According to research from the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) Planning for the Worst, published in association with Aon, the British Standards Institution (BSI), the Business Continuity Institute (BCI) and the Civil Contingencies Secretariat in the Cabinet Office, found while winter weather was the most common cause of organisational disruption for the third year running, other business disruptions included the public sector strikes (which caused problems for 55% of managers), the Blackberry outage (39%), the summer riots (26%), natural disasters such as the Japan earthquake and tsunami (19%), and international social and political unrest such as the Arab Spring uprising (18%).
The findings, released ahead of Business Continuity Awareness Week, suggest this wide range of threats has prompted business continuity management (BCM) to become increasingly adopted in the UK.
After a sharp increase in BCM uptake over the past two years, the 2011 figures show another rise - 61% of managers now work for an organisation that has BCM in place, up from 58% in 2010. These improvements are exemplified by the fact that, learning from the past two years of heavy snow, 37% of organisations have now formalised their arrangements for managing the impact of severe weather.
Looking forward, many organisations are already thinking about how to minimise the impact of the Olympic Games: 25% of managers will allow staff to work flexible hours; 17% of staff will be able to work remotely; and a further 17% of managers have prepared for an increase in annual leave requests.
Christopher Kinsella, acting chief executive of CMI, said: "Today's report shows UK organisations are affected by a huge range of organisational challenges, many of which are entirely out of their hands. Yet with good management, the impact of these disruptions can be kept to a minimum. It is encouraging to see that Business Continuity Management is increasingly becoming a key part of organisational good practice, but there is clearly more to be done - especially in the private and not-for-profit sectors, and amongst micro and small organisations. With major events such as the Diamond Jubilee and the Olympics on the horizon, as well as continued international unrest and the threat of further strikes, no organisation can afford to be complacent."
The report also shows clear advantages for organisations which do have plans in place to deal with crises when they hit. Of those who had to activate plans in 2011, 81% agreed it reduced disruption and the same number stated that any cost in developing plans is justified by the business benefits they bring.
Stuart Sterling, assistant director - corporate resilience at the Cabinet Office's Civil Contingencies Secretariat, said: "For the second year running, the report shows an increase in the number of firms with business continuity arrangements in place. There will always be speculation as to the reasons for this, such as the winter weather or summer disruptions on the streets making more businesses think "what would I do if that was my business?" However, the most compelling finding in this year's survey is that over eighty percent of organisations that activated their business continuity arrangements in the past year said that they were effective in reducing disruption. In summary: business continuity works."
Hugh Leighton, senior consultant, Aon Global Risk Consulting - Enterprise Risk Management, added:"It is encouraging to see that more organisations are implementing BCM each year and those who are, and who find they need to activate their arrangements, clearly see the benefits of doing so. However, we are disappointed that insurers are not seen as a major driving force in influencing an organisations decision to implement BCM and strongly feel that this must change. Insurers should ensure that their staff are familiar with what good practice in BCM looks like, and be constructive in encouraging their clients to seriously consider implementing it. Aon is delighted to be involved in sponsoring the CMI 2012 BCM survey for the second year and we hope our involvement will help insurers take action."
