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92 % of business leaders planning to invest in better video / voice systems and 91 % are investing in better collaboration tools .
Organisations must lead from the top for effective workplace recovery planning
The pandemic has caused leaders to take action to improve their organisation ’ s response to the crisis , and these investments will be vital to improving workplace recovery during future disruptions . So far , the signs are positive and businesses intend to use the pandemic lessons to improve their resilience .
The risks of going fully remote
The increased working from home model , encouraged by government policy , has certainly proved challenging for most . Many organisations have worked hard to improve working from home capabilities and some have looked beyond corporate IT devices to aspects of health and safety . However , the rapid procurement of unplanned IT hardware runs the risk of purchasing equipment that will still require ongoing maintenance , upgrades and patching , whether they are inside or outside the enterprise IT network .
The overall reason for workplace recovery planning is simply to keep the business running as close to normal as possible and to minimise disruption to the customer . Organisations that are unable to resume normal operations in a timely manner or unable to sustain prolonged recoveries in every aspect of the organisation risk the direct loss of revenue , permanent loss of customers , loss of organisational reputation and more .
For the most effective workplace recovery planning , organisations should begin with senior executive sponsorship – Business Continuity is an enterprisewide collaboration in the support of organisational needs . Executive involvement ensures that the programme receives adequate funding to accomplish the necessary goals . As organisational leaders explore workplace recovery planning , they should prioritise answering the following four questions :
With the possibility of future restrictions on office working , organisations need to weigh the cost of a range of options to keep the business going . There will be a trade-off in split-site working , which would see staff working across multiple office locations and those who will be required to work from home . There are benefits and costs in this model , and serviced office workspace , whether for normal operations or recovery , will certainly play a part for those teams for whom WFH is not an option . The cost of on-demand third-party recovery facility subscriptions where the vendor is responsible for keeping the infrastructure up to date will have to be carefully considered .
• Can the organisation recover critical business functions in a way to meet customer requirements and conduct business as normal , or as close to normal as possible in a timely manner ?
• What is the impact of business disruptions on revenue , employees and customers ?
• Will current BC , DR and workplace recovery plans not only meet business requirements but also provide competitive advantage ?
• Are the plans both flexible enough to adapt to various scenarios and cost-effective enough to be practical ?
Future planning
Workplace recovery would benefit from a renewed focus in the field of resilience planning . It ’ s always good to have a plan . The COVID-19 pandemic has reinforced the fact that all organisations can be affected by disruptions , often at short notice , sometimes from completely unexpected directions . Having a sound workplace recovery plan in place will help an organisation to reduce costs and adapt to disruptions , however and whenever they threaten business operations .
Businesses that build agility into their recovery planning stand a much better chance of not just surviving a disruption , but also gaining competitive advantage over peers that struggle to recover . Organisations need to incorporate BC , DR and workplace recovery planning in a more holistic and integrated approach to resilience , supported at the highest levels of the organisation . p
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