Business Continuity Planning
2020 has been a year that highlights the unexpected difficulties that a business might face, from COVID-19 and fires to protests and riots. Business continuity planning is the process of developing plans to handle threats that may arise during business operations and can help keep business going through turbulent times.
Risk Assessment
Every business has risks and will eventually face challenges. Many of the difficulties that arise are specific to the situation and may be impossible to foresee, such as the concept of shutting down for long periods of time, reducing staffing and customer presence in response to a global pandemic, or widespread fires forcing people away from the business. Creating a business continuity plan for a variety of different situations helps develop problem solving skills and creates best practices for handling situations as they arise. The greater the spread of scenarios that have been evaluated and planned for, the lower the risk of rushed decisions and panicked actions that will to costly mistakes.
Some tasks and functions will take priority over others, or need to be dealt with relatively quickly, depending on the situation. Having the business continuity plan ahead of time helps organize the critical tasks and provides a list of potential contingency options to implement rapidly. Without a plan in place, business teams will waste time seeking out backup options in the midst of crisis while their competitors implement strategies that were carefully designed beforehand.
Turbulent times can also significantly affect employee emotions, which can also affect the work and perseverance needed for the business to succeed. In addition to considering the needs of the business itself, managers should anticipate long periods of uncertainty and include plans for boosting the morale of the team. Any necessary changes should be designed with the intention of making the transition as stress-free as possible.
Operations Changes
The success of a business relies heavily on getting goods and services to the customers. During the COVID-19 pandemic, businesses that were heavily dependent on in-person purchases and experiences, like restaurants and theaters, were forced to limit the number of customers that could be served at one time or were shut down entirely. Many of these were forced to switch to delivery services and take out options quickly to stay in business. This impacted the critical functions needed to keep these businesses operating.
Small businesses and family owned restaurants are not likely to have invested resources into their own fleets of delivery vehicles due to the high costs associated with these services, so other companies have specialized in delivery services and offer to deliver the food for a commission of the profits. A business owner would need to compare each of these delivery options based on quality of service, reliability, timeliness, and cost, spending ample time evaluating which option is best for their own business. Without having put effort into business continuity planning, many small businesses were caught off guard and forced to frantically make important decisions about their operations, often resulting in a poor and costly decision for the business. Considering the business continuity of operations would have greatly reduced the panic and uncertainty that followed.
A business may also be forced into offering their goods and services through web applications and using digital or contactless payment options to cope. In the age of technology, ensuring that business data and transactions occur securely is critical. Best practices for technology include using the most up-to-date systems, which often include improved data security measures, or relying on trustworthy companies to handle the backend work. When crisis strikes, digital scammers and hackers tend to become more prevalent, often coaxing desperate business owners into trusting these scam services with critical business and consumer data. This leads to lawsuits and a loss of trust with the consumer, both negatively affecting the success and longterm credibility of a business. It is best to consider the technological needs of a company in advance and perform proper research. If possible, it is also best to adopt critical technologies sooner rather than later to work through issues that arise in daily operations. Adopting them before a crisis also helps build consumer trust and increases chances of the business succeeding.
Communication Interruptions
Communication is a critical part of a properly functioning business. In person is often the best way to assign work, get tasks done, or communicate changes. Sometimes, however, this form of communication becomes impossible for the business, especially at the most critical points of a crisis. When the situation changes rapidly, the entire team needs to be able to smoothly transition together. Without a plan, employees will become confused and frustrated as management changes its mind figuring out the next move on the fly. This negatively affects worker performance and attitude for the company, and could jeopardize their trust in management when the time comes to revert back to “business as usual” or to update operations timelines and projections.
In extreme situations, employees may be forced to work from home to reduce the number of people in one place. This type of work environment necessitates computers, software, and internet access for all staff that will be working from home. For businesses, this may be costly to implement if the business did not already assign work devices for employees. With many options for computing devices and work software, each with differing capabilities and compatibilities, a business manager would want to spend time ensuring that there was ample budget for such a situation to invest in the necessary software, or taking advantage of bundles and bulk purchasing options to save money. Hasty decisions can result in purchasing equipment that does not properly meet the needs of a company, thereby wasting funds.
Another consideration is the time it takes for employees to learn software and hardware they are not familiar with, and using the same equipment for extensive periods of time. There will be a learning curve when operations change, resulting in reduced efficiency of employees and customer service and meeting effectiveness, at first. Being able to look at a plan ahead of time alerts the team of what sorts of changes to prepare for and can keep similar operations for the long run. Continuously changing software in the midst of changing operations will only serve to frustrate employees further.
Summary
Every business will face uncertainty and challenges in operation at some point in time. Business continuity planning can help a business owner better prepare for whatever situations may arise and enhance resilience. Planning for different circumstances, understanding the critical functions of the business, and ensuring the team can transition smoothly will help the business remain competitive and reduce the stress that unexpected changes bring.
