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The list of natural and manmade disasters businesses have had to contend with in recent years is long. Many organizations felt the effects of the September 11 terrorist attacks, acts of bioterrorism involving anthrax, and bombings in London, Madrid and Bali. The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) pandemic, the South Asia tsunami and Hurricane Katrina also have had costly, far-reaching impacts on businesses.
Chances are, like many organizations, you're making crisis preparedness and response a key focus of your business continuity planning. But even if your company's business continuity plan serves to protect its physical assets, such as data, network(s), core business applications and facilities, is it also addressing the human side of disasters?
IBM's new white paper, "In the spotlight: The human side of business continuity planning," outlines issues and risks related to human capital resiliency that could arise in any crisis, and provides a comprehensive framework for addressing them. The paper offers key insights to all business leaders, but should be of particular interest to CIOs, who are often the drivers of business continuity planning and related risk management initiatives. | | |
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Human capital resiliency can be defined as an organization's ability to respond and adapt rapidly to threats posed to its workforce. Organizations that can build resiliency into their human capital are more likely to protect their most valuable resources and maintain continuous operations in the event of a crisis.
The current threat of a worldwide avian flu pandemic is driving new issues surrounding human capital resiliency into the spotlight. Recent projections suggest that avian flu could potentially infect millions of people over an undefined period of time. In one severe pandemic scenario, it's predicted that 30 percent of employees would become ill, missing an average of three weeks of work.1
Although companies are beginning to look for ways to minimize the impact of a potential avian flu pandemic, few have fully addressed the human side of crisis preparedness. In a recent survey, only 34 percent of companies indicated that human resource issues formed a significant part of their organization’s business continuity or disaster plans. Thirty-six percent indicated that these issues were only somewhat part of their plans.2 | | |
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In a crisis, many organizations will be challenged to safeguard and support employees while continuing to deliver the services needed to keep the business operational and revenue flowing. IBM has identified three primary areas in which human capital issues and risks associated with crises can be grouped:
- Ability to attend work
- Ability to deliver critical internal services
- Ability to maintain business operations
This white paper presents a framework designed to help you address these issues and risks. The responsibilities for effectively identifying and addressing the human dimensions of your business continuity plan stretch across the organization, including these areas:
- Policies and communications
- Employee education and support
- Virtual infrastructure
- Job training
- Talent management
- HR systems and reporting
- Organizational culture
To help businesses evaluate their level of preparedness and take steps to mitigate risk, IBM offers the Contingency Planning Assessment. Experienced IBM business continuity and crisis management consultants can work with you to review and assess your readiness related to these key areas. | | |
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CIOs and other business leaders know that it's rarely business as usual after a disaster. The effort your organization makes now to protect your human capital resiliency in the event of a crisis will go a long way in helping it—and your people—recover after the worst is over. This white paper, designed to help you begin to assess how well your organization is currently prepared to handle the human dimensions of a disaster, can help you gain valuable insight into ways to prepare your company for the next natural or manmade disaster.
Download the paper
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| 1 | "A Potential Influenza Pandemic: Possible Macroeconomic Effects and Policy Issues," The Congress of the United States: Congressional Budget Office, December 8, 2005, pages 5 and 11. | | 2 | Online survey, Society for Human Resource Management, July 2005, www.shrm.org/surveys. |
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