The Business Continuity Institute (BCI) has released its 104-page BCI Continuity & Resilience Report 2023, sponsored by the software firm Riskonnect.

While the covid pandemic may be past, the ‘new’ remote ways of working adopted in many fields due to the lockdowns of 2020 have become embedded, the report suggests, and BC professionals are moving to formalise those processes and ensuring that processes and planning evolve to support them (for example, what if remote workers have a power outage and are unable to work?).

Rachael Elliott, Head of Thought Leadership at the BCI, said: “The pandemic caused many organisations to review their business continuity and resilience processes, with many finding the processes and procedures did not match current working practices and the ever-increasing risk landscape. As a result, many organisations moved to more agile working environments, ‘lite’ business continuity plans, and better collaborative practices.

“Now these ‘new’ ways of working have become embedded, the report shows that professionals are now moving to formalise these processes; ensuring processes and planning to support them. However, the primary finding of this report is the expansion of professionals’ roles into an exciting new domain, introducing techniques such as longer-term horizon scanning, strategic advice on resilience to the board, and seeking to ensure external stakeholders are protected in the case of an incident.”

So-called ‘soft’ or people skills have become a more crucial part of the catalogue of skills required for such managers, the survey suggested. Resilience managers now have to be able to “make things happen” (so 76.8pc of those surveyed feel), be relationship builders (76.4pc), and be empowering (74.6pc), while also being empathetic (73.9pc). That’s not to downgrade some of the more traditional skills and principles, because also rated highly was being “process orientated” (83.5pc) and “a good planner” (79pc) as attributes of a resilience manager. As the field becomes more complex and competitive, the importance of education from an academic (71.3pc) and professional (67.4pc) perspective has become more highly rated, too.

BC and resilience roles were seen as about the same as strategic as operational. This follows the trend noted in previous years that BC professionals are starting to become trusted advisers on longer-term resilience issues; an expanding from traditional operational duties (such as developing plans, conducting risk assessments, and ensuring services could be restored after a disruption) to include strategic planning. The report arose from some 348 respondents in 63 countries; and ten interviews to gather detail.

More in the November print edition of Professional Security Magazine.

You can download the document from the BCI website; you don’t have to be a member, but you do have to sign up, which is free. The BCI meanwhile is holding BCI World Hybrid, its annual conference in London on November 1 and 2.