Business Continuity Planning to Reduce the Risk Of Disasters
The modern world is fraught with dangers and risks. We...
The modern world is fraught with dangers and risks. We face environmental challenges such as flooding and fire, digital challenges such as hacking and fraud, and health challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic, and that is in addition to the physical security challenges that all businesses and their employees face.
It is important that franchises consider investing in Business Continuity Planning, proactively identifying the risks that their businesses face and looking for mitigations and risk reduction strategies. They should also consider alternative methods of operating and diversifying their businesses and embrace solutions for increasing productivity and efficiency.
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What is Business Continuity Planning?
Business Continuity Planning is a process through which businesses identify and quantify the risks that they face and outline the actions they would take in the event of any probable risks occurring. The aim is to minimize the impact, maintain or restore operations quickly, and ultimately help the business to survive.
By being aware of risks and taking the time to regularly assess them, franchisors and franchisees alike will be more resilient to the effects of external forces and better able to adapt and overcome when under challenge.
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Who should lead Business Continuity Planning?
Franchisors should hold a Business Continuity Plan for their brand with individual franchisees holding specific Business Continuity Plans for their own specific premises. They will inherit a large proportion of risks from their franchisor, although some will be specific to their own business, depending on a range of factors including their size, location and turnover.
Franchisors should encourage a regular, open and honest assessment of all risks and mitigation strategies to ensure that they remain current, relevant and effective. Plans should be reviewed annually, upon the addition or removal of any franchisees or the implementation of new technology or policies that affect the entirety of the brand.
Business Continuity Plans should be held centrally and be accessible to all franchisees so they can be reviewed and updated as necessary, with proposed changes being reported to the franchisor before being embodied. Franchisors should test their Business Continuity Plans annually using simulations to check that everybody responds as they should and that the desired outcome is achieved.
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What type of help is available?
Franchisors can seek help from business continuity specialists if necessary to ensure that they begin this exercise on the right foot, entrench their learnings in company policy, and put the necessary measures in place to improve business resilience across all branches of the brand.
