A ransomware attack takes a city's electronic timekeeping system offline. IT treats the incident as a technology outage and focuses on restoring servers. The CHRO instead classifies it as a payroll-continuity and essential-staffing risk and authorizes a documented manual-pay fallback. Why is that the stronger people-risk strategy?
Select an answer to reveal the explanation.
Short Explanation
When the cash register dies, the store still sells milk on a paper ticket—it does not close until the server boots. Payroll is the same: people already worked, and they still have to be paid. Naming a timekeeping outage as people risk means standing up a manual-pay fallback so continuity does not wait on IT's restore clock.
Full Explanation
SPHR risk strategy treats business continuity as a people-management problem, not only a technology restoration plan. Timekeeping failure immediately threatens pay accuracy, wage-hour records, and the ability to keep essential staff working. A documented manual-pay fallback is a people-risk control that preserves payroll and staffing while systems are down. Leaving the event labeled as an IT outage delays those controls and converts a recoverable disruption into a service and trust failure.