Human resources management
Human resources management supplies the skills, capacity and support that the resource and leadership attributes depend on, including the ability to redeploy people and to keep them able to work.
This annex is informative. Annex A names the discipline and does not define it. A finding cannot rest on the annex alone. The guidance it supports is clause 5.8, and the evidence on this page is our interpretation of what that support looks like in practice.
What Annex A says
Annex A names human resources management as a supporting discipline; the standard does not define it. For clause 5.8, the contribution is the people dimension of resilience: knowing the skills the core services need, having succession and redeployment options, supporting people through disruption, and keeping the employment and industrial arrangements that allow rapid change. The discipline also carries the culture and speak-up work with health and safety and leadership.
Why it matters
People are the resource most often assumed and least often planned. A continuity plan that names roles without naming deputies, skills or training is a wish. The resilience question is whether the organization can move people to where they are needed, and whether it can sustain them through a long disruption. That includes fatigue, childcare, mental health and the practical arrangements that determine whether someone can work. The discipline earns its place when it can answer those questions with evidence, not policy.
What good looks like
Map the critical roles and the skills each core service needs. Record the deputies, the training and the gaps. Build a redeployment pool with the skills that can move between services. Review the support arrangements for a prolonged disruption, including fatigue and wellbeing. Check that the employment arrangements allow the redeployment the plan assumes. Test the call-out and support process once a year.
Evidence a reviewer asks for
There is no ISO certification or accredited assessment scheme for ISO 22316. The assessor here is your internal auditor, a customer assurance team or a consultant.
An assessor will ask who fills the critical roles when the usual holders are unavailable and whether those people are trained. A role map without deputies and training is incomplete.
- Critical role map The roles and skills each core service needs, with deputies and training status
- Redeployment pool The people and skills that can move between services, with the trigger
- Support arrangements Fatigue, wellbeing, childcare and practical support for a prolonged disruption
- Employment check The employment and industrial arrangements that affect rapid redeployment
Where it commonly fails
- Critical roles have no named deputies or cross-training.
- The plan assumes people can work longer hours indefinitely.
- Employment arrangements block the redeployment the plan relies on.
What to do before the second edition
Ask three critical role holders to name their deputy and that deputy's last training date. Where the answer is blank, you have found the people gap.
Read across
- 5.4 Effective and empowered leadership
- 5.5 A culture supportive of organizational resilience
- 5.7 Availability of resources
- 5.8 Development and coordination of management disciplines
← A.12 Health and safety managementA.14 Information security management →