COVID-19 and Business Continuity
The outbreak of the coronavirus has set off a series of unpredictable events worldwide. The disease which broke out in Wuhan, China in December is a threat to public health and has significant financial and economic implications for everyone. To combat the spread of the disease, China halted production at factories and enforced lockdown in some cities. These necessary actions led to the disruption of supply chains of companies worldwide, an unintended oil price war, and other grave consequences globally. Business operations have been disrupted, and academic, sporting, and even religious activities have been suspended.
According to the WHO, over 200,000 cases have been reported in over 100 countries. Many nations are now closing their borders to countries with high incidences of the disease. Africa countries are also imposing travel restrictions on travellers from the worst affected nations. Countries like Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya and Ghana have effected this change. Mauritania and Tunisia are said to have deported tourists who violated the quarantine rules.
As countries work to contain the COVID-19 pandemic and limit its impact, organisations face uncertainties on the future of their businesses. Companies are cancelling travel plans, implementing remote work policies, and rescheduling events. There is an imminent need to put the highest levels of preparedness and incidence response measures in place to limit disruptions to regular services.
In these uncertain times, leaders have the responsibility of adequately preparing their businesses for the impact of global events like the COVID-19 spread and plan for worst-case scenarios where necessary. We can’t always anticipate the local or global occurrences that may disrupt our businesses. We also must not wait for disasters to occur before we plan mitigation approaches; that’s why it is necessary to have a business continuity plan in place.
Business Continuity is an organisation’s ability to provide services and support for its customers during and after the disruption of regular operations. It is a proactive process that identifies critical functions as well as likely business risks and strategies for mitigating those risks. The greatest challenge in any emergency is rapid response. This challenge underpins the urgency to invest in a viable business continuity plan to prepare for the impact of any disruption, actively.
According to a report by Mercer, The Impact of Coronavirus on the global market (Feb 2020), just under a quarter (24%) of companies are in the middle of drafting an initial Business Continuity Plan (BCP), with employees relying on their employers to monitor and assess developments and share key findings with them.
To begin business continuity planning businesses must have a comprehensive discussion where business leaders alongside employees assess and determine their current:
a. Capabilities — Analyse the readiness level by clearly reviewing the actual availability of the organisation’s systems and the level of availability expected from the business. This analysis will show the business readiness and potential business impact of any significant disruption. Where there are gaps, you must plan to close identified gaps.
b. Needs — Identify the business needs before, during and after a disaster or disruption. What procedures and steps would the business need, safeguard business continuity during the interruption.
c. Procedures — Outline procedures and create a business continuity process for the organisation to follow in the event of a disruption. Your methods should shield the entire enterprise from the effects of the disruption and ensure critical business operations can continue
d. Expectations — Outline the critical areas of concern for the business and define expected outcomes from your BCP. You must identify priority assets and critical stakeholders, then set expectations for safeguarding these assets. Define your recovery point and recovery time objectives and check against your BCP to ensure business readiness.
Is your organisation prepared for the potential disruptions from the COVID-19 pandemic? Here are a few tips to consider while creating a BCP.
· Ensure your business continuity plan is robust and includes;
- Clearly defined communication channels
- A list of team members and key players to be contacted in an emergency (for each emergency team member, include a backup contact)
- Alternate work arrangements (remote work, mobile workstations with appropriate backup and data privacy policy and plans to restore normal operations from these environments.)
- Emergency response procedures
- Establish high priority systems to minimise service downtime and eliminate single points of failure
- Create processes for proper safeguarding of every step in the lifecycle of business data
- Test the business continuity plan to validate its effectiveness and technical recovery procedures.
- Inculcate the organisation’s emergency management procedures
- Store disaster kits (Grab and Go) pamphlet with BC instructions needed during an emergency
The process of developing a robust business continuity plan could generate new business opportunities, products and services, and customer insights. Hence, it is worth the investment. Don’t wait; the best time to create a business continuity plan is now.
