Business continuity planning

Jayaprakash Jagateesan

Director, Human Resources, KhattarWong

As it is about building resilience of an organisation, business continuity planning (BCP) is essential to any business entity. It allows organisations to spring back into action or continue business even when faced with the worst case scenario – for example, a home quarantine order placed on the entire organisation.

Emphasis is placed on social responsibility, the concept of “others before self”. Irresponsibility will tarnish the reputation of our firm, partners, staff and clients. Clients have greater confidence in us when we show them our commitment to BCP.

Proper training and preparation should not be underestimated. If circumstances require us all to work from remote locations, every employee has a part to play. We need to plan a chain of command in the event that leaders of the organisation are infected. Every member of the organisation must be prepared to accept the agreed leadership structure. We are as strong as our weakest link; if one employee is ignorant of the procedures, the entire system fails.

Tan Seok Lee

Director, Corporate Services, Health Promotion Board (HPB)

We have established a business continuity management framework which also incorporates a H1N1 business continuity plan (BCP), to ensure that staff can continue to work in a safe and conducive environment.

Being a “people driven” organisation, each employee is an important asset. To ensure our service standards are not significantly disrupted, staff are separated into ‘S’ and ‘V’ Teams (“screening” and “vigilance”, respectively) to perform temperature monitoring as well as subsequent management of suspect cases.

Our nurses and dental therapists, who are involved in serving Home Quarantine Orders, have also been divided into two operational groups to ensure minimal contact with one another.

As the H1N1 situation is a dynamic scenario, we consistently review our BCPs to ensure they remain robust and relevant. This will allow HPB to continue with its national health promotion and disease prevention programmes, and to inform the public about H1N1 precautionary measures.

Sue Olivier

Director, Talent and Development, Ogilvy & Mather

Business continuity planning is more important now than ever before, because the demands of the business world are so fast-moving. With the prevalence of technology in our workforce and our everyday lives, people expect instantaneous results.

To match the quick pace of communication, businesses need to ensure their plans can be put into action at a moment’s notice. They must be immediately prepared. Technology makes continuity planning much easier. Just about everybody has a mobile phone and a laptop, so even if we’re caught flat-footed, we can probably get a plan into place.

In Asia, we also have an advantage in the advent of an epidemic because we learned from the SARS crisis.

Ogilvy has an extensive Business Continuity Plan in place for the H1N1 virus. At the beginning, when nobody knew what to expect, we monitored the situation day-by-day. We have guidelines on who to contact and what to do in the worst case scenario. Although these efforts have been scaled down now that we know the extent of the crisis, we are still prepared.