9 January 2012
With only 200 days until the London 2012 Olympics, leading business continuity consultancy Steelhenge releases advice on improving business resilience
Leading business continuity consultancy Steelhenge has published advice to help businesses prepare for the London 2012 Olympics by improving their business resilience. The advice is provided in ten top tips, designed to be relevant for all businesses and organisations, regardless of size and whether they already have a business continuity plan in place.
"We've spoken to many businesses who haven't yet considered the impact the London Olympics will have on their operations either because they feel that the Olympics is still too far away to worry about or that the Games is unlikely to cause significant disruption as it's only over a period of a few weeks,” said Isobel Nicholas, Director of Communications for Steelhenge. "However, preparation for the games will begin months in advance causing much wider disruption and on January 9th 2012, the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympics will only be 200 days away, so we decided to try and help businesses prepare, whilst there is still time to do so, by releasing these ten business resilience tips.”
When asked what kind of impact the London 2012 Olympics could have on UK businesses, Isobel replied; "The primary impact of the Olympics will be on people with higher than usual staff absenteeism expected due to time off to see events, volunteering at the Games, transport disruption and so on. There are 34 Olympic venues nationally and the Games are preceded by a nationwide Torch Relay starting in May. During previous Olympic Games, the estimated rate of absenteeism was 30% and is the current planning assumption for the London Games. There's also the transport issue,” Isobel continued. "As thousands of athletes, spectators and media travel to and from events, transport networks will be stretched, particularly in London. This will not only directly affect staff but also have a knock on effect to their supply chain” Isobel explained.
"Despite these concerns, we wanted to send out a positive message,” Isobel added. "Releasing these ten tips for business resilience now reminds people that even though the Olympics are closer than they probably thought, they still have time to act. In addition,” Isobel concluded, "if the advice is acted upon, it will provide an ongoing benefit by improving business resilience for years to come.”
