Why People Management Is Vital To Business Continuity

Posted By on November 6th, 2019

The 6th November is Stress Awareness Day. Established by the International Stress Management Association (ISMA), the aim is to provide people with information on stress and strategies on how to address it.

With this in mind we wanted to take a look at the importance of people management to business continuity. The theme of this year’s Stress Awareness Day is building resilience. And, like the individual people who work for your business, resilience is something which the overall business must have in order to prosper 

Making people the focus of a business continuity plan

One school of thought surrounding business continuity is taking a people centric approach. This approach acknowledges that people are one of a business’s most important assets. Both in terms of the running of a business but also in allowing a business to get back up and running following a disaster event.

Many business continuity plans focus on the services and systems required to run a business. Forgetting about the people who actually make things happen.

You may have the best business continuity plan in place which enables you to get your systems back up and running using back up IT systems in a backup office location. But if your staff are absent, or not functioning as highly as normal given the impacts of potentially traumatic disaster events, then your business will not continue to operate as effectively as it could.

Do standards exist to put people at the heart of business continuity planning?

June 2018 saw a new International Standard published – ISO 22330. ISO is the International Organisation for Standardisation. The ISO is responsible for developing and publishing international standards. These standards, when adhered to, ensure that materials, products, processes and services are fit for purpose.

ISO 22330 is the “Guidelines for people aspects of business continuity.” In terms of business continuity planning, it encourages businesses to look at areas such as:

  • How do we account for our people in the event of a disaster?
  • How do we communicate (internally and externally)?
  • Potential travel issues
  • How you will go about mobilising your workforce in adverse condition

Equally, ensuring that your staff are well looked after following the effects of a disaster, some of which can be traumatic is essential, is considered essential. 

This Stress Awareness Day why not stop and think about your staff and how they (and you) would cope personally if disaster should sadly affect your business. Taking the time to review your business continuity plan to ensure that staff are accounted for, if not put at the heart of your plan, could be key in ensuing your business resilience. And most importantly, the wellbeing of your people.