Every year we face natural disasters from fires to hurricanes to earthquakes to tornadoes and flooding. We never know when disaster may strike. Technology can help a nonprofit recover faster when it is thoughtfully used.
A nonprofit without a disaster recovery plan may suffer permanent data losses and can struggle for weeks to reconstruct the systems, data, and networks that keep an organization running smoothly. You can recover quickly when you have a thoughtful plan.
Turnover & Disaster Planning similarities
While thankfully disasters are not a daily occurrence, turnover does happen in nonprofits everyday. Being prepared for employee turnover isn’t so different from being prepared for disaster recovery when it comes to technology.
Be prepared for turnover by having a plan that lists all of the actions needed when turnover happens – from changing permissions to access accounts to ensuring you have all data and files created by the employee to collecting any devices owned by the organization. A good checklist prepares you to deal effectively with turnover and not miss any important step. The same goes for disaster plans, a solid checklist is your best friend when disaster strikes.
A good transition/disaster plan includes, but is not limited to:
Documentation
Have documentation of all major systems (includes physical networks, computer networks, servers, workstations peripherals, routers including firewalls, all online systems). Documentation contains setup details, system specifications, workarounds, latest updates/upgrades, logs of recent maintenance, vendor history and contacts, related external and internal support contacts.
Backup Staff
Follow the “rule of three” – make sure at least 3 people know how to do essential tasks. These include troubleshooting IT issues and knowing who to call; the ability to log in to all major software systems weather hosted internally or online; the ability to update the website, social media channels and send emails. Never let the login information for any essential system rest with one person.
Identify the top 10 crucial IT duties and cross-train staff regularly so they are easily able to execute those crucial duties during transitions, vacations, illness and other absences
Transition Plan
When dealing with an employee transition, a checklist is helpful in remembering to do everything required legally and logically during an employee transition. Include IT items such as resetting passwords, changing login permissions and other security settings, collecting any hardware or mobile devices, ensuring access to all systems, clearing out or organizing documents for easy access and removing names from accounts.
Disaster Plan
What if you arrived at your workplace tomorrow and it was gone? Or what if a disgruntled employee leaves with all of their files and even their computer? How will you recover? A good disaster plan covers both of these scenarios. Both rely on good documentation (see above) and a solid backup of all organizational data. In both scenarios a prepared organization can go out and purchase new hardware, access their data and files either online or after restoring from a backup and begin to work again. An unprepared organization can spend months trying to access the systems they are locked out of, re-create old files, re-enter financial and other data, rebuild databases just to get back to where they were before the disaster.
Summary
Organizations who prepare for transitions and disasters save time, resources and aggravation. Some even prevent legal headaches that can occur when employees leave and laws are not followed correctly. Prepared nonprofits have a plan for dealing with turnover that is aligned with their plan for dealing with disasters. Those plans give you a list of activities to follow when there is a departure or a disaster which makes those difficult transitions much easier to navigate.
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