A Tool to Strengthen Your Organisation’s Resilience

In our other blogs, we’ve explored the concepts of business continuity, incident management, and operational resilience. But once you’ve established your frameworks, how do you assess your organisation’s ability to maintain capabilities and recover from disruptions effectively? One tool is auditing – specifically, first and second party audits.

When it comes to business continuity and resilience, audits are essential for ensuring that your organisation is prepared for potential disruptions and can recover quickly. Audits offer an objective way to assess your capabilities in various areas, such as:

• Evaluating and strengthening business impact analysis, continuity planning, and incident management
• Improving resilience through supply chain audits
• Evidencing continuous monitoring and improvement of resilience capabilities
• Ensuring compliance with industry standards and regulations

• First Party Audit: This type of audit is conducted internally within the organisation. It is typically an assessment of your compliance with internal standards, policies or objectives.
• Second Party Audit: A second party audit is conducted by an organisation who has a direct interest in another organisation – such as a supplier or partner. These audits focus on evaluating whether a supplier or partner is meeting agreed-upon standards.

While third party audits (e.g., ISO 22301 certification audits) are also an option, this blog focuses on the internal and partner-driven audits that play a crucial role in improving resilience.

While first and second party audits can be done internally, not all organisations have the required resources or subject matter expertise. Hiring an external partner for these critical audits can provide a significant boost to your organisation’s resilience. Here are some benefits of engaging an external auditor:

1. Objectivity and Fresh Perspective: Even the most experienced teams can develop blind spots over time. An external auditor can provide an unbiased viewpoint, helping to uncover potential weaknesses or areas for improvement that internal teams may have missed.
2. Expertise and Best Practices: A specialist auditor in business continuity and resilience, who has hands on experience in delivering continuity and resilience programmes, and access to the latest industry standards and regulatory requirements can ensure your audit is up to date and compliant with best practices.
3. Time and Resource Efficiency: Business continuity audits can be time-consuming. By outsourcing this task, your internal team can focus on their core functions while specialists ensure that your organisation’s resilience is evaluated and enhanced.

Auditing your business continuity and resilience frameworks is a crucial step in maintaining a resilient organisation. First and second party audits provide valuable insights into your internal processes and those of your key partners. For many organisations, especially those lacking the internal resource, hiring an auditing partner can provide significant value, ensuring objectivity, access to industry best practices, and better resource management. Ensuring your organisation is prepared to respond and recover from disruptions when they occur.