Direct the financial and economic dimensions of resilience
Overview
This standard is about making resilience a core part of strategic decision-making, not just emergency response. It focuses on understanding and demonstrating the financial, economic and wider societal value of resilience, including the costs of disruption and the benefits of investing in prevention and preparedness.
Those in these roles must be able to:
- show the return on investment in resilience
- understand how risk impacts financial performance, service continuity, and public value
- ensure resilience is treated as a board-level priority, alongside functions such as finance, operations and risk. It also requires strong partnership and stakeholder working, recognising that resilience outcomes depend on collaboration across organisations, sectors and systems.
This standard is for individuals operating at a strategic level who must prove the return on investment of resilience-building activities. This includes, but is not limited to, roles such as Chief Resilience Officers, Liaison Officers, Local Resilience Forum, Strategic Coordinating Groups Chairs and Accountable Emergency Officers.
Performance criteria
You must be able to:
1.evaluate and interpret legislation, duties, codes of practice and guidance to identify organisational responsibilities
2.work with partners and stakeholders to shape the financial and economic approach to resilience across organisations and systems
3.assess the long-term resilience maturity and capacity of organisational systems to guide strategic investment and planning.
4.develop and present the business case for resilience investment using recognised methods including value-for-money and social return on investment
5.establish and maintain team environments that encourage open communication, challenge institutional assumptions, and reduce bias in decision-making.
6.evaluate the financial, economic and reputational risks associated with localised third-party vendors and external dependencies
7.direct the pre-event establishment of emergency cost frameworks within contractor agreements.
8.influence senior leaders and partners to secure investment in long-term resilience
9.embed resilience into organisational and system-wide strategies, ensuring it is considered alongside finance, risk and performance
10.ensure compliance requirements are used strategically
11.support governance arrangements that position resilience as a core board-level responsibility
12.promote resilience-focused leadership and decision-making that supports long-term adaptability and performance
13.identify and name cost of non-resilience in risk registers and financial planning as routine activity
14.monitor and report on resilience performance using clear measures and outcomes
15.undertake continuing professional development and share evidence based good and innovative practice in this occupational area
16.evaluate, profile, and score baseline inherent resilience, capability, and capacity across systems using contemporary models of organisational resilience to inform long-term capital allocation and strategic preparedness.
Knowledge and Understanding
You need to know and understand:
1.legislation, policies, guidance and good practice and how they support resilience and risk management
2.the principles of organisational and societal resilience and how they apply in practice
3.how to measure the value of resilience, including:
- asset costing
- financial return
- social value
- wider economic benefits
4.how disruption and risk impact financial performance, service continuity, and public value
5.how workforce adaptability during a crisis depends upon clear organisational delegation of authority, supported by accredited training and education, and enables operational agility under pressure.
6.the asymmetric cost relationship between emergency procurement and planned mutual aid
7.metrics for measuring organisational resilience, including different ways to measure resilience performance, including:
- recovery times
- financial loss service / operational continuity
- workforce performance
8.brand equity, employee engagement during crises, and fiscal sustainability.
9.the strategic implications of digital literacy, cyber security principles and legislation and other sector-specific standards.
10.the principles of financial stewardship duties to act in the best interests of others when making decisions, especially regarding financial allocation, resource management, and risk-mitigation planning for the future
11.how to design systems that balance efficiency with resilience
12.the relationship between organisational culture, behaviour and psychological safety, and the ability of a workforce to adapt during disruptions
13.how to communicate the value of resilience to senior leaders, policymakers, investors and the public.
14.how to create organisational cultures that support open challenge, minimise groupthink, and manage uncertainty during high-pressure events.
15.contemporary models of organisational resilience, including methodologies to evaluate and score baseline inherent resilience, capability, and capacity, and how to utilise maturity profiling to guide strategic capital allocation.
16.the role of reflective practice in evaluating performance, identifying areas for improvement and professional development