Uncovering the pathway to modern organisational resilience

Facing ongoing uncertainty and volatility, many organisations have managed to succeed and even to grow, despite a chaotic backdrop of climate change, a global pandemic, geopolitical shifts and social division. However, not all businesses have fared well with some suffering enormous disruption from failing to prepare for impact. This challenge will not subside as we come out of these global impacts.

There is no doubt that we will continue to see and experience global volatility, and it is very clear that there is a significant gap between organisations’ perceived readiness and their actual ability to react.

Recognising the importance of organisational resilience is an important first step, but developing and implementing a strategy is the real key to business success in the modern world. To achieve further growth and success, businesses must ensure they are prepared for three key challenges and examine and define how they can quickly adapt to unforeseen circumstances.

Achieving unity amidst new ways of working

Processes for hiring, training and retaining staff are changing as most employees now expect hybrid working styles. According to a survey conducted by EY, 54% of employees would consider leaving their job without flexibility in where and when they work, and nine in 10 employees want this type of flexibility.

Employees also increasingly consider flexible environments, workplace culture and their own health and wellbeing. The Australian HR Institute (AHRI) found that almost 30% of Aussie companies are planning to introduce compressed hours such as a four-day working week or nine-day fortnight.

This demonstrates the important need for businesses to adapt and respond to evolving employee sentiment in order to attract and retain top talent. To maintain resiliency, organisations must enable hybrid working styles that help to foster unity and collaboration.

According to AHRI, almost 80% of organisations plan to continue or increase hybrid work arrangements permanently. A shift of this scale requires long-term planning around how to accommodate different kinds of work, workers and technology across an organisation.

AHRI’s study found that 47% of respondents found employees to be more — or much more — productive when working from home or in a hybrid way. Investing in flexible workspaces is needed to foster and maintain an adaptable and efficient workplace and to deliver a resilient organisation. Retention of talent should always be at the forefront of any growth strategy.

Protecting data amidst rising cyberthreats

We’re seeing rising cyberthreats, with a cyber attack reported every eight minutes in 2020–2021, according to the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC), at an estimated cost of $33 billion a year.

Additionally, new ransomware variants are reported to have doubled in the past six months according to Fortinet’s Global Threat Landscape Report from August 2022. As attackers are constantly increasing the sophistication of their attacks, leaving organisations vulnerable to catastrophic data breaches, there is a heightened and urgent need for enterprises to increase their data protection and security strategies.

Cyber-attack protection technologies such as cloud backups, air-gapped storage, extended detection and response (XDR) tools and multi-factor authentication (MFA) are essential in protecting today’s businesses. The Australian federal government this year announced a $9.9bn investment to strengthen cyber capabilities, with 82% of large Australian corporations having increased spending on tech-led security initiatives, according to Accenture’s State of Cybersecurity Resilience 2021 report.

However, there is still work to be done. Reports indicate that the number of organisations unable to access sufficient cybersecurity insurance is set to double. Driven by increasing threats and more stringent global regulation, businesses will no longer be able to rely on insurance policies. Instead, organisations will need to work to centralise technology functions with full visibility of all information systems. They will need to develop both disaster recovery and business continuity plans for all digital systems.

Although investing in cybersecurity may feel like a costly move, the alternative of dealing with a reputational crisis in the event of data leakage is considerably more labour-intensive and expensive. Ultimately, leaders who implement proactive data security measures will set themselves up for strong and continued organisational resilience.

Prioritising ESG amidst heightened social and environmental concerns

According to a GlobalData survey, two-thirds of executives believe that the global pandemic acted as a catalyst for increased focus and action on ESG. With a greater spotlight on inclusion initiatives, social justice efforts and climate pledges, businesses must ensure that ESG is woven throughout all activity.

Today, companies must prove and quantify their efforts by making and delivering strong and voluntary environmental and social commitments. Driving a culture of ESG requires accountability through metrics that make a clear connection to business strategy and action. Research from Iron Mountain found that 94% of organisations have integrated ESG goals and commitments into their wider business strategies.

We’re increasingly seeing tech solutions such as software platforms that can collect data and conduct ESG gap analysis and benchmarking. Additionally, AI, edge computing, IoT and advanced networks now play a role in environmental measurements and improvements, especially in tracking net-zero achievements.

Accelerating digital transformation efforts in a considered, responsible and strategic way will help to provide a path forward to adopt sustainability initiatives, improve engagement and meet and exceed customer and client expectations.

A holistic approach, including the comprehensive measurement and reporting of societal impacts, is critical in delivering future organisational resilience.

Ongoing global disruption has accelerated the urgent need for organisations to evaluate their preparedness for external threats. Yet, adoption of best practices in organisational resilience remains rare or lacking. Few have centralised coordination of their resilience efforts, embedded them at a sufficiently senior level or allocated sufficient budget and personnel to close the gap.

Looking ahead, businesses must consider their preparedness and strategies in response to rapid digital transformation, rising cyberthreat and heighted ESG issues to build a more resilient future.

Image credit: iStock.com/Parradee Kietsirikul