Having business resilience

The Civil Contingencies Act places a duty on Category 1 responders to plan to continue to perform their functions in the event of an emergency. This guidance recommends that this is achieved by applying the principles of Integrated Emergency Management to develop Business Resilience.

Organisations should develop Business Resilience in a broad and inclusive way. This is because the various parts of an organisation will generally be interdependent and because the effects of some emergencies, and the responses they require, will be difficult to predict. This will also provide opportunities to involve staff in other parts of the organisation who may be involved with related work or have particular expertise to contribute.

So that relatively small disruptions do not develop into larger problems (or secondary effects do not impede the main response), and so that organisations are able to practice their responses, maintain their skills and learn from experience, it is recommended that arrangements encompass smaller disruptions as well as large emergencies.

The resilience of an organisation requires much more than having a plan for responding to a disruption or emergency. A thorough understanding of the organisation and the risks to which it is exposed, an agreed and resourced strategy and a commitment to embed resilience in the organisation’s culture through training and learning from exercises and disruptive incidents are also needed.

Developing and maintaining Business Resilience within an organisation is likely to provide opportunities to promote resilience externally. The resilience of an organisation will depend, in part, on the resilience of its supply chain, including sub-contractors and those providing maintenance contracts. These connections will provide occasions to review the resilience of both parties. This principle could be extended to include the staff working in an organisation, where, for example, employers might discuss how they would get to and from work if transport was disrupted. In this way developing resilience may also have consequences for promoting personal, community and Business Resilience.