Suggestions to Build Business Continuity Awareness Embed BCM into the Corporate Culture By Jayne Howe, FBCI, MRP, CBRM President, BCI Canada Chapter

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1 Suggestions to Build Business Continuity Awareness Embed BCM into the Corporate Culture By Jayne Howe, FBCI, MRP, CBRM President, BCI Canada Chapter When an organization is designing and implementing business continuity strategies and plans, not all employees will be actively involved. In some cases, many employees are not included in the Phase One critical group of resources, and their job is simply to go home and await further instructions. However, it is still imperative that all employees are aware of the corporately approved, overall continuity strategy, as well as the various capabilities currently under development. Since much of business continuity processes are not embedded in day-to-day tasks, often we find that employees will forget roles and processes not long after they complete a semi-annual exercise. So it s important to find creative ways to continuously promote business continuity awareness in the organization utilizing methods that are not intrusive, are cost efficient, and are easily executable at the appropriate time. Anyone involved in voluntary emergency responses (e.g. your Floor Wardens and internal Fire Marshalls for example) can contribute Offering Red Cross or St. John s Ambulance training, or even just CPR training to employees, can often generate involvement from staff and provide you with depth of trained talent for internal Floor Wardens and Fire Marshalls. This certified training would then be added onto their employee skills file in Human Resources. Offer a Lunch Session with local emergency responders (e.g. Fire Department) to come as guest speakers to talk to a group Local emergency responder groups like the Fire Department are always happy to come and speak to work groups. They have lots of helpful advice for your staff that can assist if/when an emergency evacuation, or shelter-in-place, occurs. They would also certainly appreciate receiving floor plans (electronic format may be best) of your facilities and the floors you occupy. This makes their response at time of event much more efficient if they already know the layout. If you have a cafeteria or lunch room, this could be a good venue to have emergency responders come and speak. In general, Brown Bag Lunch- n-learn sessions are an effective and economical way to offer education and training to general staff. These sessions are conducted over lunch hours in the cafeteria, lunch room, boardroom, or training room. They are informal, about 40 minutes in length; attendees bring their lunch and listen to a presentation on one aspect of Business Continuity, on a summary of a successful BC exercise that has just been completed, or perhaps on the successful implementation of one aspect of the BC Program within the organization. Good Idea Awards Install a physical and electronic suggestion box to allow employees to make BC related suggestions and give a prize once per quarter. Often, employees themselves will come up with a good suggestion on how to disseminate business continuity information throughout the organization. As participants in your resumption exercises, they may also be able to suggest something that would

2 assist in making your plans more robust, more effective, or more efficient. The prize does not have to break your budget. Prizes in the past have included: a mouse pad with your organization s BC logo on it; a home emergency kit; a windup flashlight that can also charge a cell phone; a combination pen/flashlight; a solar blanket for your car; T-shirts and ball caps with Business Continuity Award Winner across the front; a donation to a charity of the winner s choice. Internal Intranet with topical stories and lessons learned Your company Intranet or newsletter is a wonderful vehicle for disseminating information to all employees. Organizations that are newly undertaking a business continuity program can create a buzz among employees by posting hints, teasers and suggestions of what s to come. One organization spent three months posting a simple message in their bi-weekly newsletter that said nothing more than: BE PREPARED BC IS COMING!!! BC IS COMING!!! This immediately caused the desired effect that everyone wanted to know Who is BC? asking their colleagues, workmates and supervisors. Everyone wanted to know what BC meant, would it affect their job? How would things change? tell me more staff wanted to know all about it. Posting upcoming exercise dates will often get employees interested and wanting to know when they can participate as well. There is also a plethora of articles, white papers, lessons learned, etc. available on various business continuity web sites that are public domain and can be reproduced in your internal newsletters. These articles particularly hit home when the submitting organization is one that is familiar to your company or its staff. Workshops on Training Days Some organizations have allotted training days for employees where they have an opportunity to learn new applications and procedures in their organization. This is a good opportunity to hold a BC workshop, or conduct an exercise. Link in with Business Continuity Awareness Week For the past several years, many business continuity service organizations around the world come together to consolidate their efforts in an offering called, Business Continuity Awareness Week (BCAW). Offerings during BCAW week include free webinars, workshops, events, white papers, chat

3 groups, etc. to promote business continuity awareness. This year, once again, Business Continuity Awareness Week (BCAW) will run world-wide from March 21 st March 25 th. This is a wonderful opportunity for organizations to participate in events that are happening in their district, community or work industry. For initial information on planned activities for BCAW, please visit (Canada), (BCAW Groupsite for interactive forum participations) and (BCI Global). T-shirts, badges etc. for the BC Team It s important to keep your design and implementation team motivated and to show that their efforts are appreciated. Distributing T-shirts, hats, badges, etc. (that the team wears on casual days, exercise days, presentation days, etc.), helps to promote a sense of pride and accomplishment in the work they do. This visual reference also identifies BC team members to other employees as an appropriate person to ask any questions about the BC program being implemented at the company. Visits to Business Recovery sites Whether your continuity arrangements include a commercial third-party recovery centre, or utilize alternate space within your own corporation, it is critical for the resources that are required to go to the alternate sites and be given an opportunity to have a tour of the space at some point. It needs to be explained exactly where they will be, what services will be provided for them, what the appropriate access procedures are, etc. Commercial recovery centres are pleased to offer tours to their clients. It does not always have to include a scheduled recovery exercise. Arrangements can be made to bring your Phase One resources to the site, have a tour and gather for a presentation by site staff with an opportunity for questions and discussion. All these presentations are completely confidential, so staff can feel comfortable in sharing any concerns they may have. Keep in mind, that a tour for Primary back-up and Phase Two resources would also be extremely beneficial. Being familiar with the alternate site goes a long way to reduce one of the many stress factors employees face when an event occurs. Promote Free Webinar attendance There is always a selection of free webinars available through the internet on a wide variety of business continuity and recovery related topics. By posting these schedules in your SharePoint or internal newsletter, employees can register for any of the webinars that might be of interest to them. Staff should be encouraged to include attendance to these webinars as part of their training/education hours in their personnel file. Evacuation Drills Regular evacuation drills help the process to become second nature to employees. To assist in training the floor wardens and fire marshals for each floor, it is helpful to inject a variable in the scenario, so staff can build competence and most importantly, confidence in their ability to handle any situation. Some variables could include: Assigning a staff member to remain in a washroom and wait for the Floor Warden Assigning a few staff members with excuses to try to get back in the building

4 Assigning some staff members to wander away from their mustering station and miss the head count Assign a staff member to try to go up the stairwell, instead of down Assign an executive to refuse to evacuate. Sponsor Home Emergency Kits Part of a complete business continuity solution includes ensuring that employees feel confident their homes and families are provided for, following an event. This will increase the likelihood that they will feel available to assist in your recovery efforts. Sponsoring home emergency kits will increase the likelihood that employees will make personal recovery arrangements and shows corporate support for employee welfare. Formal Media Training It is critical that the Executives, the corporate spokespeople, and all their back-up resources receive formal media training. Just because an employee is an Executive in an organization, does not automatically mean that they will behave appropriately under pressure when the media make impromptu demands. Formal media training will ensure: The Corporate spokesperson becomes competent always to relay the appropriate and approved corporate message Methods are shared to help executives overcome stage fright or being camera shy so they can speak with confidence and calm Executives will become desensitized to cameras, bright lights, microphones in very close proximity Executives will become less uncomfortable with having makeup applied for television appearances. Conference Presentation Opportunities There are many business continuity conferences that take place throughout the year. Participating in these conferences builds your corporate reputation and exposure in a positive way by demonstrating that you have a viable business continuity program in place. This also helps to show that your organization is a responsible corporate citizen by sharing experiences with the rest of the business world. No Resource' day Declaring a No Resource day (or half day) can help employees to find logical alternatives when incidents occur that are not severe enough to declare a disaster, but can still disrupt operations. Examples can include: No network access from desktops for half a day No internet/intranet access for half a day application unavailable for half a day Voice communications down for half a day Declare a mock public transit strike for a morning

5 Declare a building access denial (power still on) and test work from home solutions for a day Induction Training/ New Hires Key to building awareness and installing BC into the corporate culture is to include business continuity training with all new hires. There should be a general overview of BCM within the organization, giving as a presentation or video. As well, any specific details regarding business continuity roles and responsibilities assigned directly to the new incumbent should be discussed as part of their orientation. These employees should also be included in the next scheduled BC exercise for their department or function. Awareness Leaflets Once per quarter, or twice per year, it is recommended to redistribute copies of key business continuity information to all employees as a reminder of key contact information they should keep handy. This can be in the form of an to all employees, a half slip of paper that is included with payroll stub envelopes, attaching a key information sheet to the documents given to employees during performance reviews. Posting key information for employees onto company bulletin boards in common areas can also be useful. Examples of Key Information for all employees could include: A list of the appropriate mustering station for each group/department Employee Help Line number, EAP number, enquiry number A reminder to inform Human Resources if any of your contact information has changed since the last update.