Business continuity can be rewarding and easy or expensive and fraught with difficulty. The mistake is thinking that business continuity is a once-off undertaking. Far from that, business continuity is an evolving process that follows one’s business as it changes. For the average team, the process and terminology may be daunting. But there are ways to make your business continuity process straightforward:
Keep things simple yet detailed
It’s easier to follow a simple plan than one with too many steps. When crisis strikes and you need to activate your management plan, the information you provide should be concise yet detailed enough for anyone to be able to follow.
Simulate regularly
Running simulations regularly helps you identify changes and shortcomings of your business continuity plan. Regular simulations ensure your plan is up to date and that people are well prepared. One often finds ways to improve not just the plan, but infrastructure as well as who needs to be trained and up-skilled.
Improve continually
The business continuity process should be constantly evolving and improving in small steps, allowing for people and systems to suffer as little change-shock as possible and at the same time not placing heavy demands on budget and resources.
Listen more than speak
An often missed treasure trove of knowledge is the information that one’s staff can contribute. Who better to give apt input and suggestions on continuity concerns than the people who work with processes and machines themselves and who look to make their work easier and more efficient.
Understand your organisation
Keeping abreast of what your business is about, its ethos and goals, its growth strategy and vision, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, will help you to keep it moving forward in a sustainable way.
Leverage technology
Use cloud technology to enhance your business continuity. Capture, store and analyse data in the cloud. Use communication protocols like VOIP, voice messaging, SMS, email, chat and push notifications to manage live events that can be audited and regularly updated and scheduled.
Support of management
Good leadership is essential to a business continuity process. Besides supporting the process, leaders need to fully support the business continuity team so that its importance is felt throughout the team.
The business continuity process is a constant process and not one person’s or team’s responsibility. From director to floor sweeper, everyone has a vital role to play. By following the tips above one can make the process a much simpler and easier to attain one.
