Business continuity planning is an integral part of managing a company at the best of times. When you throw in the stress and chaotic nature of Christmas and the surrounding weeks, it becomes even more important to how successful a company is. We all know that any business, in any industry, can suffer problems due to unforeseen circumstances. Just look at the Covid-19 pandemic and how quickly the world was forced to essentially ‘shut down’ and you can see how easy it is to let things slip and for standards to go by the wayside and for production to halt. At Christmas time, there are always tight deadlines to meet, with every person within every company looking to do 4 weeks work in 2 and a half to 3 weeks in order to have some much-needed rest and time off.
A business continuity plan is a process that a company has ready to implement should it face a threat to the business. This can be either to prevent or to recover from these potential threats and can cover many different areas. If there is a disaster of any kind, whether a natural disaster that impacts the physical office space, a data breach or internal problems, the idea is to minimise the risk this poses to daily work, allowing staff members to access the correct information and internal processes to keep working, or to start working again as quickly, as safely and as effectively as possible.
This year especially, it has been important for businesses to have robust business continuity planning in place to allow for staff members to work from home effectively in the face of the pandemic and lockdown. In fact, strong business continuity practices have allowed start-up business and small business owners to scale effectively during the pandemic.
A robust business continuity plan must consider all potential (realistic) risks that the company might face and have ready-made plans and processes that can be effectively implemented immediately upon facing one of those risks. This ensures that there is minimal disruption, that staff members can safely and securely access data and information to allow them to perform their roles and that business can return to ‘normal’ as soon as possible. A limited functionality must be the minimum requirement in the face of a crisis and risk in the workplace.
Running a business around Christmas means that you understand what pressure is. It is very much a case of spinning multiple plates at any given time, keeping up with suppliers, maintaining a pleasant working environment for your staff members and making sure your customers are happy and that their needs are being met on a consistent basis. If something unforeseen were to happen, causing disruption to the daily processes that keep your company ticking over, you need to have a back-up plan that sticks. Working with specialist contact centres with business continuity planning packages, will help your company to survive and thrive in through environment of tight Christmas schedules, even if there is disruption to your business for whatever reason. It is about being proactive, having a clear plan of action and minimising disruption.