What Is ISO 22301?

ISO 22301:2019 is the international standard for Business Continuity Management Systems (BCMS). It provides a structured framework to help organisations prepare for, respond to and recover from disruptive incidents while protecting operations, revenue and reputation.

The ISO 22301 business continuity standard sets out the requirements for establishing, implementing and maintaining a BCMS. It applies to organisations of all sizes and sectors, with a focus on clear and auditable requirements. 

Its goal is to provide proactive systems that strengthen organisational resilience so businesses can limit the impacts of disruptive incidents.

AS 4836 provides comprehensive guidelines and procedures for safe work on or near low-voltage and extra low-voltage (ELV) electrical installations and equipment. It outlines the minimum set of procedures, safety requirements, and recommendations for managing electricity hazards and risks.  AS/NZS 4836:2023 is widely adopted by professionals dealing with these electricity hazards, especially arc blast, electric shock, arc flash and electrocution.

In this article, we cover why AS/NZS 4836:2023 matters for electrical workers, what it covers, how to apply for or get the standard, and how organisations can implement it in the workplace.

The ISO 22301 standard’s core purpose is to protect critical activities and ensure organisations can continue delivering products and services during disruption.

Specifically, it's designed to:

• Protect critical operations 
• Establish recovery time objectives (RTOs) and other recovery point priorities for critical activities
• Define structured response and recovery procedures
• Minimise operational disruption
• Reduce financial and reputational damage
• Ensure effective recovery from incidents 

The standard focuses on embedding a culture of resilience within the organisation, rather than dealing with the disruption “in the moment”.

The ISO 22301 framework structures a Business Continuity Management System (BCMS) as a formal, organisation-wide management system rather than a standalone emergency plan.

The goal is to embed resilience into leadership, risk management and operations, with a focus on continual improvement.

It does this by using the ‘Plan-Do-Check-Act’ model to identify critical activities, assess risks, implement response or recovery strategies and monitor performance.

Because it follows the common Annex SL structure used by most modern ISO management system standards, it aligns with other important standards such as ISO 9001 (Quality Management) and ISO 27001 (Information Security Management).  This means it can be easily integrated with existing compliance frameworks rather than creating entirely separate governance processes.

Business impact analysis (BIA) is central to ISO 22301, by providing an evidence-based foundation for continuity planning.

A robust business impact analysis identifies:

1. Critical business activities 
2. Maximum tolerable periods of disruption
3. Recovery time objectives
4. Resource dependencies such as people, suppliers or IT systems
5. Financial, legal and reputational impacts

The BIA answers the fundamental question: what happens if this process stops?

Once a core process stops, organisations could fragment decision-making, expose critical business activities and lead to significant financial or legal consequences.

Under ISO 22301, organisations must perform a BIA and risk assessment to identify continuity priorities.

A key part of the business impact analysis is a focus on performance metrics. These might include:

• Achievement of RTO targets during testing
• Incident response times
• Frequency and outcomes of continuity exercises
• Corrective action closure rates

By embedding business impact analysis into ongoing governance processes, organisations become resilient and can manage risks as they evolve.  

ISO 22301 supports disaster recovery planning by integrating IT recovery strategies into the broader business continuity framework. The standard:

• Ensures technology recovery objectives support operational needs
• Integrates crisis management and communication protocols
• Supports coordinated incident response

It does this by aligning business continuity planning with disaster recovery strategies. For example, if a cyberattack disrupts core systems, IT disaster recovery plans may focus on servers and applications.  ISO 22301 ensures those recovery efforts go beyond just technical fixes and ensure a wide scope of recovery based on the organisation’s most critical business activities.

This integration ensures continuity strategies are proportionate, aligned, and business-led rather than just technologically driven.

Given today’s interconnected economy, organisations need to prioritise resilience against supplier disruptions. 

ISO 22301 also strengthens supply chain resilience by requiring organisations to address:

• Supplier risk identification
• Third-party risks
• Continuity across the supply chain
• Alternative sourcing strategies
• Critical supplier mapping

Organisations must evaluate how disruptions within their supply chain affect their own critical activities. By embedding supplier continuity considerations, ISO 22301 promotes proactive risk management.

Implementing ISO 22301 provides significant strategic and operational benefits for the organisation when an inevitable business disruption occurs. 

It offers clear organisational advantages such as:

• Improved Operational Resilience: Allows organisations to continue delivering critical services during disruptions and recover faster to keep customers or suppliers happy.
  
  
• Stronger Governance and Risk Oversight: Establishes structured processes for identifying, managing and monitoring business continuity risks.
  
  
• Enhanced Stakeholder Confidence: Demonstrates to customers, partners and regulators that the organisation is prepared for operational disruptions.
  
  
• Regulatory Alignment: Helps organisations meet regulatory and compliance expectations related to resilience and continuity planning.
  
  
• Competitive Differentiation in Tenders: Certification signals reliability and preparedness, which can strengthen credibility during procurement and contract tenders.
  
  
• Reduced Financial Losses During Incidents: Minimises operational downtime and the associated financial and reputational impacts of disruptions.

Time Saving: Organisations save precious time by being prepared when inevitable continuity issues arise and protect their reputational damage.  

Implementing ISO 22301 and a Business Continuity Management System requires structured planning and leadership commitment. 

This means following the best practices as laid out in ISO 22301. These include:

• Securing executive sponsorship commitment

Without executive-level buy-in, a Business Continuity Management System is doomed from the start. Getting executives to buy in gives authority for implementation and the necessary resources to do it correctly.

• Defining the scope of the system

Clearly identifying the organisational activities, locations, services and processes that the BCMS ensures nothing gets missed and the most important business operations are covered.

• Conducting business impact analysis and a risk assessment 

A business impact analysis identifies critical business activities, evaluates potential disruptions and determines recovery priorities.

• Developing continuity and recovery strategies 

This includes designing practical strategies to maintain or restore critical operations and clearly stating what acceptable recovery timeframes look like.

• Creating documented response plans

A plan should include developing structured procedures that guide teams on how to respond to and recover from disruptive incidents. Plans should be formalised, tracked and accurately explained.

• Training staff and raising awareness

Employees need to understand their roles and responsibilities during a disruption through regular training and communication.

• Testing and exercising plans

Organisations are required to regularly validate performance through defined metrics to ensure continuity strategies are being adopted.

• Monitoring performance indicators 

Tracking resilience performance through defined metrics ensures continuity strategies remain effective.

• Conducting internal audits 

Reviewing the BCMS against ISO 22301 requirements helps to identify gaps and improvement opportunities.

• Holding management reviews 

Finally, senior leadership needs to periodically evaluate the effectiveness of the BCMS, current implementation and direct continual improvement actions.

Certification audits are conducted in two stages. The first is documentation and a readiness review. Once completed, the final stage is on-site verification of implementation. Following certification, surveillance audits are conducted to ensure ongoing compliance and continual improvement.

ISO 22301:2019 provides the internationally recognised framework for establishing a Business Continuity Management System. By defining clear, auditable requirements, the ISO 22301 business continuity standard helps organisations prepare for unpredictable, yet inevitable, disruptive incidents.

Without being prepared, these incidents can impact critical operations, damage reputation, lose customers and impact the bottom line.

By adopting the standard, organisations can build proactive systems that support long-term stability, stakeholder confidence and effective crisis response.

To learn more about the requirements of the standard, organisations can obtain the official ISO 22301 standard through Intertek Inform.