The ISO Show: Episode 37 – Coronavirus (COVID-19) Business Continuity Planning

When I first launched the ISO Show in 2019 to dispel myths and share tips on ISO Standards, my plan was to make the podcasts evergreen – so they could be timeless in theory and listened to at any point in time.  However, I’m recording this in March 2020, just over a year since we launched the ISO Show and sadly a pandemic – the coronavirus has broken out globally, with over 110,000 reported cases across 95 countries.  So I thought it would be helpful to share with you some guidance to try and minimise business disruption caused by the Coronavirus through Business Continuity Planning (known as BCP).

How does this relate to ISO Standards? Well there is an ISO Standard for Business Continuity Standard ISO 22301 (formerly a British Standard BS 25999).   However, our ISO Show this week is not about ISO 22301, but How to create a Pandemic (Coronavirus) BCP. In fact, we provide you with a Pandemic Coronavirus Business Continuity Plan template for FREE.

As a founder and owner of Blackmores, a consultancy which implement ISO 22301 I felt we had a duty to share guidance on COVID-19 business resilience .  So, I’d like to thank Rachel Churchman, one of our Business Continuity Consultants for sharing with us a Pandemic Business Continuity Plan.

Many businesses have BCP’s, and these are typically scenario based – identifying scenarios that jeopardise the ability for you to run your business in the usual way.  In BCP terms this is called (BAU). i.e. loss of power, loss of staff members, inability to access your building – so something that would have an impact of the continuity of the services or product that you deliver.

The next step is to carry out a BIA (Business Impact Analysis) to determine the impact in an event from a financial, operational or reputational perspective.  This then enables you to create a BCP for a particular scenario – which is what I’m sharing on the ISO Show.  To request the FREE PANDEMIC (COVID-19) BUSINESS CONTINUITY PLAN, simply contact us at www.blackmoresuk.com.

The Pandemic BCP also includes useful sources of reference material, and guidance on Preventative measures, awareness and responsibilities. We’ve included a ‘Guidance on hand hygiene and use of Face Masks’ as an example of this. Feel free to add any other guides that would be helpful for your business.

The BCP helps to minimise the potential impact on your company and helps define the information employees will find helpful. This will be different in all companies but in the sample provided we cover:

• Summary
• Background
• Introduction
• Aim
• Reference Material
• Objectives
• Potential Impact
• Roles and Responsibilities

For supporting information check out:-

FREE copy an example Pandemic Business Continuity Plan – just contact us at enquiries@blackmoresuk.com

Want to learn more about ISO 22301? Take a look at our Steps to Success.

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