Determine Audience Types
Both BC awareness and training programs are widely accepted as one of the critical success factors to the successful implementation of the corporate-wide BCM program.
Thus, the awareness and training programs must at least address key areas in the BC Plan to all the people who are directly or indirectly related to the BC Plan processes. The awareness and training programs must be tailored to reach all levels of people within the organization. This includes:
- Shareholders
- Executive Management
- Functional Management
- Employees appointed with BC responsibilities
- General employees
Identify Key Groups of People
People is the key to the successful implementation of BC project and BCM program; the more knowledgeable and experienced the people, the greater the contribution to both the speed and quality of recovery activities.
Thus, analysis of and catering to the needs of the different groups of people who are directly and indirectly responsible for the management, development, execution and support of the BC activities is an important stage within the entire BC planning process.
In stage 1, key groups of people that have influence over the BC planning process and BCM program are identified and their training and awareness needs analyzed, so the correct types of training can be designed to suit them.
Executive Management
The Executive Management is made up of the organization’s key appointment holders such as the Board of Directors, CEO, COO, CFO and CIO, who are responsible for:
- The organization’s profit and loss
- Shareholders’ investments
- Employee welfare and safety
Due to their seniority, the Executive Management members are usually very busy people who have little or no time for operational details. They only need to have:
- Broad overview of BCM
- Broad understanding of management’s obligations for the safety of the employees, customers and any related third party
- Broad understanding of organization’s vulnerabilities and risks
- In-depth understanding of potential business implications, especially in the areas of financial, legal, business competitiveness and human resource
- BC strategy for each critical business function
- Specific roles, responsibilities and activities they will need to perform
For the Executive Management, general training in the following areas will be sufficient for them to deal with and manage the disaster situations:
- Risk analysis and business impact analysis
- BC Plan development, testing and maintenance methodologies
- Media handling skills
General based training can be provided by the Organization BCM Coordinator, who can provide training materials that are closely related to the business operations and situations. Such materials are usually more effective. However, external training courses may be engaged for more specific applications such as crisis management.
Functional Management
The functional management teams are usually from the organization’s middle management, such as the business unit heads, who are responsible for ensuring the smooth operation of the organization’s business functions, delivery of good quality products / services to customers and assisting the Executive Management in the identification of operational risks and resolutions.
With their knowledge in the operational processes of the organization, the functional management teams are in the best position to analyze the potential vulnerabilities of the organization and provide estimates of potential business loss should disaster events occur. The training for the functional management teams should, therefore, concentrate on:
- Detailed risk assessment and analysis methodology
- Detailed business impact analysis methodology
- Strategy identification and design
- BC Plan development and implementation methodology
These types of training are very technical in nature and the best approach is to engage subject matter experts to impart both the theoretical and practical aspects of training that are suited for organizations that have just completed the BC planning process. The training can be augmented by the Organization BCM Coordinator and functional management team leaders who are in a good position to give the participants a better understanding of BCP situations and problems in the local context.
Operational Support Personnel
The operational support personnel include both the technical and business operation support staff members who run the day-to-day business processes. They are the people who know the process, procedures and systems inside out, thus they are the people who will be heavily involved in carrying out the BC and recovery process and procedures.
The operational support personnel should be trained and equipped with the following skill sets:
- Technical recovery strategy
- Back-up and recovery procedures
- Use of technical documentation and vital records
- Interfaces with major hardware, software and third party recovery vendors
- BC testing strategies
- Testing methodology
Organizational BCM Coordinator
The Organization BCM Coordinator performs a critical role in the management and execution of the overall BC planning. Thus, they have to be trained in the following areas:
- Concepts of BCP
- Detailed recovery strategies and options available to the organization
The training for the Organization BCM Coordinators can be obtained via:
- Standard BC courses conducted by professional institutes or bodies
- BC conferences and exhibitions
- Discussions with BC professionals, consultants and service providers
- BC and Disaster Recovery (DR) hardware and software providers
- BC specialized and professional certification level courses
Individual professional certification can be obtained from several bodies such as DRI International, Business Continuity Institute (BCI) and Business Continuity Management Institute (BCMI).
An example of the course attendance with certification which is provided by BCM Institute can be found in Certification Levels & Courses from BCM Institute.
Business Unit BC Coordinators
These are officers who assist the Organization BCM Coordinator by coordinating the various business functions in their business units to ensure that all relevant information, processes and procedures are captured in the BC Plan during the development stage. They are also responsible for the coordination of the recovery processes for recovering critical business operations. Therefore, they have to be trained on the following areas:
- Broad understanding of BC planning concepts
- Thorough understanding of the corporate objectives during the recovery process
- Detailed understanding of their specific technical and business recovery objectives and strategies
- Detailed understanding of the recovery plans for their areas of responsibility
- A broader awareness of the recovery strategies for other related parts of the business and dependent third parties
- Detailed understanding of each phase within the planning methodology such as Risk Analysis & Review and Business Impact Analysis
Reference
Goh, M. H. (2021). Managing & Sustaining Your Business Continuity Management Program. Business Continuity Management Planning Series (3rd ed.). Singapore: GMH Pte Ltd.
Extracted from "Chapter 9: Stage 1 - Identify Training Groups"
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