As the focus of a typical BCM program is to ensure that the competency of the Organisation BCM Coordinator, followed by the Business Unit (BU) Business Continuity Management (BCM) Coordinators. One of the least managed groups in terms of competency within the organisation is the rest of the staff members within the organisation.
BU BCM Coordinator
These deemed as "part-timers" in the BCM program are often neglected because of their limited involvement during “peacetime” as the administrative role for the BU-level plan is taken care of by the Business Unit (BU) BCM Coordinator.
General Organisation Staff Members
Apart from the BU BCM Coordinator who is designated to represent the business unit to implement their BU BC plan, the rest of the organisation is required to be aware of the BC plan. These colleagues are now referred to as "General Organisation Staff Members".
Knowledge of what to do and where to go during a crisis or disaster can both save lives and costs to the organisation as well as speed up the process of business recovery. Often, the retrieval of critical items such as vital records, laptops and backups forms part of the procedures within a BC Plan. Such retrievals during an evacuation may fall under the responsibilities of general staff members.
Therefore, it is important that briefings be conducted to emphasize both the importance of BC Plans as well as the significance of their roles in contributing to the continuity of an organisation following a disaster. The organisation may decide on the level of involvement of staff members in the BC process by identifying those required for the continued running of identified critical business functions. Briefings detailing their crisis response duties and roles are helpful for these staff.
Hence, the staff member needs to know from the three levels of competencies of "Know-Do-Manage" is the "Know" Competency.
Roles and Responsibilities
The full range of roles and responsibilities for staff, in general, are shown in the table below:
- Be aware of the role of BCM in the organisation;
- Be aware of crisis response functions and duties; and
- Carry out procedures stated in BCM Plans to ensure continuity of the organisation during a disaster.
Training Roadmap for General Staff Members
We recommend a tailored program for these participants. It is usually not a formal course but rather a tailored briefing or seminar and preferably conducted during a "town-hall" meeting. These are some of the proposed content for the first three years.
For the first year of their training roadmap, the general staff members should be introduced to the fundamentals of BCM, the organisation’s BC Policy and the content of the BC Plan. It is recommended that the focus during these awareness sessions be to ensure that staff members are aware that their involvements and their safety are planned for and taken care of during an actual disaster.
In the second year, the scope of the awareness sessions can be expanded to include their roles and responsibilities during BC Plan activation.
On the third year of the training roadmap, all the time and resources spent on ensuring that the organisation is prepared for a disaster will be wasted if lapses in judgement by staff result in the very event the organisation are trying to prevent from happening
Need to Upgrade Your BCM Competency?
More Information About Blended Learning BCM-5000 [BL-B-5]
To know more about our blended learning program and when the next course is scheduled, feel free to contact our friendly course consultant colleagues via sales.ap@bcm-institute.org. They are the BL-B-3 Blended Learning BCM-300 ISO22301 BCMS Implementer and the BL-B-5 Blended Learning BCM-5000 ISO22301 BCMS Expert Implementer.
![FAQ [BL-B-3]](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/3893111/b3824ba1-7aa1-4eb6-bef8-94f57121c5ae.png)
Contact Us
Looking for the other BCM Roles - Click Business Continuity Management: What is My Role?
