On the surface, it may very well look like life—including business—has shut down during a global pandemic. But if you just look closer, in reality, most businesses are still running at their own pace thanks to solid business continuity planning.
After all, there are very few times in human history when life as we knew it has come to a grinding halt. And even then, society as a whole has managed to overcome some of the greatest challenges.
Your organization can do the same.
Following the advice of local or national health authorities, we've seen companies all over the world adopting severe measures:
At Proxyclick, we embraced social distancing and moved to a working-from-home model very early on. As a cloud-based SaaS company, we're fortunate enough to be well-equipped to work remotely via secured servers and infrastructure.
Our business continuity plan (BCP) allows us to continue providing uninterrupted service and support as usual, in these highly unusual times. But we understand that some organizations may not yet have a continuity of business plan in place yet, or perhaps some could need an update.
A study published in early March, by Mercer, evaluated how many companies had well-established protocols in case of global emergency situations such as the coronavirus.
The results of this survey are quite eye-opening.
51% of businesses have no plan at all that could shelter their activity and their employees from the effects of a crisis.— Mercer, March 4, 2020
In times of uncertainty, having a strong BCP can play a huge role in helping you cut through the noise and navigate your organization through the storm.
So we’ve put together a brief guide to help you answer the major questions in your business continuity planning.
A business continuity plan (BCP) consists of procedures and guidelines a company must follow in order to continue delivering its services when faced with a major disruption such as a natural disaster, a cyberattack, or an outbreak of disease.
The main goal of a business continuity plan is to protect an organization's people, assets, and data during and after a crisis.
First and foremost, you'll need to organize a continuity team that will be responsible for the development and implementation of the plan.
Once created and reviewed, a BCP will have to be supported from the top down—from senior management to the newest intern—in order to work as intended.
Generally, a business continuity plan will include 10 crucial aspects:
Here's some more context for each of the 10 parts:
As a company, we've always believed in our product and its place in the business community.
But in recent weeks, we've seen our visitor management system play a more prominent role in business continuity planning all over the world.
And we've recently launched a COVID-19 resource center to help you put concrete steps in place for your visitor and contractor management.
Specifically, Proxyclick has been answering the call of "how your visitor management system can help you during health and safety crises."
Managing a crisis situation from the beginning to end can become a straightforward process thanks to multiple functionalities in front desk safety:
We've seen time and time again how the right visitor management system can result in a truly touchless visitor experience to reinforce workplace health and safety.
Like most things in life, you'll need to plan for the bad times as well as the good times.
The manner in which your organization manages a crisis can reflect your inner workings in several ways:
At the same time, having a BCP in place can do wonders for the confidence of your employees and staff:
As society advances and the socio-economic environment becomes more and more complex, you'll need to be prepared to face all the possible scenarios that a crisis can generate.
Considering that technology is continuously evolving, it's no wonder that workforce fluctuations happen now and then. So your plan must also be updated accordingly.
We recommend you do this, at a minimum, annually. But ideally, you should organize meetings with your key personnel at least two times a year to review the plan and, most importantly, test it.
You can validate the efficiency of your business continuity plan in several ways, but we recommend these two:
What we should all remember, is that any number of crises can happen at any moment.
As a business, it’s essential to be proactive and be able to ensure the well-being and safety of your employees and visitors in both the short-term and the long-term. Pushing off your business continuity planning will only delay the inevitable—and may have disastrous consequences for everyone involved.
We believe it’s every organization’s responsibility to implement an effective BCP that addresses in an equal manner both its operations and the workforce.
With this in mind, our team is standing by to answer any questions you maybe have about implementing Proxyclick in your business continuity strategy.
Contact us to discuss a personalized solution for your organization, and please stay safe!