Business Continuity (BC) Training for an International Development Agency
Background:
An international development agency engaged Sicuro Group to design and deliver comprehensive Business Continuity (BC) training for key personnel responsible for BC across its global operations.
Requirements:
- Design a Virtual Training Module: Reflect the agency’s existing policies and procedures alongside international best practices, based on ISO 22301.
- Develop a Multi-Lingual Online Module: Incorporate lessons learned from the virtual training into a durable, multi-lingual online module for the agency’s Learning Management System (LMS).
- Provide Follow-Up Training: Deliver targeted virtual sessions to empower BC leads in training their departmental heads in business continuity.
Approach:
- Expert-Led Team: Sicuro selected leading business continuity experts with extensive experience in the international development sector to design and deliver the training.
- Collaborative Partnership: From the initial kick-off meeting, Sicuro established a close partnership with the agency, agreeing on secure methods for sharing relevant files and documents.
- Integration of Real-World Examples: Access to the agency’s internal policies, procedures, and after-action reviews enabled the inclusion of current, real-world examples in the training content.
- Peer-Reviewed Content: The training content was rigorously peer-reviewed to ensure coherence and alignment with the agency’s business continuity terminology, facilitating better understanding and retention.
- Maximized Attendance: Training sessions were scheduled across five regional time zones, ensuring broad participation from the global team.
- Interactive Learning: The training was designed to be highly interactive, with built-in time for questions, discussions, and breakout sessions, fostering engagement and practical relevance.
Virtual Course Delivery:
- Seamless Execution: After finalizing the content and refining delivery scripts, a comprehensive technical rehearsal was conducted to ensure smooth delivery. Support was provided to monitor and collate audience questions, which were addressed during breaks and breakout sessions.
- Region-Specific Relevance: The regional grouping facilitated high attendance and ensured that content was tailored to the specific challenges faced by BC leads in different locations.
- Dynamic Engagement: Strategic pauses between sections allowed time for addressing questions and observations, enriching breakout room discussions and the open Q&A sessions.
- Cost-Effective Global Coverage: The training effectively covered the agency’s global footprint, delivering comprehensive content in a highly cost-efficient manner.
- Positive Feedback: Audience feedback, gathered through an online survey, was overwhelmingly positive and provided valuable insights that informed the content of the online training module.
Follow-Up:
The success of the initial virtual training led to requests for additional, geographically focused training modules to help BC leads develop practical training for their teams. This follow-up training is planned for later this year.
Benefits, Observations, and Lessons:
- Efficient Content Development: Early trust-building and understanding of the agency’s internal vocabulary streamlined the content review and approval process.
- Relevant Course Design: Incorporating lessons learned from the outset ensured that the course content was directly relevant to the audience.
- Effective Communication: Aligning the agency’s language with external best practices enhanced the ability of the BC leads to communicate effectively with external stakeholders.
- Cost-Effective Collaboration: The use of cloud-based collaboration tools facilitated secure and efficient data sharing.
- High Attendance and Engagement: Scheduling training by regional time zones maximized attendance, while interactive elements sustained high engagement throughout.
- Time and Cost Savings: Delivering the training virtually saved the agency significant time and costs.
