We’ve seen several emergencies across the business landscape lately. From human viruses that temporarily shut down workplaces, to IT viruses that temporarily shut down companies and their ability to access digital assets and communications. Then there’s regulatory change and business transformation, and these can also require swift and immediate action. Have you ever thought about how change management consultants can assist in preparation for an emergency? Or perhaps how they can help in the immediate aftermath? We’ll explore these questions in this article.
About emergency change management process
This refers to processes used where you need to make critical changes as soon as possible. This type of change requires swift reaction and prompt implementation with little time for an in-depth analysis. All emergencies that can cause an immediate and dangerous risk to a company can be included under these changes.
One example is a security risk called “0 Day Exploit”, referring to a hole in the security system that can be exploited by hackers as soon as it launched. Another example is isolating a company’s website from a large-scale Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack.
Emergency changes need to be addressed immediately while avoiding undue risks. Therefore, change management consultants put in place an acceptable level of risks and risk mitigation strategies. You still need to keep a high level of authorisation and control when carrying out such changes. There’s no time to wait for a formal and lengthy CAB (Change Advisory Board) meeting, unlike standard changes.
However, an organisation needs to keep the frequency of these changes to a minimum to avoid major losses. After every emergency change, your company needs to evaluate if it should have been made. If not, the change managers and CAB board need to figure out how to prevent such changes in the future.
How a Change Consultant can save you in an emergency
An organisation will often bring in Change Managers (external consultants) to get an objective and unbiased view of identifying and applying changes. The Change Manager will have worked with various companies in critical situations and can apply their expertise to prepare a company. Listed below are some ways external consultants are useful for emergencies.
- Emergency change control follows a similar procedure as normal changes but at a much faster pace. Therefore, change management consultants train all levels of your company from upper-levels to each IT employee to react pro-actively during emergencies.
- They help inspect a company and individuals to make them more effective and efficient during a crisis. They can provide essential information on project management, business and process solutions and employees behaviour.
- These consultants assist in forming change management teams within your office hierarchy, with the change manager at the top assisted by an advisory board (CAB). A special ECAB (Emergency Change Advisory Board) is formed from the CAB board to deal with only crisis situations.
- They develop plans and strategies and teach employees at various levels about emergency protocols. They also modify typical configuration management to deal with emergency protocols.
- Change management consultants help your company prepare back-out processes in the emergency protocols so your employees can restore it to its original state.
We have covered the multiple ways a consultant can assist the employees and leadership be fully prepared for emergencies. If you are struggling to find skilled change managers/consultants, contact Easy Authoring. We have a vast network of contingent workers with some of the best talent in Australia.
