20 Ways To Keep Your Staff Engaged In Your Credit Union Business Continuity Program

From a compliance perspective, most credit union’s do a pretty good job of annually reviewing and testing their disaster recovery (DR) plan. Now when I say DR plan, I mean the technology side – testing with the core provider and maybe even restoring a few critical servers. But DR is only one piece of the Credit Union Business Continuity Program (BCP). BCP encompasses the entire organization from lending and collections to facilities and accounting. Each functional area has a responsibility to demonstrate resiliency during a crisis and keep departmental plans up-to-date. Sounds easy right? Not so much according to a recent survey of our CURecover clients. So to help with the process, I’ve put together this list of 20 ideas to keep your staff engaged throughout the year! Enjoy!

1. Have a BCP Awareness theme week for staff
2. Add a shortcut to your BCP planning tool to your Intranet
3. Hold mini-tabletops at the department level – staff shortage or critical process loss are great for these.
4. Invite local emergency manager(s) to visit your credit union to discuss local threats
5. Establish monthly BCP related tasks such as updating contact lists for staff and vendors
6. Hold a “no technology” day (hour?)  in your department – see what work can/should be done if you lose key systems
7. Identify a BCP “Champion” in each department to share BCP stories and alerts with team
8. Make a big splash along with national awareness campaigns (hurricane, tornado, etc.)
9. Host lunch/learn with other credit union’s in your area to share ideas and expand your community awareness
10. Conduct a shelter-in-place drill and discuss employee safety and notification
11. Create an internal credit union blog on resiliency topics – have each department contribute content on a rotating basis
12. Establish prizes for those departments deemed “most ready” – plans can be reviewed by BCP committee and evaluated. Make a big deal out of it and reward their efforts.
13. Schedule days where key personnel “play hooky” – test cross training efforts to look for gaps (not criticize!)
14. Invite staff to DR/BCP planning sessions on rotating basis – let them observe the Executive team “in action”
15. If you use a BCP software platform – give shout outs via email to the employee most frequently logged in/updating
16. Give emergency kits to each staff member – “ready” bags should include items each employee would need if evacuated OR sheltered-in-place at their work area
17. Create an “I’m ready” award/trophy – present it to the department most actively engaged; publish on your corporate website
18. Celebrate “real events” – when operations are disrupted, don’t just sigh a huge breath of relief. Dig in! Find out who the champions were – give them an award , gift card, recognition!
19. Test with your crisis notification system (SMS/Text) quarterly
20. Hold quarterly tabletops and follow up with lessons learned before the next quarter!

I hope this list gives you a running start to kick start your credit union business continuity program at  your credit union.  For more fun ways to engage staff, feel free to reach out and talk to any of our certified business continuity professionals.

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