One of the main tasks of the business continuity professional is to make sure that staff are equipped to face a crisis. Activities such as training, raising awareness and exercising are essential to make sure the plan is carried out effectively in the case of a disruption.
Training and awareness initiatives should be employed to embed business continuity within an organization, to make sure personnel know the function of response plans and understand their importance. Training and awareness campaigns have to go through several stages to be conducted successfully. First of all, the business continuity manager needs to assess what the current situation is and who is the target, then the campaign is designed and finally it is reviewed to monitor its outcome.
Differently, exercises work towards validating the plans. They have a key role in showing whether an organization is ready to face an actual crisis, while providing information on what may not work. There are various types of exercises that can be set up, ranging from table top to simulations or unit-specific ones. Similarly to training and awareness, after the exercise is over there needs to be a monitoring phase where the outcome is reviewed.
The excerpt from “From theory to practice: The value of exercising, training and awareness in building resilience” is published with permission from The Business Continuity Institute. Read the full post via the BCI.org.
