Is Your Business Continuity Plan Prepared for London 2012?

With only a few months to go until the start of the 2012 Olympics in London, Ark Workplace Risk – a leading global risk consultancy -  is asking, have businesses underestimated the real impact of the games?

New figures suggest that the Olympics will bring to the UK almost 6,000 full time Olympic staff, 70,000 volunteers and 30,000 accredited press, spread over 700 venues across the UK.  This along with the almost 11 million tickets that have sold for the various sporting events means that over 1 million people are expected to visit London during the two week tenure.  It is estimated that over 250,000 of these visitors will travel from overseas.

The demand this influx of temporary residents will place on public transport and local infrastructure will almost certainly have a major effect on business based in and around the Capital and will challenge many business continuity plans.

The Olympic Delivery Authority is encouraging businesses to adopt what they call the 4 R’s;

1. Reduce
2. Retime
3. Revise Mode
4. Re-Route for;
   
   1. Staff travel
   2. Business travel
   3. Customers and visitors
   4. Suppliers and deliveries
   5. Ensure it’s communicated

For businesses trading during the Olympics, preparation is key. With a few months to go, now is the time to revisit business continuity plans and ensure that the impact of the Olympics has been considered. 

1. Business Continuity Planning:  Companies should adopt simple business continuity planning techniques in order to prepare for the effect of the Olympics, determining what their critical staff, equipment, technologies, operations and suppliers are and planning for a number of possible events to ensure continued business operations and activity.  Businesses also need to consider the effect of the Olympics on their own customers, what are their plans and will their plans prevent activity or supply?
2. Emergency Planning and Emergency Preparedness Testing: Many public areas across London are being used to provide large TV screens to beam coverage of the games.  Many of these public areas are currently used by businesses as assembly points for emergencies (fire and bomb drills and events) which will no doubt be full or used for other purposes.  Emergency plans and procedures therefore need to be reviewed to ensure the safety of staff.  It is also essential that new or revised plans and procedures are tested. This can be done via Emergency Preparedness Testing , which provides concrete evidence to suggest how staff and systems will react in the face of an emergency and gives recommendations for limiting crisis impact. 
3. Communication: Businesses should be communicating with their staff, suppliers and customers about the plans they are developing and how the business will be dealing with the problems that surround the Olympics. 
4. Supply Chain Management: Delivery disruption will be inevitable and businesses should now consider how they can ensure and maintain service delivery.  Businesses can consider;
   
   1. Reviewing SLA’s with service providers;
   2. Changing delivery times
   3. Stock piling essential goods
5. Staffing: Transport for London has suggested that commuters will find themselves travelling at the same time as Olympic spectators, leading to possible delays of over an hour at many travel “hotspots.” Guidance suggests that companies should:
   
   1. Allow staff to work from home
   2. Video-conference meetings to avoid travel (both locally and internationally)
   3. Adopt flexible working patterns  and stagger staff start and finish times during the working day to avoid busy periods
   4. Encourage staff to use alternate routes or modes of transport
   5. Re-schedule non-urgent works