In the spotlight: the human side of business continuity planning
Introduction Disruptions resulting from these and other disasters have rippled across supply chains, shaken entire industries and taken their toll on employee, customer and partner relations. Not surprisingly, organizations of all types and sizes are making crisis preparedness and response a key focus of their business continuity planning. Chances are, your organization is taking a proactive approach and continually looking at ways to minimize the impact that potential crises can have on your business processes and technology systems. Yet, even though your company’s business continuity plan most likely serves to protect your company’s physical assets, such as its data, network(s), core business applications and facilities, how well does it address the human side of disasters? It’s important to build resiliency into your business operations, but it’s just as important to build resiliency into your human capital. One way to achieve human capital resiliency is to ensure that your organization has addressed the people-related components of business continuity planning. This paper outlines risks related to human capital resiliency that could arise in any crisis and provides a framework for addressing them. This paper is also designed to help you begin to assess how well your organization is currently prepared to handle the human dimensions of a disaster. READ THE FULL PAPER: DOWNLOAD PDF Are you prepared? * Does our organization have critical policies identified and alternatives designed specifically for use during a crisis? * How will our employees receive critical information in the event of a crisis? * How will employees communicate with colleagues to keep the business running? * Have we provided the right preparatory advice to employees in the event of a crisis? Is it kept up to date? * Are we able to provide immediate support to our employees and their families if a crisis were to occur? What kind of support would we provide? * How is critical job training being rolled out so that personnel gaps can be filled or capabilities outsourced to business partners at a moment’s notice? * Do we have short- and long-term succession plans for critical management and operations roles? * How should our resource plans and sourcing strategies change to accommodate crises? * What plans are in place to provide critical services? * How can our HR systems be used to locate and redeploy critical resources during a crisis? * What components of our organization’s culture do we believe will support or hinder individuals in the event of a crisis? And if you are an IT leader, ask yourself these questions as well: * In the event of a disaster, will our company be able to keep critical communications systems up and running? * What can we do to establish and optimize a virtual infrastructure, so employees can work effectively in remote locations if required? * Do our third-party providers have business continuity plans to ensure that critical systems, reporting and processes can operate during a crisis? * Can our company provide crisis response materials and training on demand?
•Date: 5th July 2006 • Region: UK/World • Type: Article •Topic: BC general |
