Disaster Recovery Journal Spring 2023

of whether recovery targets are realistic and where to pinpoint improvements to the plan. n Managing third-party risk remains a critical issue . In Forrester’s 2022 Business Risk Survey, after financial instability at 35%, 34% of respondents said the increased reliance on third parties is a primary driver of risk. Fifty percent of respondents report they have a formal program for assessing the BC readiness of critical third parties (up from 48% in 2021 but down from 56% in 2018) (see Figure 6-2). Due to the increased risk from third parties, we reformulated the responses in our survey about what steps are taken to assess and validate the BCP readiness of critical third parties. On the positive side, the highest number of respondents (19 out of 24) said they negotiate SLAs for specific uptime/availability as well as recovery time, recovery point capabilities, and associated penalties for SLA violations. Unfortunately, only 12 out of 24 respondents reported they use the detailed audit/assessment of a third party’s program and readiness as a decision-making tool to determine whether to begin/continue the partnership. The Business Needs to Take a More Active Role in the BCM Lifecycle After The BIA For a BCM program to truly be successful, not only do you need executive-level support, but you need line of business owners and employees involved in the entire BCM lifecycle as they are the ones who understand the inner workings and pri orities of the business. Unfortunately, again this year, we found participation from these business owners is too limited. Business owners are more likely to be involved in the BIA: 54% of respon dents report business owners are very involved – a significant increase from 2021 (38%) (see Figure 7). However, other areas such as awareness and training, risk assessment, and plan devel opment need much more business involvement. Strategies For Workforce Continuity and Communication Rely on Remote Workers Fundamentally, workforce continuity strategies changed during and after COVID-19. Employees dispersed from main sites and many embraced “work anywhere” opportunities when an organization offered it. On the surface, not much has changed as remote access continues its popularity as a workforce con tingency plan, but how plans are invoked and which employees should be notified now needs to include geographic regions, not just sites. In this survey, Forrester found the following: n Remote access remains the dominant strategy for workforce continuity. Remote access was the most common strategy even in 2008 (86%), hit a peak in 2018 (88%), and now sits at 82% (see Figure 8-1). The use of another internal site as an alternate site decreased notably in popularity from 2018 (75%) to 62% this year. Remote access procedures became popular to support employees who wanted to work from home or who travel frequently but became a necessity during the pandemic. They are effective when power and internet services are still available or when employees can travel outside of an affected area. However, when wide

16 DISASTER RECOVERY JOURNAL | SPRING 2023