Companies train for a wide range of situations. From fire drills to sales demos, training is an important part of getting things right when real-world situations arise.
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Sales opportunities are welcome. Office fires are obviously not desirable. But even worse than a fire in the office is a potential company-killing event. This could be the sudden loss of key assets, a bet-the-company litigation scenario, or a massive cybersecurity incident.
Business continuity training involves identifying and preparing for such risks. Here, we’ll discuss the concept of business continuity training generally. In subsequent posts, we’ll look specifically at how to identify the types of business continuity risks your company might face, how to plan mitigation for those events, and how to train key staff on that mitigation plan.
What Is Business Continuity Training?
But first, let’s just talk about what business continuity is. As defined by Richard Long writing for MHA Consulting, “Business continuity is the advance planning and preparation undertaken to ensure that an organization will have the capability to operate its critical business functions during emergency events. Events can include natural disasters, a business crisis, pandemic, workplace violence, or any event that results in a disruption of your business operation.”
In other words, we’re not talking about minor or insignificant incidents. We’re talking about incidents that could take the company down entirely. But even threats that aren’t existential should be considered, and plans should be made to mitigate their impact if they are serious enough.
As Long writes, “It is important to remember that you should plan and prepare not only for events that will stop functions completely, but for those that also have the potential to adversely impact services or functions.”
Preparing for Worst-Case Scenarios
Business continuity training might seem like a superfluous exercise borne out of fearmongering. The events that you are preparing for are probably unlikely to occur in real life. But these are events that, however unlikely, will have a major impact on your business. In other words, the likelihood is low, but the risk is very high. You can’t afford not to be prepared.
In future posts, we’ll discuss the topic in more detail. Specifically, we’ll look at how to identify the business continuity risks that are applicable to your company, how to develop a mitigation plan, and how to train your key staff on that plan.