Business Continuity Planning for Queensland Businesses
A business continuity plan explains how a business will protect people, maintain its most important activities and recover after an unexpected event. Queensland businesses may face severe weather, fire, power or telecommunications outages, supply disruption, cyber incidents and staff shortages.
Identify critical business functions
List the products, services and processes that must be restored first. For each one, record the maximum tolerable interruption, the people and systems it depends on, key suppliers and a workable temporary alternative.
Plan around realistic scenarios
- The premises cannot be accessed.
- Power, internet or a critical system is unavailable.
- A supplier cannot deliver stock or materials.
- Several key employees are unavailable.
- Customer or operational data cannot be accessed.
For each scenario, decide who has authority to act, how staff and customers will be contacted, which alternative premises or suppliers are available and what financial limits apply.
Protect the plan itself
Keep current contact lists, insurance details, system recovery instructions and key contracts with the plan. Store accessible copies in more than one secure location. A plan that is only available on an affected server or inside an inaccessible building cannot guide the response.
Test and improve
Run a short scenario exercise with staff. Record missing information, unclear responsibilities and unrealistic recovery assumptions. Review the plan after changes to staff, premises, suppliers or systems and after any real incident.
Use the official Business Queensland continuity planning guidance and template. Businesses considering funding for resilience projects can also review the Queensland grants hub, while remembering that grant availability is never guaranteed.
Source note: Verify current eligibility, dates and requirements with the linked primary source. Contact us if material information has changed.