BCI London Forum finds major shift to home working

The BCI London Forum, the largest chapter within the Business Continuity Institute, today announced the results of its “Work Area Recovery” survey.  During May 2010, 49 London area BCI members completed the London Forum’s online survey, anonymously. Questions covered the following areas:

·         The prevalence and types of work area recovery arrangements, whether they had been invoked and why;

·         Whether respondents had reviewed their work area recovery strategies and why;

·         Options to work area recovery that were being considered;

·         What influenced their strategy and why they have used and/or will continue to use work area recovery;

·         The proportion of employees covered by work area recovery and proportion of employees able to work from home;

·         The biggest concerns or inhibitors to home working.

Work Area Recovery (WAR) is a significant portion of business continuity budgets and as organisations’ contracts come up for renewal, it comes under close scrutiny.  Downsizing, changes in work practices, cultures and technological advances mean that organisations have more options.

83% of respondents had contracted third party WAR facilities, either syndicated or dedicated.   45% of respondents had invoked their WAR facilities, so a significant proportion had direct experience of the value of WAR.   Three quarters had recently reviewed their strategy to look at alternate arrangements.  Nine out of ten of those had considered the home working option with cost being the chief factor in determining which strategy to use.

The biggest shift they saw was towards more home working.  As one respondent put it, “As staff become more mobile, the reliance on office space decreases, and work area recovery is focussed on office space.” A third of the respondents said more than half of their employees were able to work from home. Over half of respondents cited network constraints as the biggest concern with home working in the UK. 

Results were presented and discussed during this week’s BCI London Forum’s seminar on Work Area Recovery.   For more information and a complete copy of these results,  see the June 2 2010 Presentations