BCI publishes 2022 edition of Continuity and Resilience Report

It emerges that business continuity is still being viewed as occupying more of a strategic position in organisations than before the pandemic, despite the number of individuals rating it as such slightly dipping from last year.

The pandemic showcased to management how well positioned business continuity teams were to understand how to increase the resilience of organisations by building relationships between departments, offering guidance about how new business strategies will work from a resilience perspective and how effective the department is at helping the organisation to overcome shocks.

However, as some organisations begin to bring in teams dedicated to organisational or operational resilience, there are some instances where the role of a business continuity manager has become more of an operational one again.

Despite this, respondents noted that an increased awareness of resilience processes and procedures is becoming the norm. In some cases, this has provided a larger mandate for resilience and business continuity to become more of a strategic asset.  

Resilience at Board level

In another reversal to pre-pandemic figures, 37.3% of respondents stated that a Board-level role responsible for promoting and co-ordinating resilience efforts had been created and occupied in their organisation, compared with 55.3% in 2021 and 31.4% in 2020.

However, this can be attributed – at least in part – to the development of regulations and dedicating other roles on the Board towards ensuring that the organisation embeds a resilient culture.

For example, operational resilience is now either regulated or becoming regulated in many jurisdictions. These regulations ensure that related matters are typically reported to the chief operations officer. Silos are also being broken down elsewhere, with the report highlighting that direct lines to the Board are being shortened, sometimes through a ‘head of resilience’, to a defined Board member (ie the CEO, COO or CRO).

New ways of working

Following the development of new ways of working, partly stimulated by the pandemic, around 96.7% of organisations are reporting that ‘at least some staff’ now expect the flexibility to work from home for some of the time. That said, while remote working is likely to remain in some form, resilience in remote offices is lacking. While 37.3% of organisations introduced resiliency measures during the pandemic for remote workers, a third do not have these plans in place and a further 12.7% had no plans to introduce them.

For those organisations who introduced measures during the pandemic to increase resiliency and agile working, these included installing uninterruptible power sources in home offices, but also having smaller hubs around the country where workers can operate in an office environment if needed.

Soft skills

In some instances, soft skills are more likely to be considered ahead of academic qualifications in the interview process for a business continuity and resilience role. Further, the business impact analysis is still seen as one of the most critical instruments in the arsenal of a business continuity practitioner.

When looking at changes in the sector over the next five years, respondents feel the most likely change will be increased senior management attention on business continuity and resilience, with 88.3% believing this would be of ‘much more’ or ‘more’ importance.

“When we published the first Future of Business Continuity and Resilience Report at the height of the pandemic in 2020, practitioners were enjoying a new level of appreciation in organisations,” explained Rachael Elliott, head of thought leadership at the BCI. “They were seeing additional investment in tools and staff, were becoming more involved in the strategic side of business and also becoming trusted partners to the Board on questions relating to the overall resilience of the organisation.”

Elliott continued: “The 2022 report shows that this attention has continued to remain in many organisations which, coupled with the increased regulatory attention on operational resilience, means that resilience is now an unavoidable topic for Boardroom agendas. As a result of these changes, practitioners are now finding they have to be communicators and collaborators, as well as being more agile and adaptive in their approach in addition to remaining experts in the more ‘traditional’ aspects of business continuity. Indeed, most practitioners believe that the role of the business impact analysis is now more important than ever. It’s the spine of a resilient organisation.”

Interesting insights

Brian Zawada FBCI, vice-president of strategy and innovation at Riskonnect, concluded: “Riskonnect is very pleased to sponsor this year’s Continuity and Resilience Report. The 2022 document introduces interesting insights and conclusions regarding the state of the business continuity discipline, as well as offering clues as to where resilience is heading as a discipline as we exit the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The conclusions may well influence how practitioners position their programmes in 2023 and beyond.”