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A Business Continuity Plan (BCP) is a plan made by a company to ensure the continuity of business operations when an emergency situation or natural disaster occurs.
BCP is important to help companies stay operational and minimize the impact of unexpected emergency situations. The COVID-19 pandemic is one example of an emergency situation that can significantly impact a business, and makes BCP even more important.
In the COVID-19 pandemic situation, BCP can help organizations minimize the impact caused by this incident. Such as the inability to work in the office, decreased productivity, and decreased income.
With BCP, organizations can plan appropriate actions to ensure business continuity, such as working from home, use of technology for communication, and data backup strategies.
What is Business Continuity Plan?
Reporting from Investopedia, the Business Continuity Plan is a system for preventing and recovering from potential threats to the company. BCP is a plan made by an organization to ensure that the business can operate continuously or return to operation as soon as possible after an event occurs that could disrupt business operations.
BCP covers various aspects, including information technology recovery, business process recovery, employee training, communication, and actions that need to be taken in the event of a crisis or emergency.
BCP aims to minimize business losses and ensure that the company can continue to function and meet the needs of customers and other stakeholders, such as shareholders and employees.
In unexpected situations, such as natural disasters, pandemics, technology failures or cyber attacks, BCP helps organizations to respond quickly and effectively, and minimize negative impacts on business operations and business continuity.
The crises in question are natural disasters, humanitarian disasters such as war, monetary crises, political crises, cyber security crises, and health crises such as global pandemics. There are various tools used in carrying out sustainable business planning (BCP).
For example, you can use Ishikawa's fishbone, VUCA, or OODA loop. Basically, BCP activities are identifying problems and making quick policies to deal with these problems.
Goals and Scope of the Business Continuity Plan (BCP)
The purpose and function of the Business Continuity Plan (BCP) is to minimize the effect of disruptive events on company operations and reduce the risk of financial loss and increase the organization's ability to recover as quickly as possible from a disruptive event.
The function of BCP is also to help minimize the costs associated with such disruptive events and reduce the risks associated with them.
Before preparing a BCP, you need to pay attention to the scope that may be affected by the crisis. The scope is:
1. Human Resources
In this case it is an employee. For example, in the case of COVID-19, how to protect employee safety and health and how to manage and distribute employee work.
Companies also need to think about the welfare of employee human resources such as salaries and health incentives.
2. Process
In this case it is a business process. When experiencing a crisis, it is certain that the business processes of the affected companies will change.
For example, in the case of COVID-19, physical distancing recommendations must be implemented so that consumer behavior also changes.
3. Location
Location includes business process locations such as workplaces during a crisis, whether you need to work from home, supply locations, data storage locations and also target market locations.
4. Technology
Technology includes processes and tools used to support business performance and security, such as online financial applications, for example.
For example, customer relationship management technology, HR management, supply chain management, and accounting software.
The scope above aims to ensure that management knows what parts must be controlled, analyzed and restored quickly so that the business can continue to run. It is possible for entrepreneurs to analyze all four because these scopes are interrelated.
Business Continuity Plan Function
A Business Continuity Plan is very important for companies, especially in facing crisis situations or unexpected emergencies, such as natural disasters, pandemics, technology failures or cyber attacks.
The following are several important functions of BCP, including:
- Guaranteeing business continuity: BCP helps organizations to ensure that the business continues to run despite emergencies or crisis situations, thereby minimizing negative impacts on business operations and finances.
- Mitigate losses: In a crisis situation, a company can suffer significant financial losses if it does not have a plan to minimize the impact of the situation. BCP helps companies to identify risks, determine priorities, and develop strategies to reduce the impact of losses.
- Guarantees employee safety: BCP ensures that employees and customers remain safe and protected during crisis situations, and also helps companies to minimize risks and protect assets.
- Maintaining reputation and trust: In crisis situations, the trust of customers and other stakeholders can be affected. By having an effective BCP, companies can demonstrate that they have the capability and readiness to face crisis situations, thereby strengthening reputation and trust.
- Maintaining K3 compliance: BCP also helps companies to maintain compliance with security, health and safety regulations and standards. In a crisis situation, companies that do not have adequate BCPs may be subject to sanctions or fines for not meeting these requirements.
How to Make a Business Continuity Plan
The following steps can be taken to create an effective Business Continuity Plan (BCP):
Step 1: Identify Risks
Identify potential risks or dangers that could impact business operations, including natural disasters, technology failures, cyber attacks, and other crisis situations.
Step 2: Determine Priorities
Determine risk priorities based on the impact on business operations and the ability to address those risks.
Step 3: Develop a Strategy
Create a strategy to address identified risks and determine the steps to be taken in an emergency situation. For example, determining evacuation places, data backup, and communication networks.
Step 4: Determine the Crisis Team
Determine who will be part of the crisis team and assign roles and responsibilities to each team member.
Step 5: Create a Recovery Plan
Create a business recovery plan that includes information technology recovery, business process recovery, and business operational recovery.
Step 6: Test And Evaluate The Plan
Test plans periodically to ensure that they are effective and can be implemented in emergency situations. Evaluate after testing and correct or update the plan if necessary.
Apart from that, it is also important to involve all employees and make them understand the plan. Conduct training and crisis simulations to increase employee awareness and readiness in dealing with emergency situations.
For example, holding disaster simulations such as fires and earthquakes.
Example of a Business Continuity Plan during the Covid-19 Pandemic
The Covid-19 pandemic is an example of an emergency situation that businesses can respond to through BCP. The following are BCP implementations that can be used during the Covid-19 pandemic:
- Communication and Information: Inform all employees about COVID-19 prevention measures, including maintaining social distancing, washing hands regularly, and avoiding crowds. Also determine effective internal communication channels, such as email, chat, or video conferencing applications, to ensure that employees can stay connected and stay in touch.
- Work from Home: Determine which jobs can be done from home and determine the necessary technical requirements, such as a stable internet connection, necessary software, and necessary hardware. Set a clear work schedule and ensure that all employees understand their responsibilities and deadlines.
- Data Recovery: Establish a data recovery strategy and ensure that data can be accessed and recovered quickly following an emergency situation.
- Facilities Management: Ensure that all facilities, such as office space and meeting rooms, are reconfigured in accordance with social distancing guidelines and COVID-19 precautions.
- Training and Evaluation: Conduct regular crisis training and simulations to increase employee awareness and readiness in dealing with emergency situations.
Conclusion
Based on the article above, it can be understood that it is important for every company to consider preparing a Business Continuity Plan to be better prepared to face any crises that may come. By having a well-structured BCP, the company's operational activities can continue to run.
That is an example of a Business Continuity Plan that can be used during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, keep in mind that each company may have different needs and BCP must be tailored to the company's specific needs.
This is an explanation of the Business Continuity Plan and its implementation in the company. Hope it helps, OK!