Your business continuity plan can never be static. It is important to review and test your BC plan with time. This will help you in optimizing your business continuity plan. A good business continuity plan will help you in protecting your business from threats. The unpredictability of the coronavirus pandemic took the business world by storm in 2021. There were various supply chain issues that businesses were dealing with. All this highlighted the importance of a good business continuity strategy. It will help you in mitigating business risk. You should ensure that your business can prevent this kind of situation in the future. It will help you in recovering your business from future threats. In this article, we are going to talk about how you can update your business continuity plan.

Importance of updating your Disaster Recovery and Business continuity plan

If you are not updating your business continuity plan, then your business will always be in trouble. Your business is constantly changing with time. You are adding new systems to your IT infrastructure. Thus, your business continuity plan should also change with time.

The pandemic has acted as a catalyst for companies. They are investing more resources and time into disaster recovery and business continuity planning. According to a report from the Business Continuity Institute, more than 79% of businesses now understand the importance of resilience due to the pandemic. They want to ensure that their business is ready for future threats. Both team members and business leaders have seen the impact of a solid business continuity plan in 2021.

New threats will emerge with time

Threats will keep changing with time. You will find a new IT security risk after some time. Another coronavirus variant like Omicron or Delta can emerge. It is impossible to plan and predict these changes. There are new trends that have appeared recently that you need to deal with. One of the common trends is the trend towards remote works. Remote work or work from home policy was very successful in the coronavirus pandemic. It helped companies in dealing with the crisis. However, now most people want to work from home. This new trend is going to become a set standard for organizations. Some organizations are completely moving towards remote work. Other organizations are following the hybrid model.

Currently, very few companies have switched back to the old model. However, this trend will also give rise to IT security risks. New threats can emerge due to new trends. You need to properly address these threads in your business continuity plan.

Your updated business continuity plan will help you in protecting your business

According to a survey from BCI, more than 33% of organizations had a crisis plan before the COVID-19 pandemic. However, these plans were useless as they never thought that pandemic can affect their business. Their plans were ineffective in dealing with the coronavirus pandemic. They had to create new programs for dealing with Covid-19.

Updating your business continuity plan will ensure that your plan is keeping up with the changing world. It will help you in increasing your time to recovery. This will give a competitive edge to your business. It will also help you in reducing the negative financial impacts of new threats.

You should review your previous plan both on the micro and macro levels. It is important to think about both industry-related risks and world events that can affect your business. Keep things in your business continuity plan that is practical for your business. If there is something that is no longer relevant to your BC plan, then you should remove it. Make sure that your plan is not too vague or rigid.

You should also look for new technologies that can help your business. If your business goals have changed with time, then you should also change your Business continuity plan.

Business continuity has gained a lot of momentum in recent years. However, businesses need to focus more on their plan if they want to survive. It is important to think about the future threats that can affect your business.

How frequently should you update your business continuity plan?

The frequency will depend on your company’s purpose and your industry. It will also depend on your risk profile. If we have to set a baseline, then companies should review their plans after every 6 months. This review will help you in checking if you want to update your business continuity plan. Look for the following things in your review:

If you are changing your business operations, then you should consider changing your plan. This will include new vendors, ownership changes, changing operational policies, and new technology. You can easily check these things when you are reviewing your business.
A testing exercise will help you in finding a gap in your plan.
You should try to learn from real-world examples and experience.

If you are updating your plan, then you should ensure that you are communicating changes to your employees and stakeholders. This will help you in improving awareness. It will ensure that your stakeholders can properly execute your business continuity plan.

How to update your business continuity plan?

Updating your BC plan will help you in analyzing the lessons that you have learned in a crisis. Companies that are updating their BC plan regularly can navigate through business disruption easily. We are going to talk about some areas on which your organization can focus. This will help you in changing your policies after a crisis.

Timely communication and incident response

Communication is the most important thing for your business. It will help you in streamlining the notification process during a crisis. Effective communication will ensure that you are in touch with your crisis team. A 2-way communication system will help you in sending push notifications, voice messages, texts, and emails to your employees. It will also help you in receiving immediate responses from your employees. This will help you in prioritizing your resources according to the situation.

Try to use a mobile-first strategy for incident management. This will ensure that you can easily respond to messages. It will help you in protecting your workforce from the crisis. Customizing reports and messages will help you in quickly notifying employees. Risk management teams can send important alerts to your employees.

Business operations during the crisis

You should have a plan that will help you in protecting your important business processes. If your critical business processes are running, then your business operation can continue. You need to protect these critical business processes. The plan will ultimately depend on your business type. Make sure that your plan includes the following things:

List of personnel who can help you in restoring your data and services.
Steps that you can follow for ensuring the safety of important workers.
Business impact analysis or BIA will help you in determining which rules are non-critical and critical.

Business continuity program

A BC program will help organizations in managing a crisis. It will help you in minimizing the risk. This program will help you in minimizing the impact of the organization. Your program should include the following things:

Your program should support IT readiness.
It will help you in monitoring and protecting your employees.
It should include office and site management.
You should have a dedicated emergency response team for dealing with crises.
Make sure that you are providing a dedicated phone number and email to your employees. This will help your employees in accessing 24/7 assistance.

Your BC program will help you in providing responsiveness to your shareholders, vendors, partners, customers, and employees.

Workforce protection

It is important to ensure that you have a flexible work schedule during a crisis. This is very important for employees who have a family or have to take care of their children. Your workforce protection should include the following things:

You should use workforce management technology for assisting with managing leave requests, tracking absences, and scheduling.
Make sure that you have a return-to-work plan. Try to follow a phased return approach. This will help you in minimizing the risk to health and safety. It will also help you in protecting your business processes.
You should plan for future demands.

Make sure that you have a plan for extending remote working arrangements. Your employees should be comfortable first. You should also have mental health resources. This will help you in ensuring that your employees are doing their best.

Create an Internal communication plan

Effective and regular communication is very important for your business. This will ensure that your employees are well-informed. It will also help you in building trust. Your business continuity plan should include how you will communicate with your employees. Make sure that your plan include the following things:

Increased communication by the COO or CEO as they are the most important part of your organization.
You should have a dedicated employee who can fact-check all the data and information. This will help you in sharing accurate information with your employees.
You should inform employees about the changes that you are doing and how they will impact them.
You should have a messaging system that your employees can use for communicating with you.

A good messaging system is very important for your business. It will help you in communicating with your employees.

Internal technology

If your employees are working remotely, then internet stability and network connectivity are very important for them. This will help your employees in working remotely. You should have the IT infrastructure which you need for supporting the digital transition. It will help you in minimizing the technical risk. Make sure that your business continuity plan include the following things:

You should look for technologies that your employees need. Make sure that your employees can use the tools that you are providing them.
You should increase your VPN capacity.
You should upgrade your IT policy.
Your employees will need learning management software. Thus, make sure that you are investing in one. This will help ensure that your employees can learn about remote work.

Your IT support team should be available for your employees. They should help your employees in troubleshooting home network issues.

Workforce Safety

This should be your organization’s priority during any crisis. Make sure that your employees are safe during a crisis. Organizations also have the responsibility of their customers and stakeholders. They should create a plan for returning workers. This will ensure that you can enable work from the office without disturbing society.

You should communicate your company travel policy with your employees. Organizations should provide better safety and hygiene to their employees. This will include things like wipes, masks, gloves, and hand sanitizers.

Conclusion

You should ensure that your business is ready for 2022. The best way to do this is by first reviewing your business operations. If something has changed, then you need to update your business continuity plan. Test your business continuity plan. This will help you in finding gaps in your plan. Thus, you can update your plan and address these gaps. You should use the real-world experience for updating your business. Make sure that you are learning from the crisis that you have already faced. This is the best time to update your incident management and business continuity. Planning will ensure that your business is prepared for every type of crisis.

However, creating a business continuity plan is difficult for SMBs. They don’t have access to resources that can help them in maintaining business continuity. Thus, you should consider working with a good MSP. Experienced MSPs like Bleuwire will help you in creating a business continuity plan for your business. They will ensure that your business is operating during a disaster. Bleuwire will help you in enabling remote work. They will also help you in addressing the security issues associated with the new technologies. Thus, you don’t need to worry about manually addressing the IT issues. If you need more information regarding IT services, then you can contact Bleuwire.

Contact us today to learn about Bleuwire™ services and solutions in how we can help your business.