One Simple Trick to Setting Credit Union Recovery Time Objectives (RTO)

Credit Union Disaster Recovery

Credit Union Disaster RecoveryIn our recent blogs, we’ve been giving you  an inside look at questions that Credit Union leaders like yourself are bringing to us each week. One of the questions asked most often is about setting Recovery Time Objectives (RTO) that will enable you to meet your strategic goals.  If you’re inclined to say – everything needs to be up immediately then this post probably isn’t for you.  But if you want in on the secret of setting RTOs that are realistic, I have some great information for you!

In an earlier blog, we provided an educational piece on recovery time objectives and why they are important to your Credit Union disaster recovery plan.  Take a moment if you’d like to review the basics including some of the top processes considered important by you and your peers.  Now that you have a foundation to build on, we need to address the actual values you are assigning to your critical processes.

Getting out of your own way:

RTOs are usually measured by values (immediate, <4 hours, 1-3 days, a week, > week, etc.).  Keep in mind the values you are assigning are subjective to your own perception of the impact of a service disruption. (What did she just say?) In other words, the old saying that “this will hurt me more than it hurts you” is often applied when it comes to downtimes of certain processes. And if it hurts “me”, then it must be bad!

To prevent inflated RTO expectations based on an individual’s perception, the person should be challenged to “think up” or “think like the CEO”. It may sound simple but asking the end users to put on their CEO hat when assigning values often is enough to snap them out of department level thinking into strategic vision.  A scenario from a BIA workshop might go something like this:

Facilitator: So “Mr. Accounting Department Manager”, I see you’ve assigned “wire transfers” an RTO of “immediate”. What I hear you saying is that without “wire transfers” your Credit Union would suffer a severe impact.

Mr. Accounting Manager: Well, yes – our members rely on us to be able to send/receive wire transfers. This is something that would severely impact our membership.

Facilitator: I agree! The impact to the member would be almost immediate in some cases. But let’s look at the question again. How soon after your wire transfer process is disrupted will the CREDIT UNION be SEVERELY impacted?

Mr. Accounting Manager: (silent) … When you put it that way, I would say “<4 hours” is a better value then.

Facilitator: Ok, great – so what I hear you saying is that in <4 hours without “wire transfers” your Credit Union would suffer severely.  The Credit Union would suffer great financial or reputational loss. Key here is “great”.

Mr. Accounting Manager: (silent and a bit perturbed), Well, when you put it THAT way, I guess we HAVE gone a day or two without doing wire transfers.  So an RTO of “1-3 days” is probably more accurate … sigh.

Facilitator: Great job! Now you’re thinking like a CEO!!

Your role as the person gathering the RTO data is to work with the respondents until you are in agreement on what those values might be. By facilitating and providing an alternative picture (like above) your RTO will become more realistic and obtainable. The goal isn’t to beat down the importance of the particular process. In fact, it’s the opposite! Give recognition to the importance of the process and especially on the impact to the member. However, a good facilitator can (and should) help the department leader separate the member impact from the Credit Union impact.  Doing this in a non-threatening manner like above helps the person take a very strategic look at the business process before assigning a value.

Related Posts

Are RTO’s Misleading?

How Do I Improve My RTO?

 

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