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A resilient continuity plan for swine flu
PageOne's CEO, Chris Jones, claims 53 per cent of British companies still have no plans in place to cope with a pandemic of any nature - some organisations are seriously neglecting their customers' and employees' needs.
Concerns about a possible swine flu pandemic recently prompted schools and offices to shut down at short notice highlighting how organisations that fail to plan and prepare for unforeseen events risk loss of customers and revenue, bad publicity and unease within the employee base. While organisations may initially be put off investing the money in a business continuity plan during this economic climate it doesn't have to be expensive to be effective, and organisations need to ask themselves can they really afford not to have one in place, as Chris Jones, CEO of PageOne explains.
According to the latest report by the Chartered Management Institute and backed by the Cabinet Office, human disease – such as pandemic influenza – is one of the greatest concerns facing organisations, however 53% of British companies still have no plans in place to cope with a pandemic of any nature, be it swine flu, bird flu, etc. There have been numerous warnings addressing the damage a flu pandemic could do to business operations, particularly with absenteeism rates predicted at reaching up to 40%. It is immensely frustrating that businesses can see these risks, yet continue to take the 'ostrich approach' rather than taking immediate action. Those organisations that fail to plan are not only seriously neglecting their customers' needs, but also their employees.
Maintaining effective and efficient lines of communication must be at the forefront of business plans as the current swine flu spreads. Crises like this test communication strategies. Whilst we are by no means in a fully fledged pandemic, companies need to prepare for the unexpected, and have plans in place to define what they would do if the workforce absenteeism rates did approach 40% and to make plans for those areas of the business which would not be sustainable in such a scenario.
It appears that there are two big notions to overcome within senior management when they think about business continuity. The first one is the huge financial amount that is seen to be needed to implement such a solution; a business continuity plan can actually be implemented cost-effectively and have immense overall business gains. The second one is that when they think of business continuity problems they tend to only think of large scale emergencies such as terrorism and fires, and forget the continuous risks. More often than not it is the small everyday events that cause organisations the most financial losses; flu epidemics of any kind, transport failures, computer virus attacks, power cuts. This risk also significantly increases during a time of economic recession and becomes even more imperative that it doesn't bring your organisation to a complete halt, losing much needed revenue.
This recession is a challenging time for organisations, but it is not the time to make cuts in the area of business continuity. In fact, the recent case of swine flu only emphasises that it is an area that needs to be safeguarded and tested more than ever to help your organisation weather any storms, and remain competitive. Business continuity has grown up and it is not only common sense to have a plan in place but recent developments such as the introduction of the first British Standard BS 25999 for business continuity management have again heightened the need for businesses of all natures to implement one and must be seen as a central component of any organisation's overall resilience and survival strategy.
Protect your assets and they will protect you
There is good news for those with no business continuity plans in place. An effective, resilient and far-reaching business continuity plan can be implemented quickly and cost-effectively, all that is required is a degree of forward planning and a small ongoing time-commitment to ensure that the plan is kept up-to-date. The key is getting your priorities right; don't worry about the smaller things but instead focus your time and money on protecting the people, equipment and information that matter the most and will enable your organisation to function during incidents such as the current swine flu. The practical measures suggested below can help you draw up an effective business continuity plan which costs very little money and will pay for itself many times over should the worst case scenario occur.
In terms of your staff, begin by identifying the key people without whom your business could not function and ensure that you have a resilient form of communication in place for employees that will work even throughout a crisis. For example during the 7/7 bomb attacks on London, mobile phone networks were overwhelmed, but relying on a resilient messaging system continued to allow emergency teams to maintain communications.
The next thing to consider is to put together a complete list of contacts for your staff, customers and suppliers. A comprehensive strategy for communicating urgent information to the right people at the right time is essential in order to protect corporate reputation but the increasing number of employees taking advantage of flexible working hours or remote working arrangements can make this rather challenging. There are however inexpensive solutions out there which can help. Here at PageOne for example, we offer Areyousafe, a real-time staff check-in and acknowledgement service. In the event of a crisis it allows employees to verify their status and location by calling a dedicated phone number. We also have a solution called 'Voiceblast', a voice recognition service that can quickly and simultaneously send thousands of people within an organisation a personalised voice message to either their landline or mobile. Combined with PageOne's SmartGroups, which allow users to set up predefined groups of individuals, it offers a powerful and flexible means of delivering high-volume broadcast information to multiple devices independent of network.
Once the above measures have been taken go on to create a business continuity "How-to" document giving step by step instructions on what to do and how to do it for all core processes. That way, if a member of staff does leave suddenly or has to take time off work at short notice, another member of staff should be able to take over their duties
Investing in a business continuity plan is an investment for the present and the future; it is not a one-off solution. We need to dispel the view that some may have of business continuity as being something that sits on the shelf only to be used in a major event such as the swine flu. Business continuity systems are now far more integrated, they offer more functionality and has in fact been driven by customers demanding that their system can be used as part of day to day operations rather than as a one off. What originally started as a way to communicate in a crisis is now being effectively used by many organisations in other areas of the business to increase overall corporate efficiency – which is absolutely vital for survival in this economic climate. A business continuity plan is a form of prevention, and prevention is always better than cure. Remember, the cost of implementing one does not have to be great and the question worth asking is not "how much will it cost?" but "how much could it save me should an unforeseen event, such as the current virus, occur?"
