Business Continuity Planning for Human Resources

Friday, August 23, 2013

If you work in a corporate environment and your function has anything remotely to do with your organization’s data operations, you know that “DR”, aka, “Disaster Recovery” is a hot topic.  A significant interruption of any of the areas within your organization’s data operations can be devastating to internal and external customers.  To combat the impact of such a disruption, most large organizations have detailed plans to recover and resume normal or near-normal business data operations as soon as possible.  But what about the interruption of support functions such as Human Resources?

You may consider that as a support function, the loss of Human Resource operational capabilities would have little to no impact on an organization’s business vitality.  Since much of what HR does is often outside of the limelight, little thought is generally given to exactly what a long-term disruption would do to business operations.  While the source of disruptions can result from spectacular events, even the most mundane action can lead to the loss of business operations.  Example: raw sewer waste contaminates the basement of your office building, the health department closes the building for 30 days, thus no access to phones, faxes, computers, paper files.  Preplanning for such losses is HR management’s role.

1. At any given time, there could be dozens of job candidates in play.  If candidates cannot communicate with the organization and/or the organization cannot respond to them, a good candidate may get lost for the want of a Business Continuity Plan.

2. What happens to those data feeds directed at payroll processors, 401(k) record keepers, insurance carriers, and financial institutions?  Employees are not paid timely or correctly, insurance enrollments may be delayed, direct deposits are not posted or posted to the wrong accounts.

3. If you are in the middle of annual regulatory filings will you be able to proceed?  Even with filing extensions, a disruption may make it impossible to file without penalties.

4. It is one thing to lose data systems or telecommunications capabilities; what is the impact if the loss is key staff members resulting from a pandemic?  The loss of knowledge may have a greater effect than any system disruption.

Failing to plan is akin to planning to fail.  Even a simple plan is better than no plan at all.  A good plan today is better than a great plan tomorrow.  Business Continuity Planning for Human Resources is essential to ensure some level operational capacity following a disruption.  While it may not be “business as usual”, HR’s ability to provide even the most basic support functions will be expected, if not demanded.

At a very basic level, Business Continuity Planning for Human Resources should include:

1. Instructions and Directions – where to go and what to do in the event of a disruption and when and how to contact HR management team leaders.

2. Contact Information – for organizational members, vendors and suppliers, support staff in other organizational units.

3. Data and Data Feeds – location of critical data, format and frequency of inbound/outbound data feeds.

4. Calendar – dates for various business and regulatory filings, mailings, notices, and events.

5. Skill Sets – skills required to perform various functions and the staff who possess such skills.