Implement a business continuity plan for remote workers

Tech support for remote workers is critical

The challenge of remote working is to balance technology with people management. Remote access to corporate systems is facilitated using a number of tried-and-true technologies, such as VPNs.

For most organizations, technology is available to support remote work. Aside from managing remote workers to align their skills with the company's needs, the challenge for business continuity and disaster recovery planning is how the company recovers and returns to normal. Organizations must factor both corporate offices and remote workers into this planning.

Fortunately, many data centers are designed to operate without human intervention or with remote access to system administration functions. Cloud-based vendors and managed service providers frequently deliver managed IT resources such as applications, data backup and other as-a-service offerings. This service model helps reduce the likelihood of outages as long as the MSPs can keep their systems operational and network connectivity is available.

Organizations must decide on their recovery priorities in a disruptive event. For example, the focus should logically be on locations where the greatest number of employees and mission-critical systems operate. For organizations with remote workers, they must determine where those unique needs fall in terms of priority.

Many organizations use remotely hosted applications. Employees, whether local or remote, can continue using those systems as long as vendors are able to keep operations working and network connectivity is not compromised. The real challenge for organizations that have mostly locally hosted systems and databases is to remotely manage those assets.

Managing business continuity remotely

Technology issues aside, new approaches might be needed for managing remote workers. Effective business management techniques for off-site employees might include scheduling regular individual calls and team conference calls to assess employee performance and keep lines of communication active.

Internal teams and project managers must also be able to access conference bridges to manage their projects. These activities and resources are especially important for keeping remote workers connected and able to continue their work after a major disaster.

Management dashboards, often built into today's business systems, help managers at all levels keep a real-time eye on their responsibilities and employees. Administrative teams need access to dashboards and other performance-related activities so that they can be prepared to coordinate different company activities.

Whereas previously it was a simple matter of walking into someone's office or cubicle, now it can be necessary to schedule electronic meetings of all types and sizes, so universal access to individual calendars is essential. Video calls can also enhance the human factor among employees, managers and project teams.

The aim of these types of remote business continuity techniques is to replicate how the business operated before the disruptive event occurred as closely as possible. This means understanding things from a process level. Data from a prior business impact analysis might be helpful. A BIA identifies key processes and lists the employees needed to manage them, the technologies needed, and any internal and external dependencies.

While remote work is an important business continuity strategy, especially if the primary office or regional offices are unavailable, careful consideration must be made on how and where to deploy home office employees to a new work environment. Should they all be in an alternate location, or can they be dispersed across multiple work areas? How quickly can this migration take place, post-event? At what point in time is a return to the original office likely to happen? Or will an entirely new work arrangement be needed?

How to implement a continuity plan for remote workers

Assuming a business continuity plan currently exists, examine it to see how remote workers can be factored into the plan, if they are not already.

Consider the following actions when addressing business continuity planning for remote workers:

• Examine the current business continuity plan to see how remote workers can be factored into the plan's procedures or if a separate plan for remote working is needed.
• Perform a BIA and risk assessment to determine issues associated with remote work.
• Analyze the financial implications of deploying remote workers.
• Examine the technology issues associated with remote workers, such as network bandwidth, VPN connectivity, cyberattack protection and remote hardware.
• Determine the administrative and people-related issues to be addressed with remote work. Be sure to work closely with HR on this.
• Determine the strategies available to the company if a major disruptive event occurs that makes it difficult for primary office employees to work.
• Establish remote work training for issues like remote access security procedures, accessing company systems and resources remotely, and performing frequent data backups.
• Administrative staff might also need training on how to interface with newly remote employees. This could include scheduling team meetings, performance reviews and other activities.
• Make sure that the help desk staff is trained and able to handle the potential increase in the number of remote worker inquiries and trouble reports.
• IT staff should be current on all technologies and security arrangements associated with remote workers.
• IT staff should periodically test the security on remote networking and access to company resources.
• The business continuity plan should be periodically tested and should address remote working if possible. If a separate business continuity plan for remote work is developed, manage, review and update that plan.
• Expand technology disaster recovery plans to address remote access and test the recoverability of the remote access infrastructure.
• Depending on the cause of the move to go remote, or to return to in-office operations, HR can be a helpful resource to keep employees' mental health in mind as well.

Paul Kirvan, FBCI, CISA, is an independent consultant and technical writer with more than 35 years of experience in business continuity, disaster recovery, resilience, cybersecurity, GRC, telecom and technical writing.