Disaster Recovery Policy
Specific policy wording
Specific policy wording means every instruction in a disaster recovery policy names the exact role, action, time and place it applies to, so staff never have to work it out for themselves. A policy that covers the right topics but words them vaguely looks complete, yet it is unusable at the moment it is needed.
| What must be pinned down | Vague wording | Specific wording |
|---|---|---|
| Who | Someone senior will sort it out. | The duty manager decides whether to stop taking online bookings and tells the reception supervisor. |
| What | Staff should use their judgement. | Receptionists write down every phone booking on the paper pad at the desk. |
| When | Staff will be updated in due course. | The reception supervisor briefs every member of staff at 9:00am on the next working day. |
| Where | Work carries on somewhere suitable. | Phone bookings are written on the paper pad kept in the top drawer of the reception desk. |
| How quickly | Paper bookings will be caught up with when it quietens down. | Every paper booking is typed into the booking system within three hours of being taken. |
Why vague wording fails
Vague wording causes two problems. Staff working under pressure take longer to decide what to do, and different people guess differently: one member of staff waits for instructions while another starts unplugging equipment, so recovery work is delayed or undone. Vague wording also cannot be checked, because nobody can say afterwards whether a paper booking was caught up with soon enough.
A specific instruction is a standard you can measure against, so the policy can be rehearsed, reviewed and improved, and any member of staff can be held accountable for their part of it. Words such as appropriate, promptly and suitable hide a decision that somebody has already had to make, so write that decision into the policy instead. A separate note covers the recovery timeline.
Practise this
Pearson BTEC Digital Information Technology · Disaster recovery policy