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With 2012 being a bumper year for major sporting and public events in the UK, Thomas Puschnik, Zurich UK’s Head of Business Continuity Management Europe, believes it is still not too late to get your organization in shape.
The media headlines are becoming increasingly dominated by major events such as the Diamond Jubilee and the Olympic and Paralympic Games. These, in addition to other events such as Wimbledon and the Notting Hill Carnival, mean that the UK will be a very different place during the summer.
Couple the carnival atmosphere with an unprecedented number of people using the transport system and the need for planning for those affected by these events has never been so great. However, with forward planning companies can ensure the added benefit of being able to factor in some time to ensure that they can benefit from some of the thrills and enjoyment that will accompany the potential disruption!
Join the queues
The tens of thousands of people travelling through London during the summer will mean public transport and roads will be much busier than usual. How this may impact you, your employees, customers and suppliers should therefore be considered carefully.
The following guidance reflects the Zurich UK approach and could help your planning or act as a useful comparison if you already have plans in place.
1. Establish a working group
Establish a small working group consisting of key representatives from the areas of the business that are most likely to be impacted. This group will coordinate the planning activity and membership should include, as a minimum, a chair, a communications lead and a business sponsor that has the appropriate authority levels to make decisions.
2. Engage employees
Talk to your employees about how they might be impacted by the disruption and how flexible their travel needs are. Use this information to develop your plans and share these with employees so that they can see how their input has helped to shape things.
3. Consider the risks
Perform a risk assessment based on your own company’s circumstances. These events attract crowds from all over the world and as such introduce certain elements of risk. Risks may include: travel disruption, security, employee availability and supplier preparedness etc. These risks need to be identified, assessed, prioritised and mitigated appropriately.
Below is an example of a possible risk assessment for travel disruption:
Risk Description – Travel Disruption |
The potential for travel disruption in and around London is high; there will be greater waiting times and delays on roads and public transport which will vary each day depending on the events taking place.
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Consequence |
Mitigation |
- How will this affect employees getting to the office?
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What could employees do differently?
- Work from home?
- Stagger start/finish times?
- Use different modes of transport or less busy routes?
- Work from a different office?
- Arrange meetings outside of London?
- Use of tele/video conferencing for meetings?
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- What about the delivery of important supplies?
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How are your critical suppliers preparing?
- Should you ask them to confirm their plans?
- Should you make advanced orders for important supplies?
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- How might this impact your service to customers?
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Should you proactively communicate to customers on any changes to work practices planned during the summer? |
4. Develop a communications plan
Define the key stakeholders that you will need to engage with as part of your preparations. Then identify the key messages and how you will deliver these leading up to and during the summer. Remember to keep the messaging simple and meaningful for the audience and provide channels for feedback in order to encourage two-way communication.
Below is an example of a possible communications plan:
Stakeholder |
Medium |
Message |
Schedule |
Employees |
Intranet
Email Newsletter |
Travel guidance
Reminders about working from home |
April
June |
Managers |
Email |
Managing employee holidays/absence |
March |
Customers |
Email
Press |
Changes to operating hours |
June |
Consider also how you will communicate at short notice. For example, are you able to send an urgent text to all employees over the weekend if for any reason your buildings are inaccessible; or are you able place an advert in the media to notify customers that you are operating as usual?
5. Develop action plans
Develop simple action plans for departments that are likely to be directly impacted by the different events. These should list the steps to be taken in order to reduce the impact to your business and cover employee travel, alternative working arrangements, your customers, visitors, supplies and deliveries. It is important to review and test these plans regularly as more information on any travel ‘hot spots’ and restrictions come to light.
6. Confirm supplier preparedness
Check how these events are likely to impact your critical suppliers in order to ensure that they are as prepared as you. For example, you could send them a short questionnaire that asks the following:
- Have you considered the impact on your operation in relation to the services you provide?
- If so, what do you expect the impact to be?
- What measures are you taking to reduce the impact?
- Do you intend to test these measures before the summer?
It is also worthwhile for your business to respond to these questions as well just in case you get asked by your customers for the same information.
7. Publish travel guidance for employees
Make it clear to employees what the company policy is for travel in order to avoid any confusion even if it is just to clarify that there are no changes to existing policies. One important consideration is the advice to employees based outside of London who may need to travel for meetings; do you intend to restrict travel during this busy period?
8. Provide refresher training for incident response teams
The high profile nature of these events brings with it increased anxiety regarding security and so providing refresher training for your incident response teams is a good idea. Teams will be prepared and ready to respond should there be an incident.
9. Monitor the news
Levels of travel disruption are expected to vary day-to-day during the summer depending on the events taking place. There will be various sources of news to choose from, so it is important to establish which official websites you will use and advise your employees accordingly. You might also want to set up a TV showing a rolling news channel in the office.
10. Have fun!
This summer will be a once in a lifetime experience for most of us, so try to get your business to embrace these events and make it as fun and enjoyable as possible for your employees. Good luck!
Author
Thomas Puschnik, is Head of Business Continuity Management Europe at Zurich. thomas.puschnik@uk.zurich.com
•Date: 18th May 2012 • UK •Type: Article • Topic: London 2012 business continuity
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