3 Strategies to maintain business continuity during the COVID-19 pandemic

By now it is trite that COVID-19 is having a significant impact on organizations across the globe. One of the ways in which organizations can mitigate these effects is to develop comprehensive disaster recovery and business continuity plans. However, according to the Mercer Business Responses to the COVID-19 Outbreak Survey, only 17.9% of organizations surveyed had a business continuity plan should a disaster, such as the current coronavirus outbreak, occur while a massive 51% either had no business continuity plan or was only now in the process of developing one. To that end, we’ve compiled 3 strategies that will help you avoid downtime and maintain business continuity during COVID-19 and beyond.

1.   Equip your team with tools to combat coronavirus

2.   Equip your business with business continuity tools

3.   Be proactive

Disaster recovery and business continuity planning are key components of an organization’s risk management strategy. It ensures that critical services and infrastructure can continue during a disaster and normal operations to resume after a disaster when returning to the workplace.

1.   Equip your team with tools to combat coronavirus 

Cloud solutions and VPNs make it easier for staff to access the information they require to do their jobs remotely. A comprehensive business continuity plan should, however, also include where employees will work. This means that if your employees have to work from home, your plan must make provision for equipping staff with the hardware, software, and other tools they may need. Additionally, consider the alternative locations where your employees will work and consider how you can ensure those locations are equipped to accommodate your staff and their workload.

2.   Equip your business with business continuity tools    

A business impact analysis will help your organization identify locations and business operations that, when absent, would affect company survival should a disaster occur. Conducting a business impact analysis – considering, for example, COVID-19 – will allow each department within your organization to consider and discuss how the coronavirus, or any other disruptive event, can affect their business functions. Managers should, thereafter, review the business continuity planning elements for each critical business function.

3.   Be proactive  

The importance of a business continuity plan has never been clearer than right now. To reduce the amount of time spent scrambling around during a disruptive event, use the COVID-19 pandemic as an opportunity to examine, update and test your business continuity plan to ensure that the next time disaster strikes, you and your business will be prepared.

Stage2Data’s business continuity-as-a-service solution provides an easy-to-digest Business Continuity Planning and Automation Tool to streamline business continuity planning. It enables your organization to better visualize and prepare for disruptive events, understand the impact any change will have on business operations, and which actions to prioritize with a built-in pandemic response plan.