OK – I’m not trying to panic anyone here, or be a doom monger, but now that the UK’s Chief Medical Officer has said that by Autumn, this WHO declared, level six pandemic, could amount to 10,000 new cases a week, then its probably time to think about what your contingency plan is as a business when swine flu strikes. It’s not a case of IF your office will be hit – but WHEN!
After all, lets face it, we Brits are not the most resilient bunch when illness strikes. I can think of plenty of times in my working career where I’ve been able to see the tumbleweed blow through offices, as a mass bunch of sickies get thrown, with staff self diagnosing the sniffles as flu. So, it’s key you have a plan to cope. Many businesses will have a good BCP in place. However, if you are reading this thinking ‘What’s BCP?’ then read on. And then when you’ve finished, go and see your boss and ask him how your company’s BCP will handle a drought of fit and able bodies in the office. If he/she looks at you blankly, then here’s an opportunity for you to score a few brownie points.
In layman’s terms BCP, or Business Continuity Planning, is all about what processes you have in place to address the fact that what can go wrong, will go wrong. Because worst case scenarios rarely happen, few businesses take the time to consider what they’ll do when disaster strikes. A solid BCP plan should cover many areas – and how to cope when your business is suffering from staff shortages due to sickness is definitely one.
I remember in a past life putting the basics of BCP in place when we realised that the Queen Mother would not go on for ever. Operation Fishbone it was called, Her Majesty having had what was past form for choking on bones and us being aware that the next one could be one heimlich manourvre too far. As it was, she soldiered on for another six months, but a few days after we’d devised the plan, two planes flew into the World Trade Center. We were well prepared to cover the event editorially. Judging by the speed at which our competitors sites went down, we were probably one of the few that were.
The point of this little anecdote is this: Even if you think the panic over swine flu has been blown out of all proportion, that’s not a reason not to think about BCP. After all, a process that works for the flu will also cover you when snow falls in London again and no one can get to the office. This winter just gone, the current clients for whom we provide a BCP service via migglepublishing were able to pick up the phone and know that we’d be able to kick in with coverage when the bad weather ground everything to a halt.
We’re able to provide that coverage because our clients see the value of investing some time and money into ensuring continuity of service and they can thus rest assured that there are people across various locations who have access to publishing tools, training in how to use them and a good understanding of what sort of content works for your business – these FAQs will give you some idea of how that process works. If you want to find out more about how we can help you with being a cog in your BCP machine just get in touch. And if you don’t, be prepared anyway. Nothing stays the same for ever – its the nature of impermanence. Disaster is imminent. Make sure you can cover it, not be swept up by it.
Based in Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, contact miggle.co.uk for website development, content management and online media services in the UK and worldwide.
