Firms ache from lack of continuity plans as virus bites

A BCP is a detailed plan with strategies and tools to keep a business running effectively and profitably even when disaster strikes. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • A BCP covers human resource, business assets and business processes, and outlines how the business will operate and recover in case of a disaster.
  • Laying off employees does more halting that continuity, given that business processes are executed by people.

Sometime in mid 2019, Brian Ndegwa, a telecommunications and networking expert, had an interesting conversation with a friend.

The friend, who specialises in risk management, enlightened him on the possible risks that could befall his business.

“She took me through various kinds of risks, one of them being a pandemic,” he recalls, adding, “The conversation got me thinking about securing my business in case of a risk, but I did nothing about it; I figured risk management was an extra cost that my business did not need.”

Later on in December that year, Brian noticed a slight change in the supply chain.

Being in the networking and telecommunications industry, his business relied on hardware from Europe and China to execute business processes. But the supplies were taking longer than usual to arrive.

In January 2020, it became clear that there was a problem, and it was established that there was a strange virus plaguing China, and that supplies would take much longer to arrive in Kenya.

INTERNET DEMAND

Still, there were supplies in stock, so there was nothing to worry about, or so Ndegwa thought.

"I thought it was China’s problem at the time, a problem that they would solve in due time. Even when the crisis hit Europe and the supplies delayed a little more, the virus was still not a Kenyan problem; if anything, no one was calling it a pandemic, not even World Health Organisation (WHO).

"In February this year, the crisis gradually spread to more countries. China had sneezed and a couple of countries in the Western world were coughing, but not Africa. There was no reason for Kenya’s business community to panic. Fast forward to March 13 and the first case of Covid-19 was confirmed in Kenya. It’s just one person," we all thought, including Ndegwa.

But something interesting was happening in the networking field. There was a notable surge in the demand for internet connectivity in homes.

Businesses were beginning to spring into action. Employers were sending their employees home from where they would work, hence needed to stay connected with their co-workers and the rest of the world.

While the demand was high, the supply on Ndegwa’s end remained threatened. The virus was beginning to threaten basic business processes.

DISASTER INSULATOR
Within the month of March, Ndegwa and his colleagues decided to start working from home too – that is when he realised that despite being in the IT Industry, their businesses were not prepared to operate remotely.

Doing business in the face of a pandemic was different. His friend has been right all along. He needed a Business Continuity Plan (BCP), yet he did not have one.

A BCP is a detailed plan with strategies and tools to keep a business running effectively and profitably even when disaster strikes.

The disaster could be a fire, a collapsed building, earthquakes, cyberattacks and anything that could threaten normal business operation.

A BCP covers human resource, business assets and business processes, and outlines how the business will operate and recover in case of a disaster.

A pandemic is the least expected or even planned for disaster in many businesses, but here we are.

A majority of businesses in Kenya do not have a BCP, according to a study conducted by Corporate Staffing Services, a human resource firm.

The study, which was conducted virtually after the government advised employers to allow employees to work from home, focused on the challenges of remote working.

TELEWORKING
A total of 1,830 employees and 258 employers participated in the survey. At the time of the survey, only 45.8 per cent of the employees who responded had been allowed to work from home, while the rest, (54.2 per cent) were still commuting to work.

Majority of the respondents also said that they had not received any special training on remote working before being sent home.

For many businesses, it was a quick decision to deal with a novel challenge that few have expertise in.

Also unearthed during the survey is the fact that a whopping 78.6 per cent of the employers who responded did not have a BCP to deal with the Covid-19 disruption to their businesses.

Only 21.4 per cent had such a strategy. This means that majority of businesses in Kenya are not equipped to run in the face of a pandemic.

Subsequently, the larger economy is at risk unless the businesses find a way to ensure continuity.

At the moment, many employers are possibly running businesses in the dark, not knowing which secondary challenges to expect and how to deal with them as they arise.

Ndegwa, for instance, realised that though all his business’s systems were digital, they were inaccessible remotely.

Employees had to report to the office to access files and information that necessitated smooth running of business operations.

CONTINUITY PLAN

Fortunately, they were eventually able to come up with a cloud-based system that enabled most of the employees to work from home.

There was another challenge - their business was serving other businesses in a business to business arrangement.

These other businesses they serviced needed assurance that there was a continuity plan, citing the contract they had signed.

They did not want to be left in the dark in case Ndegwa and his colleagues were unable to deliver due to the Covid-19 disruption.

For these reasons, Ndegwa had to go back to his friend and initiate the risk management conversation.

But with or without a continuity plan, businesses have to find a way to fish in these troubled waters.

Alphan Anguk, an insurance consultant, was doing business as usual when the pandemic hit Kenya.

He knew at the back of his mind that business was bound to be affected; however, like most other business owners, he did not have a BCP.

He turned to working remotely since he needed to cut cost, especially given that some of the insurance products he was selling saw a decline in demand.

More people were curious about medical covers in case they contracted the virus, but were uncertain about making financial commitments.

CHAOS HITS SECTOR

Business insurance sales also went down as some businesses started closing shop or working remotely. What was left was motor-vehicle covers.

To further cut down on spending, he stopped having face-to-face meetings with clients and decided to conduct business online.

Drawing from his experience so far, he is willing to consider remote working, even partially, after things go back to normal.

Similar sentiments were expressed by 71 per cent of employees in the above survey. However, only 54 per cent of the employees who are already working from home would like to continue with the trend after the pandemic is controlled, while 46 per cent of the employees working remotely never want to do so again.

The most critical bits for Anguk are to stay safe, cut cost and save time, and remote working has enabled him to do so.

He, however, has not initiated the conversation on a BCP since he is still trying to find his footing.

It is never too late to initiate this conversation with the relevant business stakeholders, says Charlene Kavulani, a Chief Risk Officer at Family Bank.

She observes that the current pandemic has opened a can of different types of worms in the form of risks.

Some Kenyans have already experienced them while others may be still hidden.

“All the risks a business could possibly encounter have been amplified by the pandemic. The disruption poses a risk to business goals, strategies and financial goals. There’s also the heightened risk of cyberattacks that could further disrupt businesses that are trying to cope with an already difficult situation,” she explains.

RECOVERY PERIOD
Cyberattacks emanate from the fact that employees have access to business IT systems from remote locations.

They may be using unsecured internet connections to access crucial business information and systems, thus exposing the company to attacks.

Besides, the video conferencing tools businesses are using could expose them to cyberthreats.

With these risks in mind, businesses have to continually revise and update the continuity plans to counter emerging threats.

In addition, Kavulani notes that even after the pandemic, Kenyans should expect an aftermath. Unemployment and slow economic growth are at the top of her mind.

This means that most businesses will spend 2021 and possibly even 2022 recovering from the aftermath of the pandemic.

No, things will not just go back to normal immediately after Covid-19; it is for this reason that Kavulani urges businesses to consider BCPs for the sake of recovery.

When drafting a continuity plan, she recommends engaging all the stakeholders in a business. These include the suppliers, employees, management, boards, department heads and everyone who contributes to everyday running of the business.

“A business is like a body, if the arm or the head stops functioning, then the entire body feels sick,” she points out. Everyone has to therefore chip in to the discussion.

CRITICAL PROCESSES

The right expert to engage in this case is a risk management officer who will then help an employer engage all the stakeholders.

The goal is to establish all the critical processes of a business that it cannot run without.

In a restaurant, that would be cooking and serving meals, but in a real estate agency, such processes would be sales and processing transaction documents. It all depends on the industry.

Next, the business will find a way to ensure these critical processes continue undisrupted, despite the circumstances.

For instance, if the critical processes of a business are steered by certain individuals, business owners should find a way to ensure the business runs as usual even when those individuals are not present.

Kavulani explains that they could recruit or train shadow workers to take up their roles or invest in tools that enable the critical workers to execute tasks remotely.

Once a plan is in place, a business needs to simulate by creating scenarios that pose risks to the business.

She also advises businesses to review their BCPs every six months even when disasters have not occurred.

You just never know when they will strike, like the coronavirus has taught us.

HUMAN RESOURCE

Another crucial element when it comes to business continuity is the human resource function.

In the wake of the pandemic, some businesses have resorted to laying off employees in an effort to stay lean or escape legal landmines.

Unfortunately, this does more halting that continuity, given that business processes are executed by people.

Perminus Wainaina, a HR expert and the managing partner, Corporate Staffing, says the way employers and employees treat each other during the crisis will affect business continuity afterwards.

“There are two possible scenarios: employers and employees will either strengthen their bond and steer businesses to recovery after Covid-19, or they will damage trust and further disrupt continuity after the crisis,” he says.

Employers making decisions without consulting employees are likely to lose the most critical human resource afterwards, he says.

That will make it hard for them to recover as they will be forced to divert their resources to recruiting and training new talent.

For instance, some businesses are forcing employees to take pay cuts and unpaid leaves without explanation or discussion.

Also, employees who prove to be untrustworthy and selfish during the crisis are likely to be replaced once everything boils down.

TEAMWORK

In the recent past, Wainaina has a seen a rise in relatively confusing legal challenges for HR practitioners - HR is often guided by legal policies that have been put to the test.

For instance, when employees are working from home, what legal responsibilities do they have over company property, such as laptops?

Besides, what if a business is not able to pay salaries in full, and what about the unpaid leaves and sudden dismissals?

These questions pose a major threat to continuity, especially when everyone wants to protect their interests. People may be unwilling to deliver when dealing with uncertainty.

Wainaina recommends dealing with these issues humanely, rather than trying to enforce legalities in an unprecedented situation.

It is all about getting through this together. Businesses, he advises, should simply strive to get out of this crisis stronger, rather than broken.

Bear in mind that when one part of the body (business) is broken, it affects continuity in every possible aspect, now and in the near future.

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Mistrust between employers and employees is one of the biggest challenges that makes remote working difficult to embrace.

Businesses that use laptops instead of desktops at the workplace are better placed to deal with remote working.

Cloud-based storage of files makes continuity easier compared to traditional servers, which do not support remote working.

Lack of internet stability is the biggest challenge with at least 23.4 per cent of respondents grappling with it. Distraction from members of the household topped the list of challenges, with 22.6 per cent of respondents experiencing this.

Other challenges: noisy neighbours, lack of proper work furniture, lack of a structure/routine, house chores and distraction from TV and radios.

Respondents who have not implemented the work-from-home directive said that the nature of their work, difficulties in supervision and the fact that the directive was optional, are some of the reasons they continue to commute to work.