Companies care for IT more than staff
UK companies are more worried about losing IT capacity than their people or offices in the event of a terrorist attack.
Despite this, businesses are failing to plan for possible disruption to their operations caused by war and terrorism, according to research by the Chartered Management Institute.
More than half of the 742 managers polled admitted they did not know whether their company had a business continuity plan in place. Of the 46% that did, only one-in-five organisations practised organisation-wide recovery, while 40% limited their dry runs to IT. And, while more than four-out-of-five rehearsals revealed shortcomings, one in six companies subsequently failed to address them.
The findings of the fourth annual CMI survey, published in association with the Business Continuity Institute and the UK government’s civil contingencies secretariat, which is based in the Cabinet Office, coincided with Business Continuity Awareness Week, held at the end of March.
‘External levers – demands from customers, insurers, regulators and the government – are forcing business leaders to take business continuity planning seriously,’ said John Sharp, chief executive of the Business Continuity Institute. ‘But we are concerned that the focus on IT systems could mean businesses are neglecting soft issues regarding reputation and people.’
Visit the British Continuity Institute’s site at www.thebci.org.