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Fall World 2008

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CIOs, Is Your Human Capital Resilient?
Hi, sandeshcsheth
Written by SANDESH SHETH, FREYAE JONES & JOSEPH MCHUGH
In face of the increasing probability of disasters that could adversely affect the business, organizat
Logout implementing business continuity management systems (BCMS). Your organization could be one
plan in place. One of the areas that is most often neglected is human capital. Based on the author
experience, human capital through one of the building blocks of the BCMS lacks resiliency.
Your Profile
This article, using a Six Sigma tool – Quality Function Deployment (QFD) – builds up a framework
MyBlog Dashboard needs of building resiliency in human capital. In this paper the real life observations are stated in rh
My Comments
Explanation of Terms Used Resiliency in Human Capital
Human capital comprises of knowledge, skills, health, education and physical ability. Resiliency is
adversity.

Objective of human capital resiliency in face of disaster

The organization is able to continue its business operations with available resources at a pre
This implies the following pre-requisites:

Availability of the right people at the right place at the right time

Quality Function Deployment (QFD)

QFD is a comprehensive quality design method that:

Seeks out spoken and unspoken customer needs from fuzzy Voice of the Customer (VOC)
Uncovers “positive” quality that wows the customer;
Translates these into designs characteristics and deliverable actions; and
Builds and delivers a quality product or service by focusing the various business functions t

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customer satisfaction.

What a QFD basically does is translate customer requirements into an appropriate company progr
each phase of the product realization cycle. The accompanying graphic depicts how the various ho
We build the first House Of Quality based on the Voice Of The Customer.
Building resiliency in Human Capital depends on three dimensions: people, procedures, and cultur
explore each of them in detail.

1. Talent management

Have we identified the critical resources for each business process that we perform?
Do we know the skill sets of these critical resources? Have we created job descriptions for e
needed?
Where can we get these skill sets and within what time frame in case we were to need them

2. Backup availability

Have we identified backups for the critical resources?

What is the backup depth (how many tiers)?
Have the backups been trained to assume the roles of the critical resources?
Have the backups ever been tested?

3. Analysis of availability to function in case of disaster

Have we analyzed how people will react to trauma especially the ones that affect the loved
can extrapolate based on our observations of how an individual has reacted previously in ca
a good manager will be able to count the persons he/she can rely on even in the face of ad
What proactive measures have we instituted that will help the employees face a real trauma
Have we analyzed the what-if questions if resources have to operate from an alternate site?
critical resource is a single parent? What if the resource has an elder at home who cannot b
about pets who cannot be left alone for long durations?
What measures do we have in place if social distancing is to be observed and reporting to t
an option?
Is tele-working an option? Have we defined and tested the procedures to make it work?

4. Ability to communicate

How will the people be communicated in case of a disaster, especially if it occurs in post
Do we have a bulletin board? Questions to ponder on: How much information needs to be p
undue advantage of it in case the board is public? Will the customer be alarmed? Do we ne
on the bulletin board?
What if tele-communication networks are disrupted being a local disaster and the ability to c
available?
Do we have a call-in number wherein employees could call to obtain instructions? Is this nu
facility no longer exists?
How will the decision making process be affected because the Crisis Management Team is
make the decision and inform the others?

5. Ability to travel

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In case of an outage in mass rapid transportation systems will people be able to travel to th
location?
Is there more than one option to get to the desired location?

1. Documented

Have we documented the following procedures?

l Backup
l Recovery
l Offsite shipment
l Batch jobs
l Print jobs
l Passwords for all systems
l Insurance reimbursement

2. Comprehensive

Are the above-mentioned procedures comprehensive?

Is everything that is vital also documented?
In case of knowledge based on experience, e.g. partitioning of the LPAR, DADS settings on
allotment documented?

3. Validated

Have the backup personnel validated the procedures for effectiveness?

1. Top management involvement

Is there a perception within the organization that the top management is involved in BCMS?
Is the top management involved in formulation of the strategy and review of the various disa
Do the audit reports and exercise reports get reported to the top management?
Has the top management participated in disaster recovery exercise?

2. Policies and systems

Have we defined and communicated the following policies or have the various components within
Policy

Crisis escalation policy

Disaster declaration policy
Tele-working policy
Leave policy
Policy for individuals whose services would not be required in case of disaster for a certain
Policy for individuals whose services are required but who are not able to report for recover

Reimbursement policy

For expenses related to administration arrangements for people to move to an alternate site
period

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What is the overtime policy? Is there a comp-off policy?

What is the disaster pay?
How are bills to be paid (by the individual or centrally)?
Is there a company credit card? Who uses it, when and how much is the limit? Can the cred
How are timesheets to be submitted from the alternate site and to whom? Who keeps track

Insurance policy

Emergency procurement policy for restoration of primary site after the disaster
Payroll policy in case of disaster
Direct deposit
Payment shipped to home location/alternate site
Policy for notification of casualties (in case of accident/death on premises
Policy for disbursement of claims in case of casualty
Policies for third-party service providers in case of a disaster
Do we have systems in place that could provide support and implement the policies in case
Do we have systems in place to ensure quality of policies and the ability to monitor the upda

3. Awareness and training

How many tiers of employees have been defined to create a pool of resources for all critica
Have the employees been cross-trained in addition to their primary responsibilities?
Is there a mechanism to monitor conduct of effective mentor/protégé trainings?
Are employees including new joinees aware of their roles and responsibilities in case of a d
Have they been rehearsed on a regular basis?
Is the disaster recovery education material available in an easy-to-use package?

Conclusion
Despite all technological advancements, employees are still needed. The problem in a disaster is t
Building resiliency in human capital lays the foundation for a business continuity management

About The Author: Joseph McHugh is the executive deputy director operations for Judiciary Infor
Maryland Judiciary. With more than 30 years of IT experience, he is responsible for providing miss
infrastructure, ensuring security, and optimizing operations at JIS. He is the project champion for th
system implementation project at JIS. McHugh can be reached on joe.mchugh@mdcourts.gov.

About The Author: Freyae Jones is the senior manager of data center operations for Judiciary Inf
of Maryland Judiciary. She is the project manager for BCMS implementation project at JIS. Jones
Freyae.jones@mdcourts.gov.

About The Author: Sandesh Sheth, MBCP, PMP, Six Sigma Black Belt, CISA, is lead consultant
group of Satyam Computers Services Limited, developing and implementing business continuity m
organizations worldwide. Sheth can be reached at sandesh_sheth@yahoo.com.

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