Is HR Important To Business Continuity Planning?
Introduction
A well-written and thought out Business Continuity Plan will include all departments of a company that is vital to operations. Few managers will disagree that Human Resources is at the top of the list.
HR deals with:
- Hiring permanent and temporary personnel
- Payroll
- Benefits
- Discipline
- The relationship between employees and management
These are all functions that need to carry on, even in a crisis. So, the answer is a resounding YES, and management needs to ensure that HR can operate during and after disaster strikes.
Business Continuity Means Physical And Digital Aspects
When disaster strikes, HR will need physical space and equipment to operate. This means that, unless the company has provided for physical work relocation, HR personnel should be equipped to work virtually. This will give maximum flexibility.
When COVID hit, many companies were not set up to work virtually, and they suffered through a painful adaption period. Shame on all of us if we’re not prepared in the future.
HR personnel should be equipped with laptops with VPNs to log into company systems when away from the Office securely.
One of the lessons from COVID is that IT managers can no longer ignore the state of home networks. To ensure that your people can securely use company systems from home, they must have secure home networks.
Hackers excel at finding unsecured home WiFi and stealing company data and secrets. Don’t put your employees or your company through that horror a second time. The more secure your employees are when working virtually, the more secure your company is.
Cloud Security Is Vital
Most companies today rely, at least in part, on the cloud. Records are kept digitally, and SaaS applications are used for many essential functions, like HR record keeping, payroll, accounting, benefits, etc. Access to these cloud apps must be as secure as possible.
Additionally, Office 365 is one of the most used cloud applications. We all rely on email, calendaring, internal communications, and collaboration. Companies don’t realize the sheer amount of confidential data that an application like Office 365 holds.
We’re all one click away from disaster!
Access to essential cloud applications needs to be guarded. Multifactor authentication is a must. Make sure it is activated and managed.
Additional security measures must also be added to Office 365, such as advanced Anti-spam protection, AI-driven security, and Point-in-time backups.
With the compromise of just one O365 email account, a hacker can wreak havoc on the entire Office, stealing information and company secrets.
Could you imagine if a hacker stoled HR information? The legal implications are enormous.
Backup, So You Never Have To Pay The Ransom
It is essential that you backup your data. It is vitally important that you select the right solution. Data only backup may be OK for very small companies, but larger businesses need a more robust Business Continuity solution.
As an MSP for over 21 years, we prefer Datto’s Hybrid-cloud Business Continuity Solution. It gives you:
- An image-based solution for faster and more complete recoveries.
- Instant onsite fail-over to quickly restore server functionality from a local onsite device.
- Cloud image backups are automatically saved to two geographically dispersed data centers for redundancy.
- Bare metal restore capability so you can restore systems on different hardware.
- Daily backup verification, ensuring that your backups are always viable and available.
- And more…
The system that you choose to back up your data is an important one. Make the wrong choice, and the next disaster can put you out of business.
Indeed, when backing up HR-related information, you’ll want a solution that can get your company up and running even if your servers are damaged, compromised by ransomware, or destroyed.
In the end, it’s your choice―all I ask is that you make it a good one!
Make Sure You Have A Written Plan
It is unconscionable that businesses operate today without a written Business Continuity Plan. Yet, statistics show that 75% of small businesses do just that!
The time to think about recovering is not when the floodwaters are rising, the fire warming your boots, or when you see the hated ransomware message on your monitor.
Every company, large or small, needs a written Business Recovery Plan.
If you do not have a written Disaster Recovery Plan, you’re in luck. XSolutions has a free template in Microsoft Excel updated for COVID-19. No registration is required. Click here to download.
Is HR Important To Your Company?
100%. Because of the information, they have on their PCs, on servers, and in the cloud, IT must create a comprehensive plan to protect this vital department and their role in everyday corporate-life.
XSolutions is an Elite Partner of Datto, the world leader in Hybrid-Cloud Business Continuity solutions. We provide Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS), Backup as a Service (BaaS), Cloud Data Protection (CDP), and Managed IT Services (MSP). Call (845) 362-9675 for a free consultation. Backup & Disaster Recovery| Cloud Data Protection |Managed IT Services
