In the face of the current global pandemic, businesses across the world are having to fortify their internal processes to ensure that they’re ready to face this difficult time. Business continuity is vital for those looking to “weather the storm”. Whether you own a business in the public or commercial sector, the next few years are going to be a huge test for your organization.
The global markets have been in a huge decline in the past 20 months and have only just started to stabilize. Without a clear picture of how the next few years are going to go, it’s going to be a difficult time for businesses to try and adapt to ensure your business can continue to function with as little disruption as possible.
Businesses in commercial sectors that can’t or don’t have the ability to support workers at home may have a hard time adapting to the new norm, as workers globally are expecting a hybrid approach to the working week. More and more businesses are implementing a split approach which leaves any business that can’t adapt in the shadows.
How are you going to adapt your technology?
IT equipment is part and parcel of any business operation. 99.99% of businesses couldn’t function without their IT equipment and depending on your processes, measuring what your workforce do with that equipment can be key in seeing areas that you need to improve. With the increase of people working from home, internal and external communication has never been more important for businesses to monitor.
Ask yourself, if incoming and outgoing calls make up the majority of your business’s communication, have you considered how you’re going to ensure business continuity when your employees are working from home? Considering things like Teams Call Recording is going to be essential to stay ahead of the curve.
If you’re dealing with quote requests that have to be dealt with by live chat or email, have you got the processes in place to ensure you’re providing a timely response to your customers?
Processes that would normally be dealt with in an office environment have to be re-phrased and re-imagined when your employees are working from home. A business that is looking to adapt to this new format of work-life should begin with equipping its staff with the right tools for the job.
Companies that utilize on-premises systems will find it increasingly difficult to operate in this new world of ours. Considering how your workforce is going to adapt to working from home is an essential part of business continuity planning and is something that business managers across the world had covered long before the pandemic hit.
A contingency/continuity plan has always been something that business owners know they should have, but how many can say they actually have one? A scenario like a global pandemic has never highlighted the need for a bulletproof plan that you can fall back on in a desperate time such as the one we’ve faced.
Creating a business continuity plan
Whilst your continuity plan will differ from others, there will be common steps that you can follow to help draft up a plan you can rely on when the time comes.
- Take a look at your business as a whole, carry out a business impact analysis to identify processes and functions ensuring you are able to function when facing your given scenario.
- Identify and implement steps to recover critical business functions if you are facing a staff shortage or reduced availability of goods etc. (All things we’ve seen in the past 18 months)
- Consider how your business is going to adapt if you aren’t able to recover those critical business functions.
- Implement measures in your IT equipment if your systems are going to have to adapt. E.g using laptops rather than desktops if your workforce is going to work from home.