How would your business cope without staff, premises, suppliers or IT?
What is Business Continuity and why does it matter?
Business Continuity is about keeping your business running. It’s about preparing for, and responding to, situations that could affect the running and reputation of your business, such as a loss of ICT, staff, premises or suppliers.
Issues like these are often triggered by external factors – for instance, a sickness outbreak that leads to staff shortages, a fire that damages premises or a cyber attack that restricts access to IT systems.
Business Continuity means putting a plan in place to respond to potential risks.
How can a plan help businesses to prepare for unexpected disruptions?
Businesses need to carry out a risk assessment to identify the greatest risks to their operations and then put mitigations in place. That’s where their Business Continuity Plan (BCP) comes in.
Examples of mitigation include cross skilling members of staff so that they can step in for colleagues who are unavailable in an emergency. It’s also a good idea to think about succession planning if members of staff are due to retire.
To prepare for a cyber attack, it’s advisable to mitigate by keeping hard copies of important documents, including your Business Continuity Plan.
For a hospitality business, mitigation might be about making contact with alternative suppliers. If you run a coffee shop and you lose your coffee bean supplier, do you have a back up supplier on hand?
What single piece of advice would you give to businesses which are worried about disruption?
Be proactive, not reactive. By being proactive, you’re able to respond more quickly to an incident and recover faster, by minimising impact and disruption. Planning is key to being prepared.
There’s also a saying that ‘if you fail to plan, you plan to fail’.
Businesses can find lots of useful information and resources on our Risk Ready Businesses page, including a handy template to help them create their own Business Continuity Plan.
Has working in business resilience made you more resilient in your own day-to-day activities?
Yes, I now have a grab bag at home with basic items like a torch, pen, notepad and portable phone charger so I can find them quickly in an emergency. Surplus food is also an essential.
You never know when you might need to be prepared!
Sonal works as Corporate Risk Management and Business Continuity Manager at Leicester City Council.