Firms 'not ready for disasters'
UK businesses have not done enough to prepare for extreme events such as storms, flu pandemics and terrorist attacks, a report has claimed.
According to the Chartered Management Institute, UK firms blow "hot and cold" when it comes to preparing continuity plans, putting their business at risk.
Less than half of the 1,257 companies questioned had a business continuity plan in place, the institute said.
The main fears were losing staff and IT and communications coverage, it said.
"Companies need to work out what the key issues are that will stop them working," said Jo Causon, a director of marketing and corporate affairs at the institute.
Ms Causon added that continuity plans should be seen in the same light as insurance - hopefully they would never be needed, but they had to be in place all the same.
She said they also helped reassure workers, clients and suppliers that their future was in safe hands.
"Technology is nothing without the people who can use it," she said.
"Unless organisations balance the need to safeguard buildings with the need to secure their workforce, any attempt at business continuity management will remain unfinished and inadequate."
More work
In its annual Business Continuity Management Survey, the institute found that 73% of those asked reckoned that business continuity was an important concern for senior management.
However, only 48% of all organisations had a business continuity plan in place, while for small- and medium- sized companies, the figure was lower, at 34% and 42% respectively.
One anomaly was that while almost half of the managers questioned said they were worried about damage being done to a company's reputation, only 35% of the continuity plans focused on this important area, the institute said.
"There is still much work to be done," said Bruce Mann, director of civil contingencies at the Cabinet Office.
"Events from the Carlisle floods to the London bombings and Buncefield explosion have clearly shown the vast range of impacts emergencies can have," he explained.
"Yet despite these, there are still too many organisations with insufficient business continuity plans in place."
The report also found that bad weather conditions were having a greater impact on businesses.
The worst-affected areas were Wales, Scotland and the South-East of England.
Almost a third of managers were affected by a loss of personnel, with 20% complaining about a loss of skills and 17% citing health and safety issues, the institute found.
Bad timing
Those companies that do have plans in place react very differently when it comes to keeping them up-to-date and relevant, the report found.
Half of those firms with plans in place practise them at least once a year. However, a third of companies never use the plans, while 15% fail to fix problems that appear within the plans.
Different threats are also viewed differently by firms, the institute said.
More than half the managers polled said their companies had a plan in place to deal with an outbreak of avian flu.
Even so, the institute said companies' plans did not go far enough when calculating the size and extent of disruption to their workforce and society in general, a failing that it said needed to be remedied.
"Failure to do so will lead to major business disruption, as inadequate plans are exposed at the time they are needed the most," said John Sharp of the Continuity Forum.
Reproduced from an article published by BBC News
© BBC News
The original article can be viewed here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6467477.stm
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