Business Continuity: How HR can help

What is emergency planning?

Emergency planning is about evaluating risks and costs of unplanned events, create a playbook that outlines the actions and steps that the organization can and should take if the risk becomes an actual incident, with the goal of preventing it from becoming a long term crisis, while ensuring CONTINUITY.

The world is full of surprises, as we all living through 2020 (congrats, you are still here) know well. Yet we can try to forecast those surprises, knowing that they range in geographical reach (local to a factory or office, such as a fire, or global to all, such as a pandemic) and in duration (one-off, or long term). By creating a list, ensuring there is a plan to face most situations, we will ensure there is a framework to face the unthinkable and ideally, come out in one piece at the other end. In addition, it will allow us to allocate a budget (risk vs. costs) to mitigate risks.

At high level, there are four steps to any emergency planning approach.

1. Plan. Starting with a brainstorm of different scenarios, we are going to identify and protect assets, products, reputation and - most importantly - the people. Review tasks and skills, to make sure the organization can be adapted (p.ex. some roles/approvals may need to be removed to accelerate response), that the right people know what to do and that if they aren't available, there is a credible fall-back option. All this obviously impacts the way we look at skills, positions, tasks and the organizational structure as a whole.
2. Immediate Response. In the planning phase, we will have identified types of populations and information to be shared; now it is time to put it into action. Communication and multiple channels are critical. We should not be relying on a single email blast; we need to make sure we have the appropriate contacts for each employee (both on and off duty), that multiple communication channels can be used, and that feedback/questions are possible and answered. In addition, we want to share a single location of information, so our employees always know where to find new details; and we must prevent information overload. For all this, we need to make sure an HR system contains the relevant data, and is available when needed; ideally, connected to one or several communication tools, emails, whatsapp, SMS/texting, in order to simplify connection, as well as provide a knowledge repository to collect and organise information.
3. Medium Term. As soon as the immediate urgency of response is past, we need to make sure we can keep the lights on. Ensure continuity of business can take as many faces as there are business models; and it will require coordinated action of Supply Chain, Production and Operations, Sales and Customer Care, and of course: HR. Digital HR administration to ensure agility of the organisation and allow faster scheduling modification, training to ensure adherence to new tools, rules or lines, layoff planning, all will be required in a hurry to coordinate at best with all the enterprise's functions. This period is characteristic of intense shifts and changes; what works one week may have to be changed drastically the next. Cloud tools, mobile accessibility, remote work and experience management are key.
4. Recovery. The goal is to get back to "normal", and it often is a "new normal". In some cases, emergencies will have radically changed the business model; in others, experience will have generated new ideas, simplified processes, highlighted skills and productivity shortcuts. We will want to capture these lessons learnt; ensure the new skills acquired and stored and catalogued so the enterprise can leverage them; be ready to recruit again to snap-up talents from a more open environment; train, train and train to get our current workers to embrace the new situation and upskill as needed. In all this, it will be essential to have a solid, relevant HR technology support that will be not only a data reference, but that will be a true system of engagement of our population, ensuring the continued relevance of the organization.

HR's Duty of Care

Emergency management is not - and should never be - uniquely the responsibility of HR. Customer relations, Operations, Supply Chain, General Services - and more - should be involved in the discussion and provide input and needs. However, HR's Duty of Care is both a legal and moral duty; HR has access to information about the organization, about the employees and about the business that is critical to the task. HR is uniquely positioned to serve in this task, to make a difference with a truly strategic approach.

Folks. Now is the time to plan.