Research has shown that teams work more productively in pleasant and engaging work environments and will often make more profitable decisions when physically working together in the same space. This strong dynamic need not change in a time of crisis or if the worst happens to a business. Despite the ability that employees have to work from home a company benefits hugely from the Crisis Management Team and core business functions working physically together.

Business continuity plans and resources are often put in place to reduce the operational, financial or brand impact a disaster will have. To deal with these kind of events plans need to be put in place that are repeatable, structured and tested. Without these three attributes any business continuity plan becomes no more than wishful thinking.

How Can a Work Area Recovery Plan Help?

To put the risks faced by businesses into perspective the top three perceived threats to businesses today are cyber attacks and data breaches, followed closely by unplanned IT outages. However, the actual threats came from IT outages, adverse weather conditions and interruption to the supply of utilities. With the recent protests by climate change protesters Extinction Rebellion, their staged demonstrations throughout London in the last few weeks have also seen them step up their presence and aim to disrupt the city with messages of their cause. With them trying to occupy the buildings of some financial institutions. The result is that businesses are more likely to suffer an event that will deny access to their premises than to their IT.

The past decade has seen huge changes in the way we work, with many of us being able to work wherever we are sitting, be it at home, in a coffee shop or in an airport. The only resources required are our laptops and internet access through Wi-Fi or mobile networks. However, research has shown time and time again that people work better when they are physically together.

There are also a number of job functions that cannot really be done at home – particularly those relating to personal data or confidential company data. Trading and other regulated functions that require monitoring are also difficult to deliver at home. On top of this, Health and Safety regulations will allow for staff to work at home for a couple of days a week but anything more than this will require a company to assess each employees home and ensure that they all have a safe working environment with proper desks, chairs and infrastructure.

The home working approach can therefore get very expensive as a result and in fact is way more expensive than contracting to a third party Work Area Recovery service. This type of service also provides the additional benefits of access to experienced and knowledgeable technical staff and provides for regular testing. It is in fact remarkably good value.

Some of the world’s leading technology companies, even those delivering online collaboration solutions, have developed work environments that attract staff and keep them there as long as possible. Workspaces have evolved into brighter and more accommodating spaces with everything that their staff members need such as food, hairdressing and even therapy to help their mental health and wellbeing. For example, Yahoo, Google and Amazon consider their offices to be a strategic tool for growth and believe that by creating engaging work environments they are more likely to have motivated and happy employees who are more creative and make better decisions.

How to Approach Work Area Recovery

Traditional work area recovery services and sites have not changed much since they first came into existence 30 years ago. Many remain unchanged in format, furniture and infrastructure and the only change is usually the technology on the desktop. Today’s businesses are being much smarter about their recovery strategies, with many realising that it is imperative that all their critical staff are up and running again as soon as possible. It is therefore essential to approach work area recovery as a key part of your business continuity planning, and the more robust your work area recovery planning is, the better equipped you will be at getting up and running again quickly if the worst happens.

Final Thoughts

Being as prepared as possible to meet any unexpected event is key to the survival of your business. We offer a range of modern, flexile and relevant work area recovery solutions that aim to get your business back up and running again in hours in the event of a disaster.

At Fortress, we believe that a strong work area recovery plan is essential to the continuity of any business.

Contact us today to book a tour of our facilities or download the Work Area Recovery Market Review to learn more.