The Six-Step Covid-19 Business Continuity Plan for Small & Medium Enterprises (SMEs)

The Six-Step Covid-19 Business Continuity Plan for Small & Medium Enterprises (SMEs)

The International Labour Organization (ILO) developed a tool to support small and medium enterprises in developing a Business Continuity Plan during the COVID-19 crisis.  The tool is mostly targeted at smaller enterprises with limited resources.

The tool will enable the business to:

1. Assess the level of risk and vulnerability of your business.
2. Develop an effective risk and contingency system for the business.

This purpose of the tool is to establish the risk profile of each business enterprise and the level of vulnerability to COVID-19 in terms of its impact on each of the following for the enterprise:

1. People: Lives of workers and family members
2. Processes: Enterprise operations
3. Profits: Revenue generation
4. Partnerships: Enabling environment to carry out business operations

The tool is structured in two parts.

1. Risk Assessment: The first part is a risk assessment that you can quickly do. It establishes the level of risk/vulnerability to your enterprises.
2. 6-step Process: The second part of the tool is a six-step process – using an illustrative example of a fictitious SME - to assist the business in developing its own Business Continuity Plan.

To access the ILO tool, please refer to the ILO document entitled “The six-step COVID-19 business continuity plan,” which can be downloaded below or accessed at https://www.ilo.org/actemp/publications/WCMS_740375/lang--en/index.htm.  Note:  This six-step COVID-19 business continuity plan has been developed by the ILO Bureau for Employers’ Activities (ILO-ACT/EMP).