Countries across the world are still reeling from the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, leaving murky waters for businesses and economies to navigate. A survey conducted in March 2020 revealed only 62% of the businesses surveyed have business continuity plans.
Whether businesses have implemented a preexisting Business Continuity Plan (BCP) or their responses continue to evolve, it’s not too late to examine the impact these times have on the present and future of business operations. We’re honing in on the key components and stages of developing a business continuity plan for your company.
What Is Business Continuity and Why Is It Crucial?
Business continuity encompasses the analyses, responses, ideas, and plans for how an organization continues to produce or deliver services through an unexpected disruption. Having a plan to address adversity significantly prepares businesses to weather the storm of uncertain times.
Discussing business continuity with your leadership team can also mean reflecting on past hardships and the ideas that generated growth. Pulling on our memories unlocks a reserve of resilience and hope.
The future of any company relies on people and processes. Business continuity plans are significant because they establish how to remain active, approach new growth, and maintain vital relationships.
Key Components of Business Continuity Plans
Impact Analysis and Crisis Management Team
Identify your top leadership response team to manage and create solutions for continuity. This team may include HR, finance, legal, and senior management for a comprehensive perspective. Establish the groups that need to be involved in your response, including employees, customers, partners, and suppliers.
Start by identifying crucial aspects of your business, or a checklist of functions, that lead to the overall wellness of your company. Categorize risks and determine strategies to mitigate those specific risks. Document and detail changes in your current plans as to how policies will be adapted and goal management moving forward.
Transparency is Credibility
Change can definitely be uncomfortable, but it doesn’t have to be painful. It’s important to create a culture of humility, openness, and dynamic communication as the situation evolves. Utilize a Q&A platform to help people understand policies, changes in services, remote work, or what’s being done to solve issues.
Internal messaging should match external messaging, and real time adjustments to communication must happen during this time. Proactively adapting to change instead of just responding, shows tenacity and leadership.
Relocation Nation
The need for an at-home workforce has skyrocketed in ways no one could have ever predicted. Making sure employees have access to applications, data, internet/broadband, technology, and software needs to do their jobs from home puts big pressure on IT resources. These “technology infrastructure” needs may be a bigger hurdle for some companies than others.
Apart from securing technology set-ups, emphasize you value your team by updating them often and encouraging flexible work plans. Founder and president of Workplace Relationships, Maggie Craddock, noted;
“This is the time to proactively address, at a human level, the challenges employees may be battling internally as they strive to take effective actions externally. Validating the needs of others protects resources that may be tough to quantify but priceless to your firm: loyalty, motivation, and courage.”
Multi-Tiered Approach
When diving into business continuity, it’s easy to get lost in the weeds. Solidifying a strong, multi-tiered approach means delegating responsibilities and focusing on core services while maintaining operational resilience. Top to bottom your business should have a ubiquitous approach of how your plan is executed and how it reflects company culture.
While details like trimming your company’s budget or re-assessing project timelines are important, prioritize where your business needs support the most. Your people are your best resource for revitalization. We cannot stress enough how imperative communication and flexibility are during this time.
Recovery and Takeaways
In our research on business continuity, many resources noted that companies often lack a Recovery or Revitalization phases of their BCPs and Crisis Management Plans. Align your recovery strategies with realistic business expectations and timelines to transition your company into the future.
Incorporate lessons learned and reflections on the effectiveness of your business continuity plan. Take note of how it could be improved for the future. Track the stages and resourcefulness that ignited the celebratory bonfires of recovery.
And finally, remember no one is alone during this process. Look for support, advice, and organizations working together to lift each other up. We will be the first to say we know no one is ever done learning or improving. Let's work together to strengthen our relationships, connectivity, and community network as much as we can during these historic times.
Here at BWBacon Group, we know and live what you are experiencing as an employer or job seeker in Denver, Boulder, Dallas, San Francisco, New York City or any of the other cities we work in. We believe great recruiting starts and ends with understanding people.
If you have any questions about living, working or playing any of the areas we serve, please contact us. We are happy to help. Seize the day, every day, that’s what we say!
