Preparing for the winter season: A practical guide for organizations

By Gabrielle Lamarche, CBCI, ACRP (special collaboration)

Organizational resilience refers to an organization’s ability to adapt in the face of challenges and disruptions within the environment in which it operates. The types of perturbations that can impact an organization are varied, and include climatic events, health crises such as epidemics, and IT security incidents.

During the winter period, these three types of disruption can manifest themselves and put an organization to the test. How can you take them into account when preparing for the winter season?

In this article, we’ll give you some food for thought on how to start preparing for the winter season, with the aim of raising awareness of the risks and disruptions that this period can pose to organizations.

Where to start preparing?

Here are 3 types of disruption to consider when preparing for the winter season.

 

1- Climate

On the overall picture, it is undeniable that climate change is affecting all organizations. This type of disruption is becoming increasingly important, due to the frequency and intensity of bad weather. As a result, extreme weather events are becoming increasingly common.

The diversity of winter weather phenomena can affect the operational continuity of organizations, from snowstorms and ice storms to intense cold snaps. Nowadays, it’s also essential to consider sudden thaws, which can bring heavy rain and unexpected flooding. These climatic changes add variables to organizations’ winter preparations, so as to preserve their operational capacity throughout the season.

Here are a few ideas to explore to alleviate them.

What strategies are in place in the event of a prolonged power outage?

It is not uncommon for access to the main power supply to be cut off during storms. Specific contingency plans are therefore needed to limit the impact of such interruptions. What’s more, depending on the extent of the outage and the regions affected, additional time may be needed before the power supply is restored. In such cases, it is important to ensure that planned measures such as generators are ready to be activated. This consideration must also include teleworking employees, who could also be without power at home.

 

Are alternative routes available to access the organization’s premises? Is it possible to modify delivery and reception schedules if extreme weather conditions are forecast?

Sudden accumulations of snow, ice or even flooding can lead to road closures, making travel difficult or even impossible. This could have an impact on employee presence at work, and on product deliveries and receipts for the organization.

 

Is any equipment at risk of damage from storms, ice, snow or rain? If so, how can this equipment be protected?

Identifying such equipment, and putting measures in place to protect it, will be essential to maintaining operational capacity. Think of roofs that can collapse under the weight of accumulated snow and ice, or damage to greenhouses during hailstorms. In addition, specific contingency plans related to various extreme weather events such as floods should be reviewed and ready for deployment.

 

Is my organization a safe place for employees to go?

Safe premises are essential to reduce the risk of accidents, such as ice-related falls in parking lots and at entrances. Specific storm maintenance plans aimed at maintaining access routes to the organization’s site, such as snow removal from sidewalks, help reduce these risks.

 

What are the continuity strategies if suppliers are also affected by the events?

It is necessary to anticipate that these phenomena could affect critical suppliers and dependencies, leading to further delays in internal operations. Stakeholder-related continuity strategies may need to be activated.

In short, in the face of these weather-related impacts, continuity solutions need to be considered, developed and communicated to stakeholders to ensure effective implementation where necessary.

 

2- Sanitary

The winter period is often associated with the spread of viruses such as influenza, especially during the holidays and with children at school. It would therefore be appropriate to anticipate increased absenteeism for these reasons. In this context, it is important to consider identifying specific measures, such as encouraging teleworking, to limit the spread during these periods. For further consideration, we need to ask ourselves the following questions:

• Are there plans to provide employees with sanitary equipment such as masks, gloves and hand sanitizing stations? Which locations should be prioritized (common areas, shared equipment, shared workstations, door handles, company vehicles, site entrances, etc.)?
• Does the organization have a management policy for sick leave related to flu-like symptoms and respiratory illnesses?
• Does the organization have a travel policy? What measures are in place for employees returning from areas with infectious diseases? What are the guidelines for their return?
• Does the organization plan and offer flu vaccination campaigns for employees?
• Is there a procedure for housekeeping enhancement?
• Is there redundancy in skills to cope with increased absenteeism in certain sectors and for certain tasks?
• What strategies are in place in the event of high absenteeism within operations?

This helps identify continuity strategies to be updated and validated in the event of an increase in employee absenteeism.

 

3- Technological

The holiday season is particularly conducive to an increase in IT security incidents targeting organizations, due in part to the vacations granted during this period. Anticipation of this type of incident must therefore be considered, notably by maintaining an active watch on all the organization’s activities.

What’s more, in the event of climatic events prompting employees to telework for an extended period, it is essential to ensure that the IT infrastructure remains functional and that tasks can be carried out remotely.

With vacations and teleworking, it remains important to remind and raise employee awareness of good cybersecurity practices before the start of this period. Here are a few areas in which action can be taken:

• Best practices for remote connections
• Encrypting data to protect against unauthorized access
• Follow the 3-2-1 rule for backups: 3 copies of data, on 2 different media, including 1 off-site
• Implement multi-factor authentication for an additional layer of security
• Implement tools to require complex, unique passwords
• Increased monitoring of the computer network
• Install firewalls and intrusion detection systems
• Install security patches on a regular basis
• Phishing simulations linked to various end-of-year promotions
• Securing equipment, both remote and face-to-face
• Updating systems and software

In conclusion, the preparation and continuity strategies developed for this season are not limited to the winter period. They also apply to other types of disruption, and ultimately contribute to strengthening organizational resilience.

If you would like support in developing your seasonal preparedness or even continuing your efforts to strengthen your organization’s resilience, contact Benoit Racette Services-conseils inc. today at [email protected].