Business Continuity Management standard

Press release

1 October 2010

PD 25111 Business continuity management. Guidance on human aspects of business continuity

Yesterday BSI published PD 25111 Business continuity management. Guidance on human aspects of business continuity. This guidance supports business continuity as covered in BS 25999, and provides additional insight that customers have been asking for. PD 25111 is published alongside the recent "PD 25666 Business continuity management. Guidance on exercising and testing for continuity and contingency programmes" and the forthcoming "PD 25888 Business continuity management. Guidance on business recovery".

PD 25111 provides guidance on the pre-planning and development of human resource requirements and policies for the stages following an incident:

Coping with the immediate effects of the incident
Managing people during the period of disruption
Supporting staff after recovery of normal operations.

The PD highlights the needs of people who could be involved in, or affected by, a disruption, providing guidance for anyone with responsibility for human resources associated with business operations. This covers top management through all levels of the organization; from those with a single site to those with a global presence; from small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) to organizations employing thousands of people. All aspects of managing people in an organization remain the responsibility of the organization regardless of any outsourcing arrangements.

Chris Green, Chair of the Business Continuity Management (BCM) committee that developed BS 25999-1, BS 25999-2, PD 25111, PD 25666 and PD 25888, said: "In recent years, the experts involved in developing BCM standards have responded to feedback from BCM professionals by developing a series of additional guidance documents. These provide insight into new areas based around BS 25999 as the core Business Continuity standard. I am pleased to see PD 25111 and PD 25666 published and look forward to the forthcoming additional guidance that will be developed around Business Recovery (PD 25888). This group has already seen that the Exercising & Testing PD (25666) has been well received and is already providing valuable support to BCM professionals and management teams."

Tim McGarr, Sector Content Manager for Business Continuity Management at BSI said: "Whilst the additional guidance documents being produced are not British Standards, they are all written in a similar style to BS 25999 and by many of the same people. These documents will provide customers with useful insight to complement the widespread use of BS 25999 in the UK and elsewhere. Focusing on the continuity of the organization's activities can distract top management from the realization that maintaining high morale amongst motivated employees is essential for continuity planning and for the short-term and long-term recovery of the organization."

For more information, visit the business continuity guidance section of the BSI Shop.

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