Ion Iordache

My Life in Motion

Business Continuity in the Time of Coronavirus

We all wonder what the impact of this COVID-19 pandemic will be on businesses, and the economy in general. Fewer, however, are thinking about what are the steps they should take to get through this period.

Lately, there has been a surge of pessimists, but fortunately more optimists, who understood that while the world stopped a little, it did not ˝explode˝ like in catastrophic movies. Life will go on after this pandemic, so I thought I would start the discussion on business continuity in the „Time of Coronavirus”, for all those interested of course.

˝I am an optimist. It does not seem too much use being anything else.˝ (Winston Churchill)

Bill Conerly, in an article for Forbes, ˝Business Planning For The COVID-19 Coronavirus˝ said about the COVID-19 pandemic: ˝Medical professionals have plenty of unanswered questions … The evidence so far denies reason to panic but justifies contingency planning˝.

In real-life, the existence of a Business Continuity Plan (“BCP”) can be a solution for creating prevention and recovery systems to deal with potential threats to an organization. Most of the time, however, it does not take into account the epidemics or pandemics, and even when it does, it is limited to strictly formal aspects like: ˝In the case of epidemics/pandemics, the impact on people can be mitigated through technical and business solutions˝. Period. Nothing about critical areas to consider, responsibilities, resources, etc.

To maintain business continuity in epidemic/pandemic cases, the solution is the existence and implementation of an effective Business Continuity Plan. We should have learned about the usefulness of a BCP so far because, in 2009, humanity did face a worldwide Pandemic, the H1N1/09 virus. Although most states of the world have emphasized the importance of business continuity plans for the business environment, and have recommended a series of emergency and response measures, this has not been applied in the current pandemic, and has once again caught us unprepared.

Teikoku Databank has conducted a survey (May 18 – May 31, 2018) on corporate attitudes towards Business Continuity Planning. Companies Surveyed: 23,157, Valid Responses: 10,001 (Response Rate: 43.2%). The results reflect the very low interest for a PCB, with only 14.7% of the companies surveyed having such a document.

Reasons for not formulating a business continuity plan were: 

  • 44% claimed that they “Do not have the skills and knowledge necessary to create one”;
  • 30.6% indicated they “Cannot allocate the neccessary human resources to create such a plan”;
  • 26.1%  claimed that they “Stoped at the stage of document creation because they faced difficulty in creating a practical-to-use plan”.

At the beginning of 2020, the global consultancy firm, Mercer examined companies around the world to find out how prepared they are for the continuity of their business in the situation of a global coronavirus pandemic. ˝More than half of companies (51%) around the world have no plans or protocols in place to combat a global emergency, such as coronavirus (COVID-19). The survey revealed that 27.2% of companies do not have a BCP plan in place, while nearly 24% are currently in the midst of drafting one˝.

˝The survey also found that working from home or working remotely will remain a crucial factor for companies, with nearly half (42%) currently encouraging employees to work remotely, particularly in highly affected areas. An overwhelming 92.2% of companies have said that working from home remains their option of choice during an office closure.˝  

If you do not have a Business Continuity Plan or Business Continuity Procedures in epidemic/pandemic situations you may consider some of these measures:

  • Assign clear responsibilities for implementing the measures below
  • Identify critical employees (eg people who operate daily services in the company) and consider the possibility of them working from home. This needs to be done only after you make sure that the transfer of information is secure and in accordance with your own security protocols.
  • Ensure regular cleaning and desinfection of office spaces in accordance with the guidelines of the Ministry of Health.
  • Purchase appropriate protective equipment (eg. face masks, protective gloves, liquid soap and disinfectants) for personal use, if needed.
  • Reduce travel and non-essential meetings, and use online audio/video communication tools.
  • Make internal presentations (preferably online) to present the crisis situation and provide advice on the health of the entire staff, as well as guidance on the importance of good personal hygiene.
  • Review or consolidate policies and procedures regarding health insurance, medical leave and rest.
  • Encourage your customers to use the phone or online tools instead of physical visits, and clearly communicate any special arrangements for offering services or goods.
  • Consider closing some locations and think about security and maintenance issues for infrastructure and equipment.
  • Talk to external service providers about their ability to continue to provide contracted services, and consider implementing and providing alternative solutions (eg. if the security company providing security services has staff shortage issues, you must urgently redo the physical security risk analysis, and implement other security solutions).

My colleagues and I at RQM Certification and Iordache Quality Services, are constantly trying to bring to attention that the implementation/certification of a Business Continuity Management System based on the international standard ˝ISO 22301:2019 Security and resilience – Business continuity management systems – Requirements˝, could be the key to protecting against the consequences of events like this pandemic.

To specialize in Business Continuity Management System, RQM Certification organizes in Romania and throughout Europe a wide range of courses based on ˝ISO 22301:2019 – Security and resilience – Business continuity management systems – Requirements˝ with the possibility of study and examination and in ˝Self-Study˝. All of these come with certification from PECB which is an accredited body of personnel certification by the International Accreditation Service (IAS) in accordance with ˝ISO/IEC 17024 – General requirements for bodies operating certification of persons˝.

NOTE: To create a Business Continuity Plan I recommend the free customizable OFB-EZ (Open for Business-EZ) toolkit created and made available by The Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety (IBHS).

Be close to your employees, partners and customers in these difficult times, and make sure that next time the situation will be, from the beginning, under control through the implementation of a Business Continuity Management System.

References:

˝Business Planning For The COVID-19 Coronavirus˝, by Bill Conerly

˝Companies with a BCP remain at 14.7%˝, Teikoku Databank

˝The impact of Coronavirus on the global market˝, Mercer

˝ISO 22301 Business Continuity Management System Trainings˝, PECB

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