Continuity plans ignore most important asset

UK organisations are failing to protect their staff by not preparing for major disruptions, the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) has warned.

The 2005 Business Continuity Management Survey uncovered alarming inactivity, with organisations ignoring threats to their business, neglecting the needs of their managers, and not communicating plans with employees, the CMI said.

As well as ignoring threats to areas such as IT, many business continuity plans ignore an organisation’s key asset – employees.
The research shows that despite an increase in incidents relating to loss of people (up to 41% from 25%) and skills (up to 28% from 20% ) in the past 12 months, only a handful of business continuity plans cover staff issues.

Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance

Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday

Email(Required)

OptOut

From time to time, we will send you emails about selected products, events and services from Personnel Today and OHW+ - but you can choose to opt-out at any time. If you do not wish to receive these emails, please tick this box.

Comments

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Δ

Mary Chapman, chief executive of the CMI, said: “It’s a concern that many organisations still fall short when it comes to implemen-ting thorough business continuity management strategies.

“But, the rising awareness of corporate governance responsibilities should ensure managers focus on the impact and cost that the loss of staff and services can have.”