Business Continuity Statement
It is the intention of Jobcontax to ensure that it protects its Recruitment Consultancy Services against foreseeable threats, by maintaining a Business Continuity Management (BCM) system.
This is aimed at ensuring its critical functions and services will continue to be provided during and after an incident.
The Business Continuity strategy shall be based on the requirements of ISO 22301, where a framework exists that ensures the system is maintained up to date, identifies potential disruption events, works to reduce exposure and improves resilience.
It is the JobContax’s objectives to develop cost effective resilience and damage mitigation arrangements that as a minimum, ensure compliance to statutory and other requirements placed on the organisation.
The BCM system will be implemented, tested, reviewed and improved in order to provide assurance to interested parties, of the JobContax’s abilities to respond to client needs by delivering key services and resuming normal operational performance in an optimal timeframe.
Business Continuity Plan
JobContax Recruitment
The following premises are covered in this document:
104 Upper Drumcondra Road
Dublin 9
D09 FP29
Contents
Contents
Recommended Maintenance Business Continuity Overview Purpose
Outcome
Plan objectives Key staff
Staff Welfare Communicating with staff Equipment
Scenario 1 Premises incident Scenario 2
Infrastructure incident Scenario 3
Staff incident Recovery phase
Recommended Maintenance
.
Items to be updated regularly include:
- Managers’ responsibilities
- Applications (new or significant changes to existing)
- Insurance provider and contact details
- Internet / telephone provider and contact details
- Staff contact details
- IT Provider details
- Building Managing Agent contact details
Business Continuity Overview
Purpose
The purpose of this plan is to prepare our business in the event of extended service outages caused by factors beyond our control and to restore services to the widest extent possible in a minimum time frame to alleviate any disruption to all or some of our stakeholders.
Outcome
The outcome of this plan is to ensure that the business is able to maintain a good level of uninterrupted service to our key stakeholders (clients and candidates)
Plan objectives
- Serves as a guide for those implementing our business continuity plan
- Assists in avoiding confusion experienced during a crisis by documenting, testing and reviewing recovery procedures.
- References and points to the location of critical data.
- Provides procedures and resources needed to assist in recovery.
- Establishes a framework so our stakeholders have a clearer understanding of our plan if our business met with a disaster.
Key staff
If a disaster occurs the members of our team tasked with enacting this plan are:
- Karen McHugh – Managing Director
- Jing Jing Gong – Dublin Office Manager
- Sheila McNeice – Galway Office Manager
Staff Welfare
It must be recognised that an incident that results in the enacting of this plan may also cause additional pressures for staff. Staff members need to be given clear direction about the priorities of the business. Managers must ensure that they monitor staff more closely to ensure that their welfare is maintained.
Staff should be aware of what their role is when a major disruption occurs. Clear and concise communication with staff is pivotal to having an organised response. Staff must be made aware of what communication methods are going to be used so they can find out the latest information, if they are going to be working from a different location than normal.
Managers who suspect that staff members have suffered undue stress or even trauma from the business disruption must consider providing assistance for those staff who have been affected.
Communicating with staff
- Communication will be centralised from either the Managing Director or the manager depending on availability of the immediate point of contact.
- The primary communication channel will be by mobile phone, text and email will be used as an alternative?
- All contact details for staff are store in the JobContax Recruitment handbook and will be accessible in the event of an incident. Mobile numbers are also held on the primary contacts individual phones
- There will be restricted information in regard to who knows specifically about the incident until it has been a cleared by the senior team.
- If the incident needs to be communicated to the external stakeholders this will be done by the managing director only.
Equipment
- Where possible staff will be expected to work from their personal laptop / phone.
- Any emergency equipment needed to keep the business up and running will be purchased only when the managing director has given their approval.
- All off-site data backups are accessed through our CRM system.
- All key staff are equipped with company ipads or laptops. Any new purchase will be done within 2 hours of assessing the need.
Scenario 1
Premises incident
A premises incident can include flood, fire, or any other disaster that renders our office inaccessible.
Step 1: Evacuation of premises & safeguarding of staff
In office hours
| Action | Details | Responsible Person(s) |
| 1. Evacuate the building | Follow normal fire drill procedure | Karen McHugh Jing Jing Gong |
| 2. Check evacuation is complete | Staff and visitor safety is the priority. Check everyone on-site has been evacuated | Karen McHugh Jing Jing Gong |
| 3. Verify if incident is real | If false alarm, resume business as normal | Karen McHugh Jing Jing Gong |
| 4. Call emergency services | 999 / 112 | Karen McHugh Jing Jing Gong |
| 5. Record details of any injuries sustained in the incident | Use injury form available on staff intranet | Karen McHugh Jing Jing Gong |
| 6. Alert staff | Alert any staff due to arrive on-site soon of the incident, and tell them to await further instructions | Karen McHugh Jing Jing Gong |
| 7. Assess impact | Senior team meet to assess the scale of the incident & decide next steps | Karen McHugh Jing Jing Gong |
Outside office hours
| Action | Details | Responsible Person(s) |
| 1. First person on-site to notify manager | Do not enter the building | All staff |
| 2. Call emergency services | 999 / 112 | All staff |
| 3. Alert staff | Alert any staff due to arrive on-site soon of the incident, and tell them to await further instructions | All staff |
| 4. Assess impact | Senior team meet to assess the scale of the incident & decide next steps | Karen McHugh |
Step 2: Business continuity
| Critical activity | Details | Responsible Person(s) |
| Phones | Staff to use personal mobile phones. Contact telephone provider to forward office lines to staff mobiles | Karen McHugh |
| Internet | Staff to use wifi and or home internet connections. If home connection unavailable contact local shared office providers to rent desk space | Karen McHugh |
| Inform insurance company | Contact details | Karen McHugh |
| Inform landlord | Contact details | Karen McHugh |
| Post redirection | Speak An Post | Karen McHugh |
| Inform customers | If disruption is expected, inform customers via email and phone | Karen McHugh |
Scenario 2
Infrastructure incident
An infrastructure incident can include the loss of computer / telephony systems, internet access, or power.
The actions below are an example of how this incident could be handled – you should customise this section to suit your business
Step 1: Understand the extent of the loss
| Infrastructure | Details | Responsible Person(s) |
| Phones | Contact phone provider to ascertain extent of outage. | Karen McHugh |
| Internet | Contact internet provider to ascertain extent of outage. | Karen McHugh |
| Mains power | Contact power provider to ascertain extent of outage. Contact details: | Karen McHugh |
If outage is temporary, inform staff to stay put and await further instructions. If the outage is ongoing:
Step 2: Business continuity
| Critical activity | Details | Responsible Person(s) |
| Phones | Staff to use personal mobile phones. Contact telephone provider to forward office lines to dedicated mobile number | Karen McHugh |
| Internet | Staff to use accessible wifi or home internet connections. If home connection unavailable contact local co-work office providers to rent desk space. | Karen McHugh |
| Mains power | Staff to work from home until power is restored. If power outage is widespread and staff homes are also affected contact local contact local co- work office providers to rent desk space. | Karen McHugh |
Scenario 3
Staff incident
A staff incident can include a sudden family emergency, injury or other event which renders a key member of staff suddenly unable to work.
The actions below are an example of how this incident could be handled – you should customise this section to suit your business
Step 1: Ensure no service interruption
| Critical activity | Details | Responsible Person(s) |
| 1. Identify interchangeable staff | All members of staff should have team members who can perform their roles, even if it is in a reduced capacity. Identify the relevant person and support them in carrying out business- critical activities | Karen McHugh |
| 2. Assess extent of loss | Identify whether the affected staff member’s absence is likely to be temporary, longer-term, or permanent. Keep in mind this may be a difficult period for the staff member and / or their family. | Karen McHugh |
If the staff loss is temporary, support the member of staff who will be filling the gap until the absent member of staff returns. If the absence is long-term or permanent:
Step 2: Business continuity
| Critical activity | Details | Responsible Person(s) |
| 1. Recruit temporary or full-time replacement | Follow the standard recruitment procedure to find a full-time, part-time or fixed-term contract (as appropriate) replacement. | Karen McHugh |
Recovery phase
The purpose of the recovery phase is to resume normal working practises for the entire organisation. Where the impact of the incident is prolonged, normal operations may need to be delivered under new circumstances e.g. from a different building.
The actions below are an example of how the recovery phase could be handled – you should customise this section to suit your business
| Action | Details | Responsible Person(s) |
| 1. Agree and plan the actions required to enable recovery of normal working practises | Agreed actions will be detailed in an action plan and set against time scales with responsibility for completion clearly indicated. | Karen McHugh |
| 2. Respond to any long term support needs of staff | Depending on the nature of the incident, we may need to consider providing support services | Karen McHugh |
| 3. Publicise that there is now ‘business as usual’ | Inform customers through normal channels that our business is operating as normal | Karen McHugh |
| 4. Carry out a debrief of the incident and complete report to document opportunities for improvement and any lessons identified | This should be reviewed to ensure key actions resulting from the incident are implemented within designated time scales. | Karen McHugh |
| 5. Review this Continuity Plan in light of lessons learned from incident and the response to it | Implement recommendations for improvement and update this plan. Ensure a revised version of the plan is read by all members of staff. | Karen McHugh |