EACO POSTAL AND COURIER CONFERENCE NAIROBI APPLICATION OF BUSINESS CONTINUITY MANAGEMENT IN DEVELOPMENT OF HUMAN RESOURCE IN POSTAL AND COURIER SECTOR. BY MARY MUKABI MULTIMEDIA UNIVERSITY OF KENYA

INTRODUCTION The development of the human resource capacity is critical in the postal and courier sector. The global business environment has been changing fast. This can be seen from the emerging markets in the developing countries and the economic crisis in the developed countries. The human resources therefore will be important in the organization and management of the emerging markets and in minimizing the effects of economic crises

INTRODUCTION CONT… Technology is fast changing people’s behaviour thus influencing the way business is conducted. The internet has had a big impact in the demand for some postal services such the letter mail. This has affected the business models of postal and courier sector. There is therefore need for developing the human resource capacity in order to sustain postal and courier business.

HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT IN AND COURIER SECTOR Human resource development [HRD] is the process of building human competencies [knowledge, skills, attitude, potentials and practice] through different mechanisms such as training, performance appraisal, counseling and career planning.

HRD CONT.. The postal and courier sector should develop the capacity of the human resource so as to achieve the organizational goals especially at this time when the competition is intense. The objective of human resource development is to improve the productivity of the people in order to achieve organizational goals efficiently and effectively[Agrawal, 2002].

CAPACITY BUILDING Capacity building is an approach to develop ones own potentiality in order to enhance performance or output. It is in fact an integral part of overall HRM/HRD programs

LEVEL OF BUSINESS IN POSTAL AND COURIER According to UPU(2012) there 5.4 million employees in the 192 member countries operating in 670,000 retail outlets. The performance of this large human resource is dependent on how well the HR is developed.

Cont…. The human resource needs to be more innovative to come up with new businesses in place of the declining letter mail. This is evident in the new financial postal services and other products driven by customer demand and expectations.

Cont…. Notably postal and courier Administrations are embracing technology in the traditional postal products to be at per with the current technological changes such as E-Commerce. Thus the need for developing the human resource to be more creative and innovative.

BUSINESS CONTINUITY MANAGEMENT (BCM) AND HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT. Business continuity management is the act of anticipating incidents which will affect critical functions and processes for the organization and ensuring that it responds to any incidents in a planned and rehearsed manner. [Gallagher, 2003].

BCM CONT.. The regional postal network has employed hundreds of worker to work in all the postal and courier networks who continue to evolve and develop through the use of modern technology, operating systems and methods in order to ensure its viability and sustainability.

BCM CONT… For postal and courier business to remain viable and sustainable it is important to apply the concept of BCM. The aim of BCM is: To anticipate any crisis, risk or any other unexpected eventurity and to take proactive measures that would keep the business up and running even in the face of such eventurities/problems.

BCM Given the fact that the postal and courier sector is operating in an environment that is highly dynamic and highly competitive, it is therefore highly susceptible to environmental crisis. Such as obsolete technologies, terrorist attacks, supplier unreliability, fire and flood risks, price fluctuations etc. This implies that the unexpected can happen to the sector at any one time. The sector should be pro- active in the way it responds to the environmental changes.

BCM CONT… The sector should device strategies to deal with the emerging competition and technological changes. The business continuity management model is proposed as one such strategy. The human resource function is one of the areas that can highly benefit from the BCM Model. The human resource plays a very important role in the BCM model especially in the mentorship programmes of employees, handling supplier uncertainty and dealing with the effects of recession in the economy.

BCM cont… Business continuity management can be used by the postal and courier sector to achieve Doha strategy ( ) programe number four of the African region.

Doha strategy program number four : Goal No. one: To Improve the interoperability of international postal networks with priorities being.  Improve the quality of service of international and domestic mails – promote the use of the quality of service fund.  Improve postal security and eliminate sending of dangerous goods using postal network.  Promote addressing systems and the use of postcodes.

GOALS CONT… Goal No. two; Provide technical knowledge and expertise related to the postal sector with the following priorities-:  Train managers in statistics and postal market research to meet customer needs.  Publicize postal activities to promote new services.  Develop appropriate strategies to strengthen staff skills.

GOALS CONT… Goal No. three; Promote innovative products and services paying particular attention to the following-:  Continue the development and modernization of electronic money transfers.  Stimulate growth of designated postal operators by developing E- commerce and parcel and small packets services.  Continue the development of postal network along three dimensions, to diversify products and services.

GOALS CONT…  Advocate state guarantee and public funding for the development of postal infrastructure. Goal No. four; Foster sustainable development of the postal sector giving priorities to-:  Raise awareness of sustainable development and social responsibility through suitable strategies and activities  Establish systems of good governance, and ensure cost and price transparency as well as quality of service.  Promote social dialogue and ensure sustainable development on an international scale.

BCM IN RELATION TO ABOVE FOUR GOALS CONCLUSION To achieve the four goals in program four the postal and courier sector should develop the human resource by applying the following BCM approaches:

BCM APPROACHES Project planning Creating teams Assigning roles and responsibilities Performing risk analysis Developing back up and data recovery strategies Developing the disaster recovery plan and testing Training of employees Maintaining and updating the developed plans

BCM CONT… BCM as discussed in a lot of books is the responsibility of the senior management. This is because crisis- related decisions have direct influence on the long – term survival of an organization and are usually taken by senior managers. [Woodman and Hutchings, 2010]

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