Training Course: Crisis Response Planning: BIA, Recovery and Communication

Business continuity and crisis management, built on BIA, response plans and crisis communication, is how an organisation keeps critical activities running through a disruption and directs its response when a crisis strikes. This 5-day course is for managers and coordinators who own continuity or crisis duties, and delegates finish with a continuity and crisis response pack: a BIA summary, plan outline and exercise plan.

Introduction

Three standards shape the course. ISO 22301 specifies requirements for a business continuity management system, from policy and analysis to exercising and review. ISO 22361 gives guidance on crisis management structures, leadership and communication. ISO 31000 sets out the risk management process used to identify and evaluate threats to critical activities. The level is practitioner, covering the full cycle from analysis to testing in one week. Teaching uses tabletop scenarios and case studies from utilities, logistics and financial services.

Course Objectives

• Distinguish business continuity from crisis management and define how the two teams coordinate
• Apply ISO 31000 risk assessment to identify and prioritise threats to critical activities
• Interpret BIA results to set RTO, RPO and recovery priorities for critical functions
• Select continuity strategies for people, sites, technology and suppliers that meet recovery objectives
• Compare internal and external crisis communication and apply each to a stakeholder group
• Justify an exercise schedule that tests plans and turns lessons learned into corrective actions

Target Audience

• Business continuity coordinators who must decide which activities are critical and how fast they must recover
• Department heads owning continuity plans who must judge which workarounds their teams can sustain
• Risk and compliance managers who must decide which disruption risks need treatment before an incident
• Crisis team members and incident managers who must judge when an incident escalates to a crisis
• Communication and HR managers who must choose what staff, customers and media are told during a disruption

Course Outline

Day 1: Continuity and Crisis Management Foundations

• Business Continuity vs Crisis Management: Sustaining Operations Compared With Directing the Response
• ISO 22301 and the BCM Lifecycle: Policy, Analysis, Strategy, Plans, Exercising and Review
• ISO 22361: Crisis Management Guidance on Structures, Capabilities and Readiness
• Crisis Types and Characteristics: Sudden, Smouldering, Operational and Reputational Crises
• BCM Roles, Governance and Legal Duties: Sponsors, Plan Owners and Crisis Team Members

Day 2: Risk Assessment and Business Impact Analysis

• ISO 31000 Risk Process: Identifying, Evaluating and Registering Continuity Threats and Treatments
• Risk Assessment vs BIA: Likelihood of Disruption Compared With Impact of Disruption
• BIA Process: Critical Functions and Their Operational, Financial and Reputational Impacts
• Recovery Objectives: RTO, RPO and Prioritised Activities Drawn From BIA Results
• Dependency Mapping: Tracing People, Sites, Technology and Supplier Interdependencies

Day 3: Continuity Strategies and Plan Design

• Continuity Strategy Options: Alternative Sites, Workarounds and Alternative Operating Methods
• Workforce Continuity: Key Personnel, Succession Cover and Remote Working Arrangements
• Facilities, Technology and Data Recovery: Restoring Infrastructure Within Recovery Objectives
• Supplier Continuity: Assessing and Contracting Third-Party Resilience for Critical Dependencies
• Departmental vs Organisation-Wide Plans: Functional Procedures Compared With Integrated Activation

Day 4: Crisis Response, Leadership and Communication

• Crisis Team Structure: Strategic, Tactical and Operational Levels With Escalation Triggers
• Crisis Decision-Making Under Pressure: Structured Methods for Uncertain, Fast-Moving Situations
• Internal vs External Crisis Communication: Staff Briefings Compared With Public Statements
• Stakeholder Communication: Messages for Employees, Customers, Regulators, Media and Partners
• Reputation Protection: Avoiding Misinformation and Communication Gaps During Incidents

Day 5: Exercise Practice: Testing, Review and Improvement

• Tabletop Exercise vs Live Simulation: Discussion-Based Testing Compared With Operational Rehearsal
• Scenario Exercise: Applying the Crisis Structure and Plans to a Disruption Case
• Post-Incident Review: Applying Lessons Learned to Corrective and Preventive Actions
• Continuity Performance Indicators: KPIs, Audits and Plan Maintenance Cycles Explained
• Continuity and Crisis Response Pack: Completing the BIA Summary, Plan Outline and Exercise Plan

Skills You Will Gain

• Business Impact Analysis
• Recovery Objective Setting
• Continuity Strategy Selection
• Continuity Plan Writing
• Crisis Team Coordination
• Crisis Communication
• Tabletop Exercise Design
• Post-Incident Review

Why Attend This Course

• From assuming every activity is equally urgent to recovery priorities set by impact analysis
• From plans written once and filed to departmental plans linked to one activation and escalation route
• From improvised statements during incidents to prepared messages for each stakeholder group
• From untested arrangements to a continuity and crisis response pack with a scheduled exercise plan

Conclusion

Continuity and crisis work answers two questions: what must keep running, and who decides what happens when it cannot. The course makes three distinctions clear: business continuity versus crisis management, risk assessment versus impact analysis, and tabletop versus live exercises. It is the right choice for managers and coordinators who need the full cycle in one week; a ten-day advanced edition on lifecycle management, policy and resilience strategy suits those leading a continuity function.

Course FAQs

What is business continuity and crisis management?

It is the combined discipline of keeping critical activities running during disruption, through analysis, strategies and plans, and of leading the organisation's response to a crisis, through a crisis team, decisions and communication.

What is the difference between risk assessment and BIA in business continuity?

Risk assessment asks what could disrupt the organisation and how likely it is. A BIA asks what happens if an activity stops, how quickly harm grows and how fast the activity must recover, whatever the cause.

Which standards does the business continuity and crisis management course follow?

The course follows ISO 22301 for the business continuity management system, ISO 22361 for crisis management structures and communication, and ISO 31000 for assessing the risks that threaten critical activities.

Is the business continuity and crisis management course right for a department head?

Yes. Department heads own the plans that keep their activities running, so they use the BIA, workaround and plan-writing content directly, and learn how their team fits into the crisis structure.

What do delegates produce on the business continuity and crisis management course?

Delegates produce a continuity and crisis response pack containing a BIA summary with recovery objectives, a continuity plan outline with activation steps, stakeholder message templates and an exercise plan.