Trends in Continuity Compensations
An Assessment of Compensations for BCM Professionals

Despite the state of the economy, organizations are actively hiring continuity professionals.  However, the downside is that the job market has certainly become increasingly competitive with more and more continuity professionals aggressively seeking employment.  One consistent fact remains true though.  Those continuity professionals who broaden and elevate their credentials will not only be in demand, but they will also command higher compensations, even in a poor economy.  Bottom line, companies want to hire the best person for the job, and in many cases they will pay top dollar for the most qualified candidate.

BC Management, a premier executive search firm specializing in placing experienced business continuity management professionals, has researched compensation trends within the continuity profession since 2001.  Initially, hiring managers were at a loss at what to pay professionals.  So the BC Management team took it upon themselves to research compensations within the continuity field and thus provide a statistical assessment for benchmarking compensations.  BC Management’s research has expanded and evolved over the years to accommodate changing factors that impact compensations within the continuity disciplines.  Compensation trends have surfaced, especially over the last five years.  With each of these trends, the BC Management team has identified a correlation to the credentials in demand and the impact on potential earnings.  In many cases, the correlation has been flagged before it becomes evident in the compensation reports.  So what credentials command higher compensations?  What are hiring managers really looking for?

Some tangible factors have become very evident in their impact upon a continuity professional’s earning potential – certification and an advanced degree.  In previous years these factors were considered a nice to have, but over the last five years the trend has certainly changed to more and more hiring managers revising their job specs to requiring both a certification and an advanced degree.  Still, candidates find themselves being left out of an interview when the certification and degree were “preferred” and not “required”. This is where we come to the HR screening process, which is where it becomes clear that you either have these credentials or you don’t.  Those who do have both a designated continuity certification and a bachelor’s degree will go in the “A” pile as being more experienced or a better “fit” to the job description.  Those candidates who are missing one or both of these will go in the “B” or “C” pile.  Unfortunately many HR professionals will call candidates in the “A” pile first.  The candidates in the “B” and “C” pile may never have the opportunity to showcase their other credentials.  I really dislike describing this screening method as a black and white process.  The fact of the matter though, is that HR professionals are getting bombarded with resumes and they are going to embrace a screening procedure that expedites the process while at the same time making sense of the candidate pool. 

My view as a recruiter is that those professionals who obtain a certification from a recognized, established certifying body demonstrate their knowledge as well as their commitment to the business continuity profession.  Those professionals who obtain a bachelor’s or master’s degree also exhibit a desire to advance themselves as a professional.  The data from BC Management’s annual BCM study has consistently highlighted the trend that those professionals with a recognized continuity certification and/ or an advanced degree will on average earn more than their counterparts.

There are also several intangible factors that impact continuity professionals’ earning potential.  So what’s the difference between common business continuity professionals and the top talent?  …  Are you strategic?  Can you roll out a business continuity management program across the organization?  Do you understand the association in relating the appropriate program to the defined culture of an organization?  Can you truly engage all professionals from the end users to the CXO level?  Can you obtain buy-in from executive management?  Do you have the ability to champion a program?  Are you passionate about what you do?

These talents all come down to your soft skills, and this is what hiring managers are interviewing for.  Unfortunately these soft skills are a challenge to quantify in a compensation study; however, over the last two years BC Management has studied compensation based on leadership components both in and outside of the business continuity profession.  We have been able to assess that those professionals who exhibit these leadership capabilities will on average earn more than their counterparts.

Finally let’s discuss an emerging trend that may impact a continuity professional’s earning potential.  An interesting trend that BC Management has been researching for three years is the impact of obtaining a specialized bachelor’s or master’s degree within business continuity or a related profession.  Recently there have been an overwhelming number of colleges and universities offering degreed programs in business continuity planning.  As a result, it will be interesting to see how hiring managers tailor their job descriptions to account for this new credential.  That’s not to say that if you currently have a bachelor’s degree that you should sign up to obtain another bachelor’s degree in business continuity.  At the same time, if you are an experienced continuity professional you shouldn’t be troubled that a less experienced degreed continuity professional is going to “steal” your position simply because they have a degree in business continuity while your degree is in another discipline.  The trend developing is that if you do not currently have a bachelor’s or master’s degree, obtaining your degree within business continuity will certainly be marketable. 

As you can see, analyzing compensation data for continuity professionals and identifying trends from it can provide unique insight into how best to develop your career.  To allow for this analysis to continue, if not make it even better, we invite you to participate in BC Management’s 8th Annual BCM Study.  This study is an international compensation and benchmarking survey that is strictly for the business continuity industry and related fields.  To participate, please visit our website at http://www.bcmanagement.com/research/index.php.  Thank you in advance for your contribution to the study.

Cheyene Haase has been an executive recruiter for thirteen years with eleven of those years specializing in the business continuity field. Her career as an executive recruiter began in Madison, Wisconsin shortly after graduating from UW- Madison with a bachelor’s degree. In Madison she placed professionals at all levels from programmers, accountants to professors. Shortly after moving to southern California in 1998; she joined Management Recruiters International where she immediately began recruiting in the business continuity field. Cheyene quickly recognized that the business continuity field was getting lost within the large umbrella of Management Recruiters International. She decided to forge a new company solely dedicated to the business continuity field; thus she founded BC Management, Inc. in 2000. Cheyene has become an integral part of the business continuity community previously serving on the board for the Association of Contingency Planners of Los Angeles and Orange County and currently an active professional on the Editorial Advisory Board for Continuity Insights. Most recently Cheyene was the recipient of the inaugural ACP Hall of Fame award for 2006.