COVID-19 Shapes Business Continuity Training in Jamaica

Buckley Communications partnered recently with the Jamaica Stock Exchange eCampus to host a series of webinars focusing on Business Continuity Readiness and Building Resilience. The webinars gave participants from corporate Jamaica the opportunity to review and update their business continuity plans (BCPs) from their experiences in the ongoing novel corona virus (COVID -19) pandemic.

Participants found the three-part webinar series timely and instructive as business and industry interests seek to resume full scale operations after nearly three months of curtailment during which time significant numbers of workers were confined to working from home. The consensus among the group was that safeguards must be instituted to minimise the risk to the public in general and the employees of businesses before resuming full operations. The discussions also underscored the importance of firms determining the right time and sequence as well as capacity to resume operations at a level that is sustainable to prevent a start-and-stop recovery.

Using the pandemic as a case study, and guided by the framework presented by ISO standard 22301, participants came away from the webinars with increased knowledge and skills to:

• Control Risks
• Conduct a business impact analysis
• Develop recovery strategies
• Review and revise their BCPs
• Implement testing of BCPs
• Conduct training and awareness

Business Impact Analysis

As the webinar facilitator, I shared with the group the importance of the Business Continuity Manager spending adequate time to collect critical information from unit heads or process owners as part of conducting the business impact analysis. This process produces three metrics or markers that guide the timing and the order of priority in recovering critical functions in an organisation. During the interactive learning session, participants calculated and shared the Recovery Time Objective (RTO), the point beyond which a predetermined level of “full” resumption of a unit or the entire operation must occur. If not, the survival/feasibility of the business will be threatened. Not only does the RTO provide a time frame for the resumption of full operation, it also influences the decision as to the order of recovery of each function/unit.

The consensus among the participants was that the COVID 19 pandemic significantly tested information technology (IT) infrastructures in the wider economy and at the firm level. This highlighted the importance of accurately calculating the Recovery Point Objective (RPO) which indicates the period beyond which loss of or inaccessibility to data becomes inimical to the normal operation of the organisation/unit. This metrics was especially important to representatives of financial and revenue collection institutions where reliance on IT systems, along with the timely backing up of data, is a premium requirement.

Deployment of Resources

Another important metrics that I highlighted during the webinar was the minimum business continuity objective (MBCO). Without this being accurately calculated businesses run the risk of resuming operation below the service/product level that is acceptable to the organisation to meet its business objectives. The MBCO determines the level of deployment of resources including staff complement, IT services and other support services. Participants were appreciative of this marker because they were apprehensive of announcing full recovery only for it to be unsustainable.

Webinar participants agreed that manpower was the factor in the workplace or organisation that has been most affected by the pandemic.  With the level of risks to workers so high, the group insisted that safeguards must be put in place to facilitate full recovery. What now constitute mitigation measures –wearing of masks, hand washing/sanitisation facilities, social distancing and working from home procedures – is likely to become the norm and must be included among recovery strategies in BCPs in the future.

When the webinar series addressed the testing of BCPs, the group pointed out that the advent of COVID-19 represented a real-time test for disruption by a pandemic of this magnitude. There is no need to run simulations or walk through or table-top testing of scenarios. Participants regarded the webinar series, which were held prior to start of the Atlantic hurricane season, as an opportune time to update their business continuity plans and to improve the resilience of their organisations.