Attainium Insights, short, practical observations and examples drawn from real-world tabletop exercises and business continuity planning.
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Reopening businesses and getting back to a more normal work situation will be different for everyone. The first thing is to realize that nobody will be returning to things the way they were. "Normal" will not be what we are used to. There are many things that will need to be done before you can welcome employees to the workplace again - and before they will feel comfortable returning to the workplace after this pandemic.
Organizations are under constant pressure to deliver optimal performance and serve customer needs. However, what would happen if your operations were disrupted? What if critical systems were breached or your facilities were completely inaccessible? Tabletop Exercises are becoming a major necessity to combat these situations and ensure a well-planned response. There are a number of reasons why you should invest in Tabletop Exercises.
As we work at home during this pandemic and listen to the experts predict what might or might not happen next with COVID-19, it may be time to think about updating our crisis management plan for the next crisis. Why update the plan if the pandemic has passed? Well, the CDC and other experts think that, once the curve has flattened, we may have another outbreak in the fall. Or perhaps not all of us will be able to go back to work at the same time. And, let's be realistic, there are other crises that we may face in the future. The global financial situation could be a hurdle you need to consider. Also, hurricane season is just around the corner.
All of a sudden, you have a totally remote workforce, or you're part of one. You can't walk down the hall to talk to people or call everyone into your office quickly. What is this doing to collaboration? What are you doing to communicate with these workers? Are they productive and happy? What strategies and tools have you made available for them? And how are they interacting with each other? We found a few articles that might help.
Many of you already have business continuity plans for the regular flu season, and the plans for Coronavirus/COVID-19 will run along those same lines. Typically, business continuity planning deals with disruptions that occur sporadically (earthquakes, blackouts, etc.) But pandemic disruptions occur over weeks and months, ramping up and then hopefully slowing down. The World Health Organization now defines Coronavirus as a pandemic. As such, planning for continuity during this time will have some of the same features as regular continuity planning, but there will be many differences. For one thing, HR will play a much more significant role in planning for a pandemic than they usually would in typical disruptions.
Your Business Continuity Plan was completed about 18 months ago. Everyone was trained on the plan and it was subsequently tested. Since then, nobody has given business continuity planning another thought. Fortunately, there have been no incidents that required you to use it. But what would happen if the building flooded or burned, data was breached, or an active shooter got into the building? Would the plan still work?
Developing a crisis management plan for a meeting or event takes a lot of work and coordination and finishing it is a serious accomplishment. What are you going to do with that plan now that it's finished? Sure, you'll send it around to the C-Suite and other relevant parties, who will no doubt congratulate you (deservedly) on a job well done. Go ahead and pat yourself and your team on the back, but this is no time to rest on your laurels because the job is far from over
The recent situation with Iran brings again to mind the need to be aware of the potential for terrorism, both from overseas and from US actors who have been radicalized. While many of us have kept the possibility of terrorism in our sights, many others have become lax in their risk assessment and planning for the effects of terrorism. We hope these articles will help you refocus on this threat.
