The Co-operative Financial Services sought external assistance from Jermyn Consulting, specialist crisis management, business continuity and IT disaster recovery advisers.

The Co-operative Financial Services is part of The Co-operative Group, the UK’s largest consumer co-operative. Business continuity capability, critical to ongoing business operations, is tested to ensure continual improvement.

An internal review of crisis management capability, a key component of business continuity, identified a need to create a more “action orientated” approach, supported by documentation that was “fit for purpose”. Existing procedures needed to be more “joined up” to ensure a consistent and appropriate response in the event of a crisis.

Following a tendering exercise, The Co-operative Financial Services sought external assistance from Jermyn Consulting, specialist crisis management, business continuity and IT disaster recovery advisers.

“We chose Jermyn Consulting because of their considerable cross-sector knowledge – in particular their experience of working with critical services, such as police forces.” says Neil Furness, Business Continuity Manager at The Co-operative Financial Services. Jermyn Consulting’s approach emphasises the use of extensive practical exercises, to generate organisational engagement. “They are very good at engaging people in the organisation to make the exercises credible.” adds Neil.

“We bring fresh thinking: New ideas, innovation and gravitas to our work. Our work with The Co-operative Financial Services has concentrated on crisis and incident management exercises.” says Gary Donlon, Director of Jermyn Consulting. “We have also assisted The Co-operative Financial Services to build the foundations for effective crisis management. Our inclusive approach means that we impart knowledge, skills and resources where it is needed. For an organisation to build the degree of flexibility, experience and specialism that we provide would require an extensive – and expensive – recruitment campaign.” adds Gary.

The Co-operative Financial Services’ major occupancies are located in Manchester, Salford, Stockport and Skelmersdale in the North West and also in London. The Co-operative Financial Services Crisis Management Team has responsibility for incidents affecting multiple locations. In addition, Incident Response Teams (management teams at each The Co-operative Financial Services major occupancy) deal with incidents specific to each location.

Initially, Jermyn Consulting developed a programme of works that included:

• Development of crisis management triggers.
• Restructure of the Crisis Management Team to a role based structure.
• Identification of the personal competencies required for membership of the Crisis Management Team.
• Development of a workbook style Crisis Management Plan.
• Ensuring that the components were “fit for purpose” through tailored training and crisis management exercises.

This process was then replicated with individual Incident Response Teams (IRT). Supplemented by a number of knowledge sharing workshops, The Co-operative Financial Services now utilises a consistent and “best practice” approach to crisis and incident management. This has ensured that all areas of the business are engaged into a “joined up” process for crisis and incident management, aligned with the overall strategic approach.

A number of key learning points for The Co-operative Financial Services have emerged during Jermyn Consulting’s engagement. These have proved invaluable in generating a programme of continuous improvement:

• Do something different
Taking part in an exercise makes people think about the benefits of crisis management and business continuity. Neil Furness believes that until staff do this they cannot understand its full potential. Neil says that “Members of the Crisis Management Team and other staff come away from these exercises saying ‘I would do something different’. This is an excellent way of demonstrating the value of business continuity planning to the organisation.”

• Confidence creates effectiveness
The exercises build confidence in the process and encourage the Team to work together. The Crisis Management Team convenes annually for exercises, or when needed to respond to a crisis. When it does convene, it must be effective. Knowledge of what needs to be done in response to a crisis, confidence in the crisis management structure, and knowledge of the Crisis Management Plan improves effectiveness.

• Focus is key
Following an exercise, Team members understand what their responsibilities are. All members of the Team understand that each individual has a critical role to fulfill, and how it relates to their own. As a result, there is reduced duplication of effort and increased Team effectiveness.

Working in partnership with Jermyn Consulting, The Co-operative Financial Services has now conducted a number of scenario exercises and interactive training sessions from Executive to local management level. The “learn by doing” method has successfully ensured that a best practice approach to crisis and incident management is embedded within The Co-operative Financial Services. In addition, The Co-operative Financial Services Business Continuity Management Team often uses Jermyn Consulting as an experienced sounding board, prior to embarking on new initiatives.

“Our ongoing partnership with The Co-operative Financial Services’ own Business Continuity Management Team has successfully supported the awareness and credibility of crisis management and incident response within The Co-operative Financial Services. The next step is to involve more key business contacts in order to build capability even further.” says Gary Donlon.

Each time an exercise is conducted, crisis management capability improves.

“We are confident that we now have the right crisis management framework for the future.” concludes Neil Furness.