OPM’s best practices for COOP
The Office of Personnel Management provides key principles for continuity-of-operations planning.
Here are some key principles for continuity-of-operations planning from the Office of Personnel Management’s Federal Manager’s/Decisionmaker’s Emergency Guide:
- Telework is a virtual-resource solution and provides access to resources that might not otherwise be available in an emergency situation.
- Agencies have the flexibility to use teleworkers in emergency situations, but it won’t happen spontaneously. A viable, ongoing telework program is the foundation that must be in place.
- With the latest technology, agencies should be able to conduct financial and other transactions with appropriate security and authentication away from federal buildings.
- Agencies must develop a cadre of regularly scheduled core teleworkers and designate mission-critical employees who are expected to remain in contact with their agencies at all times during a crisis situation.
- Agencies should arrange for supervisors and managers to practice managing employees without face-to-face contact to prepare for emergency situations when they will be working remotely.
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