Business Continuity Plan (NZ)

An emergency plan gets people out of the building safely. A continuity plan is what happens over the following days and weeks — whether you can invoice, whether your people get paid, whether the contract survives. New Zealand businesses carry unusual exposure here: seismic risk, a small number of critical transport links, and supply chains long enough that a disruption offshore lands here weeks later. Most continuity templates in circulation are written for large organisations with a recovery site and an IT function, which is not the situation of a business with thirty staff and a yard.

Who this is for

Businesses tendering for public sector work

Councils and government agencies increasingly ask for a continuity plan as a tender condition.

Owner-operators with dependent contracts

Where a single interruption threatens a contract that carries the business.

Businesses with concentrated exposure

One premises, one key supplier, one piece of plant, or one person who knows the system.

Directors and officers

Continuity planning sits alongside the s44 duty as part of understanding and resourcing the business's risks.

What's inside the template

Word — 28 pages (plan + analysis worksheets + activation cards) · Formats: DOCX

• Section 1 — Purpose, scope and assumptionsWhat the plan covers, what it deliberately does not, and the assumptions it rests on.
• Section 2 — Business impact analysisEvery function assessed for impact over time — what breaks at 24 hours, at a week, at a month.
• Section 3 — Critical functions and recovery prioritiesThe ordered list. Which functions come back first and why, decided while nobody is under pressure.
• Section 4 — Recovery time objectivesMaximum tolerable downtime per function, with the consequence of exceeding it stated.
• Section 5 — DependenciesPeople, premises, plant, systems, suppliers, data and utilities — mapped per critical function, with single points of failure flagged.
• Section 6 — Disruption scenariosPremises loss, key person unavailability, plant failure, supplier failure, systems or data loss, utility outage, seismic event, and pandemic or widespread absence.
• Section 7 — Continuity strategiesWorkarounds per scenario — alternative premises, cross-training, backup plant, second-source suppliers, offsite data.
• Section 8 — Activation and escalationWho decides the plan is activated, on what threshold, and what authority they have when they do.
• Section 9 — CommunicationsStaff, clients, suppliers, insurer and public — with holding statements drafted in advance.
• Section 10 — Recovery and return to normalStanding down, backlog handling, and the review that follows.
• Section 11 — Testing and maintenanceDesktop exercise schedule, plan review triggers and version control.
• Appendix A — Business impact analysis worksheetThe working grid behind Sections 2 to 4.
• Appendix B — Activation cardsOne page per scenario for the person making the call.
• Appendix C — Contact scheduleStaff, key clients, suppliers, insurer, bank, landlord and utilities.
• Appendix D — Desktop exercise packThree ready-to-run scenarios with facilitator notes.

HSWA 2015 ss.36, 44 · GRWM Regulations 2016 reg 14

Business continuity is not a work health and safety duty in itself. It is included in this catalogue because it sits directly alongside emergency planning, and because the officer duty to understand and resource the business's risks does not stop at the boundary of the Health and Safety at Work Act.

1. GRWM reg 14Emergency plan — the life-safety response this plan continues from→ Section 1 — Scope, and Section 8 — Activation
2. HSWA s44Officer due diligence — understanding the operations and ensuring appropriate resources and processes→ Sections 3 to 5 and Section 11
3. HSWA s36Primary duty of care — including during degraded or improvised operation after a disruption→ Section 7 — Continuity strategies

How this template compares

Reviewed by OH Professionals

Written and reviewed by the occupational health and safety team at OH Consultant. The scenario set is chosen for New Zealand conditions — seismic events, concentrated transport links, and supply chains long enough that offshore disruption arrives weeks later — rather than reproduced from a generic international template where the hazard profile does not match.

Legislation referenced

• Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 — Section 36 — Primary duty of care ↗
• Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 — Section 44 — Officer due diligence ↗
• Health and Safety at Work (General Risk and Workplace Management) Regulations 2016 — Regulation 14 — Duty to prepare, maintain, and implement emergency plan ↗

Frequently asked

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