How To Update Your Business Continuity Plan in 2024

Business Continuity Planning for 2024

As 2024 begins, it is important to start planning— and updating your business continuity plan is a huge part of that. Planning ahead ensures that you have a vision for your business moving forward and that you have the tools and resources in place to manage your growth and maximize success. Not sure how exactly to get started? Read ahead for practical steps and advice. 

Perform a Business Impact Analysis 

One of the first things you can do to aid your business continuity planning is to perform a business impact analysis. A business impact analysis (or BIA) explores the impact a widespread disruption would have on your business. Performing a business impact analysis is one of the best ways to start planning for the future. Doing so can help you find where there might be vulnerabilities in your operations and overall business model. It’s a great way to find and identify your business’s blind spots and prepare potential solutions. 

This can also assist with other essential business-related tasks, like budget planning and understanding hiring needs for the upcoming year. Planning ahead and performing a business impact analysis will save you lots of time and stress in any case. 

Business Resilience 

Part of planning ahead for 2024 should include solidifying your business’s overall resilience. Let’s face it— 2024 is a risky time to be operating a business. Think ahead about ways you can strengthen and solidify your business model. The world is more unpredictable than ever, and businesses need to be built to withstand it. Creating a business continuity plan will ensure your business is around for the long haul, allowing you to grow and invest in the future. 

Disaster Recovery 

It might sound obvious, but make sure you have a plan in place for disaster recovery as a part of your business continuity plan. Knowing and identifying issues is one thing, but dealing with them can be a different task. So, make sure you not only have a plan to identify risk, but also have a plan to manage and recover from it. 

Risk Management 

Now that you have invested in your business’s health and resiliency, you should start figuring out ways to mitigate risk. Investing in risk management plans should be a key part of planning for 2024. One of the biggest lessons that business leaders can take away from 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic is the need for proper risk management techniques. Don’t leave yourself unprepared like many businesses did— research and understand risk management in your field and implement best practices into your business continuity plan. 

Once you understand the value of risk management, you should identify and prevent these issues and tackle them head on. With that in mind, here are some common trends and potential risks projected for the year 2024. 

Crime 

Crime is one of the biggest trends you should be aware of when updating your business continuity plan this upcoming year. With issues like COVID-19, natural disasters, and high inflation, crime is on the rise. Consider common issues such as shoplifting, hackers, and other technology-related scams, and have plans and protocols in place to deal with these problems. Make sure that you also train both yourself and your employees to spot and prevent crime. Doing so will help prevent both financial losses, as well as ensure your business remains safe and trustworthy in the eyes of the public. 

Working with Extreme Weather 

With more occurrences of extreme weather on the rise it is smart planning to consider how extreme events could affect your business when updating your business continuity plan. 

Offering flexible work setting for your employees, such as work-from-home or a hybrid model, can help everyone maintain productivity during periods of extreme weather, such as the snowy winter months and extreme temperatures of late summer. It’s always best practice to have a protocol in place before the extreme weather hits, so research potential risks for your area and make a plan well ahead of time. 

The Future of COVID-19 

While many lockdowns and other early pandemic worries are now a thing of the past, there are still several highly contagious COVID-19 strains that are likely to stick around. Thus, it's not unreasonable to assume that there will likely be times when your business may encounter issues due to COVID-19, including the possibility of multiple employees being out or even a temporary closure. Thus, it is vital that you have contingency plans built into your overall business continuity plan so everyone knows what to do in the event of COVID-19 affecting your workplace and business operations. 

Continuing Work-from-Home (WFH) Trends 

The word is in: Work from home is here to stay, as continual studies show that many people (and even employers) enjoy working from home while continuing to maintain similar, or even better, productivity levels as when they were working in the office. Rather than fighting work-from-home, future-minded employers are embracing the trend and strategizing ways to implement it into their overall business model and business continuity plans. So, make sure you include this very important consideration in your business continuity planning. Consider things like employee well-being, technology and security issues, and performance evaluation related to remote work. 

Dealing with Inflation 

Inflation was a hot topic in 2023, and businesses and their employees can expect this trend to continue into 2024. Operating costs are likely to remain high due to inflation. Likewise, in response to inflation and the increasing costs of living, many workers are looking for jobs with higher wages. In addition, many states and local towns have passed minimum wage increases in response to the rising inflation rates. Build inflation into your budget and have a plan to manage it going into 2024. 

New Year, New Regulations 

When the new year rolls around, there are almost always new laws and regulations that come into effect, be it on the state, local, federal, or even business level. It’s essential to research these new laws and regulations well ahead of time so that you can understand how they are going to affect your business going forward. Don’t wait until the new year has already arrived— doing so could mean fines or other legal penalizations if it turns out that you have broken labor or safety laws. If you have questions or any confusion or concerns about any new laws or regulations, you should talk to your business’s human resources department and legal team, to ensure you are prepared for new laws going forward. Doing so protects both your business and your employees, so don’t neglect this essential step. It’s part of your responsibility as someone who owns and operates a business. 

Cybersecurity 

Focusing on cybersecurity is a vital part of business planning in the modern era, and 2024 is no exception to this rule. Recent research shows that cybersecurity events and business disruptions have been some of the most common types of business disasters in recent years. As technology grows and evolves, unfortunately, so do criminals. It will be well worth the effort to have a plan in place ahead of time, so your business's safety is ensured online. Don’t wait until there is a data breach or extended outage to think about your cybersecurity. Your customers trust that you are being confidential and responsible with their information and jeopardizing that trust could result in a negative blow to your business reputation. Plan before it is too late. 

Conclusion 

A business continuity plan is a key component of your operations. It should be well thought through and carefully researched, and everyone involved should know exactly what their role is and how they fit into it. Creating a business continuity plan prevents a multitude of issues down the line for you and your business. Preparis can help you create a customized plan for your business, so you can move forward through 2024 with confidence and maximize growth. Contact us today and learn how we can help you and your business succeed.