video from JESIP on the importance of training blue light services so they can respond efficiently and effectively to incidents:
Evocatus has a vast amount of experience in incident response and risk mitigation. We support organisations by offering a range of activities and exercise to ensure each stage is fully understood and that response is fast. We offer a rehearsal stage which is often overlooked but is vital in gaining an understanding and putting your plans to the ultimate test in an environment where the real-life risk is low. The time spent on this phase of our service can really help teams to understand the importance of the plan and makes them more effective in carrying it out.
The benefits of our incident response service include:
- A well-rounded approach to developing your plan
- Rehearsal complete with additional tests from our teams to keep you on your toes whilst ensuring you know the plan inside out
- Team building or bonding – throughout the process, you may find your team learn some great trust skills
- It can make a dull topic become much more exciting – we’re extremely hands on and this isn’t just a case of us coming in and assessing everything.
We’re sure you’re a little clearer on our approach to supporting your incident response planning, but if you’d like to read a little more information and have a browse around our website, you can start here.