What Are Essential Services

• A service that when not delivered, creates an impact on the health and safety of individuals.
• A service that may lead to the failure of a business unit if activities are not performed in a specified time period.
• A services that must be performed to satisfy regulatory requirements.
• A service where if not performed, the impact may be immediate or may occur over a time period.

This means that your business may be forced to modify, reduce or even eliminate specific services/functions to cope with the impacts of the emergency.

During an emergency, your business may experience a disruption in your operations due to:

• High staff absenteeism;
• Unavailability of supplies and materials;
• Interruptions to services like power, transportation and communications.

How to Determine and Prioritize Your Essential Services

Complete an Essential Service Ranking: This will help you to create a list of essential services by department. Then rate the degree to which it will negatively impact the various key areas such as financial, employees and customers.

Prioritize and Categorize: For each essential service, assign a rating (A, B or C). Rate the impact on each service such as staff absenteeism, unavailability of critical supplies, or disruptions to essential systems.

A) Essential services/functions.
B) Services that can be suspended for a short period of time.
C) Services that can be suspended for an extended period of time.