You have to take your hat off to IBM – not only can they get Bill Gates to wear that Tee Shirt, but they have also addressed the problem of Human Capital Resilience!
I was intrigued when I came upon this article, a computer company promoting “The personal side of business continuity.”
Human capital resilience is defined as “an organization’s ability to respond and adapt rapidly to threats posed to its workforce”. Not too far removed from other definitions of resilience being explored on this site.
They summarize human capital risks into 3 categories;
- Ability to attend work
- Under this heading we get such issues as Health and Safety concerns, lack of transportation and trauma (in that order)
- Ability to deliver critical internal services
- Communications, Payroll
- Ability to maintain business operations
- Keeping track of employees and Succession and training
The paper goes on to present seven dimensions against which to check your BC Plan to ensure Human capital resilience.
- Policies and communication
- Certainly communications is essential, not sure that too many of the operational policy documents really matter
- Of course in the pandemic context there are important issues around leave and absence policy to be defined
- Employee education and support
- it advocates training and awareness for staff and support for the homes and families of staff being impacted by a disaster
- Virtual Infrastructure
- Hey, it is a computer company, gotta sell some stuff somewhere!
- Despite the self-serving nature, it is a good idea, it doesn’t just address the people aspects and is growing in adoption.
- Job Training
- Cross training staff on critical functions ahead of time and on-demand training packages
- Talent Management
- Partly about succession planning and leadership development
- Personally I say if you are not doing this through simulation and exercising it is too late on the day the crisis occurs
- Use of HR Systems to support crisis operations
- Maybe some more sales stuff
- Asserting that you address resilience of your people by having the HR Dept operating during the crisis – not sure I buy this.
- Certainly you have to have payroll recovered, not sure the rest of the processing functions are essential. Welfare and EAP, but normally that is not delivered by your HR Dept.
- Organizational Culture (to be responsive and resilient)
- Again this a wider BAU requirements, not just part of BC prearation
They observe that the first 2 dimensions are commonly used, 3,4 & 7 are occasionally addressed while 5 & 6 are infrequently included in BC Plans. Dimensions 6 & 7 are represented as underpinning the other 5.
The paper finishes with a strong call to IT people and preparation.
If you have actually thought about the people issues then there is little new here. And I do not see it providing the rapid and adaptive response – that will come from the broader development of your Crisis Management Team and adaptive approaches. It will not be specific to the people aspects.
To a large extent this reads like many other recent articles. Sudden awakening to people issues, driven by pandemic as a threat. Generally I find that pandemic planning is about continuity of the business processes and the products – not about preparing the people for the possible impact.
It just focuses on loss of people instead of loss of buildings and computers.
If you have not thought a lot about people issues, or you want a refresher take a look. It is not a long read.
Do you feel the need to invent new labels like “Human Capital” or do you have plain old people in your company?
How do you improve the resilience of your workforce?
Photo Credit – I am betting more people click through to the photo than comment.
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