COVID-19: Revising the Analysis of Business Impact and Staying Relevant (Part 2)

COVID-19: Revising the Business Impact Analysis Process and Staying Relevant Relevant [Part 2]

Staff Shortages

Staff shortages arise from staff unavailable to work on site for an extended period of time due to health and safety issues, and local government regulations on lockdown, quarantine, stay home requirements, social distancing and movement control. Each of these will have its own challenges that will impact companies differently depending on the type of business.

Companies may leverage their geographical spread to transfer work to other locations with similar capabilities. Equate these key parameters in your BIA review and determine the maximum tolerable unavailable time that is conceivable. Considerations may include staff shortages of up to 30% over 1, 2 or 3 months or more.

Staff Well-being

In addition, BIA should identify CBFs within the company that provide emergency services, health advice and support to protect staff well-being, draw up guidelines and policy on health care and insurance services and create awareness for all and staff who are infected, sick and those needing to take care of their children and care for sick household members.

Clearly define and establish a process and a minimum available time for such assistance and support to be made known and available to all staff during a pandemic.

Third-party Dependency or Supply Chain

This is an area that needs a lot more detail planning. Third parties and supply chain are affected as much as anyone else and have their own challenges too. BIA should uncover the CBFs that are dependent on third parties and the entire supply chain input and output, and identify vulnerabilities especially with respect to staff and manual operations requirements.

Clear apprehension of the SLA on the tolerable downtime at various delivery points, the maximum tolerable delivery time and full clarity of the various points of failures in the work flow involving people and processes and their workarounds are essential in mitigating any losses.

Crisis Management

BIA should also identify CBFs that are responsible for organisation wide Crisis Management, its roles, procedures and decision-making process. The BIA should review the makeup of the Crisis Management Team (CMT), define a training regime for members and agree the minimum invocation time for the team to be mobilised.

CMT must stand ready to assist and address threats and risks and provide overall coordination caused by pandemic-related issues at a global, regional and country level. A timeline of awareness of the chain of command and roles or playbook should be made available.

Communication

BIA should identify the CBF responsible for effective communication, both internal and external, during any business disruption, and especially during a pandemic event. Ongoing communication is necessary to ensure that staff are well aware of the company’s direction, response and to eliminate rumours.

BIA should assess the setup and integration with Crisis Management to ensure that the control and command are well coordinated. Determine the timeframe for such capability to be available. Consider the effective use of ENS (how soon the notifications can be sent out?) and ensuring staff contacts and updated (how often?) as part of the process.

Summary

These are some of the key area of the Business Impact Analysis that you should be revisiting.

• Staff Shortages
• Staff Well-being
• Third-party Dependency or Supply Chain
• Crisis Management
• Communication

Do You Want to Continue Training During A Pandemic Outbreak?

Due to the pandemic outbreak, BCM Institute will be conducting its certification courses via interactive video conferencing, online and e-learning mode. Find out more about the Business Continuity Management (BCM) and Crisis Management (CM) Blended Learning (BL) courses.

For this period, the content will include the managing and implementing of the Pandemic Influenza plans.  Perhaps you'd like to check out our latest blended learning in view of the COVID-19 Outbreak Restrictions?

Business Continuity Management [BCM-5000]	Crisis Management [CM-5000]	Crisis Communication [CC-5000]

IT Disaster Recovery [DRP-5000]	ISO22301 BCMS Lead Audit [BCM-8530]

Contact us today to find out more at sales.sg@bcm-institute.org

Singapore Government Funding for Blended Learning Courses

The next section applied to Singaporean and Singapore permanent residents.  Click button "Government Funding Available" to find out more about the funding that is available from the Singapore government.  This include the CITREP+, SkillsFuture Credit and UTAP.

Reference Guide [for Webinar]

Goh, M. H. (2016). A Manager’s Guide to Implement Your Infectious Disease Business Continuity Plan, 2nd Edition. GMH Pte Ltd.