Influence Business Continuity Essay

Working for Riordan Mfg., we have been tasked with either overseeing the company’s initiative, or advising an initiative to implement a Business Continuity Plan (BCP). Although there are scores of ways to do this on this topic, which also includes the concepts of â€Å" Disaster Recovery Planning† and â€Å"Business Resumption Planning,† the reality is that we need to start somewhere. And it is best that we think of this as a process, with distinct phases that provide measureable outcomes. There are two sayings one is â€Å"Rome was not built in a day† and another one is â€Å"You have to eat an elephant one bite at a time† The BCP takes time to work and things will not happen overnight. Some businesses are satisfied with just doing a data backup and are not concerned about other ramifications of an unplanned disaster, which of course, is an irresponsible approach. Riordan Mfg, however, will use their BCP efforts on what matters most to them — planning and addressing how they would manage significant, yet more â€Å"realistic† disasters. Either way, they’ll want to consider the questions below and how they influence how they will go about doing the BCP exercise: How long can we be â€Å"down† before our business is affected in such a way that we may not be able to recover (and what does â€Å"down† mean to us) How much does it cost us to be down? How long of an outage can our customers/clients accept before they go elsewhere for services? How much business can we conduct if our computers are down, if our paper files are water soaked from a pipe that exploded in the wall, if access to our building is being denied for safety reasons, or if our operations manager or IT leader goes missing for an extended period of time for any reason? Are there any regulatory requirements from local or federal government that require us to have a plan like this, and how do we know if we are staying within those requirements? Before this plan can work Riordan has to put a team together to implement the plan should the need ever arise. Assessment and Feedback Riordan Manufacturing has come across some concerns and issues with the employees. Employee motivation and retention has become an issue within the company. Riordan’s human resources processes are prohibiting the empowerment of employees, delaying potential growth due to unbalanced profits, and a decrease in sales. The human resources department needs to address these concerns because if they do not address these current issues, the company will not be able to continue their business strategy. The issues preventing logical human capital management is lack of employee motivation, a high turnover rate in strategic areas, the pay levels are below industry standards, and there is a lack of structure in the performance review process throughout the company. Riordan Manufacturing can work these issues out by creating a coaching and feedback process, planning career development programs, and updating pay for performance reward systems. The forms of communication from the management to the employees will be by e-mail, meetings and newsletters. Meetings will be held weekly as needed and more often if warranted. The newsletter will be published once a month, and the e-mails will be sent as needed. If a problem occurs a meeting wil management, team leaders and employees will be held immediately. Riordan Manufacturing’s reward system is out dated and it is based on how long an employee has been with the company and cost of living rises as well as seniority and position. The reward system does not reflect the company’s current strategy. Riordan has the opportunity to evaluate the structure of their pay scale and have their pay scale to reflect the corporate vision. The greater the alignment, or fit, between the organization and the compensation system, the more effective the organization (Milkovich & Newman, 2004). Riordan acknowledged there was a large group of employees that were not performing at top level while conducting a review of performance data. In order for the company to exceed, human capital must perform at its highest capacities. Riordan has the opportunity to identify motivators in Assessment and Feedback Existing talent pools to increase productivity. Employees must be motivated if they are to perform, behaviors such as high task performance, job seeking, attendance, or cooperation with others (Dreher & Dougherty, 2001). Motivation Theories (expectancy and equity). As soon as something is seen to be going in the wrong direction the so called brakes would have to be applied. And since Riordan Manufacturing is a publicly-owned corporations they have the primary goal of maximizing shareholder wealth, strategic planning centers on the long-term growth in a company’s financial position. Also, Riordan Manufacturing must constantly keep abreast of local, state, federal, and international laws, since a simple legislative act could affect them in any number of ways. Another primary concern is that of competition. This also suggests that Riordan Manufacturing should construct much of its budget based upon its economic forecast. The research concludes that Riordan Manufacturing seems well-poised to continue its growth in the plastic injection molding industry, and appears to adhere to sound financial planning strategies, leaving little doubt that its shareholders are being appropriately represented. Once Riordan Manufacturing clears all of the hurdles and is on the road to making everyone money things will look good for them and all.