b'BUSINESS CONTINUITY PLANNINGRethinkingBy Matthew Bradfordbusiness continuityIndustry professionals take a freshThesuddenshifttoremoteworkingisoneexample.While many organizations had plans to accommodate for reduced staff or look at how they do business during atemporary closures during an emergency, many were not prepared for a near-overnight shift to remote working. Before COVID-19, the pandemic, and the years that follow majority of employees worked in the office every day, and working from home was an option that was available from time to time. Now, due to COVID-19, the office has been closed and employees have been working remotely from their homes, says Hinde.O ne lesson from the COVID-19 outbreak is that busi- SBAs experience is shared across the industry, and while many ness is anything but usual during a global healthemployers have adapted successfully, the seismic shift to virtual crisis. For this reason, many within the aggregateoffices has put remote working considerations at the top of their sector have taken todays challenges as a cue toBCP priorities. Wehad to transform our business from an office revisit their business continuity plans (BCPs).environment to working remotely and develop new methods to work with staff and communicate with clients, says Brian Zemen, Going forward, we recognizethat a pandemic will likely changepresidentofMHBCPlanning.Wealsorealizedthatregular the way we do business, says Kristen Hinde, project engineer withandeffectivecommunicationwasevenmoreimportantthan Skelton, Brumwell & Associates (SBA) Inc. Because of this, weveever to ensure communication with staff and clients in a remote identifiedtheneedforanewapproachtobusinesscontinuityworkingenvironment.planning and understand the need to modify the way we operate to remain open for business, provide safety for employees, andThatsnottosayorganizationswereunpreparedforremote provide quality service to our clients. working. If anything, the pandemic has prompted many to double down on the technologies and tools that enable them to manage Its not about starting from scratch. Instead, its about usingvirtual workforces over an unknown timeline. We were a bit lucky experiencesfromtheCOVID-19pandemictoinformhowbecause we have a small team, and most of us were already starting organizationscanbetterrespondandrecuperatefromsimilarto work remotely with video conferencing apps. Additionally, we events down the road.hadrecentlymovedallourfile-sharingtoremoteaccesswith cloud storage backup, says Genevieve Scott with Cuesta Planning Pre-COVID BCP strategies have served organizationsConsultants.Whatweverealizedoverthelastfewmonths, well, but few anticipated how much a pandemicthough, is how critical it would have been to get those systems in would turn those traditional recovery plans onplace if they werent there already.their head. 16 AVENUESFALL 2020'