Australia plays a leading role in standardisation work in the area of risk management and business continuity, with a long history of developing important Australian Standards and participation on international standards committees.
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the critical role that effective risk management and business continuity planning plays, and standards solutions must continue to evolve to ensure Australia can meet emerging threats and opportunities into the future.
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This year has seen the traditional ways of how Australians work be disrupted, in a way of which our generation has never seen. In late April, studies showed 46 percent of working Australians were working from home, compared to 4.7 percent in 2016.
- For many businesses the management of offices, staff, and products has been completely disrupted.
- Standards in the area of risk management and business continuity are key in preparing organisations for known and unknown challenges such as COVID-19.
- Standards Australia has worked with technical committees to expedite the publication of key standards in this space.
“The current pandemic has highlighted the need for effective planning. We have worked closely with experts in this space to provide new guidance material around risk management and continuity strategies to ensure that operations and infrastructure are appropriately supported,” said Daniel Chidgey, Head of Stakeholder Engagement at Standards Australia.
Examples of the newly published guidance on improving security and resilience include:
- AS/NZS 5050:2020, Managing disruption-related risk, which assists management in both the public and private sectors to identify early indications of the emergence of risk.
- AS ISO 22301:2020, Security and resilience – Business continuity management systems – Requirements and AS ISO 22313:2020, Security and resilience – Business continuity management systems – Guidance on the use of ISO 22301.
To pave a way forward for further standardisation in the area of risk management and business continuity, Standards Australia has also released a briefing paper.
This briefing paper outlines a proposed forward plan for activities in the area of risk management and business continuity on which we are seeking feedback from stakeholders.
The overall goals are:
- Leverage existing experience and expertise into more specialised work areas
- Develop an agile and coordinated committee network
- Deliver effective standards and related publications to Australian stakeholders in a timely manner
“The aim of the briefing paper is to ensure we are set up for success and can continue to deliver the right standards solutions to meets Australia’s future needs,” continued Mr. Chidgey.
Standards Australia welcomes feedback on the risk management and business continuity briefing paper via sem@standards.org.au until 4 December 2020.
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