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Preparing for a flu pandemic

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2nd Oct 2009
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Crisis management expert Peter Roberts explains how businesses can protect their staff and maintain healthy operation during the autumn flu season.

The forthcoming flu season has generated a huge amount of news coverage, and clearly the fatality figures that have tracked swine flu’s progress across the globe have justified the reporting. However, this has provoked fear among crisis specialists that a ‘cry wolf’ mentality could undermine the readiness of many businesses. Absence management experts predict that firms will lose around £8.6bn from staff sickness, so it’s imperative that organisations are ready for all eventualities over the coming months.

One positive thing that has come out of the swine flu outbreak is that business continuity plans have been given greater emphasis in the workplace. Clearly, a plan is no panacea, but it’s vital if an organisation is to stand a chance of running without too much disruption. It’s a common misconception that business continuity is only an issue for large organisations. In fact, it affects firms of all sizes and needs to be considered by even the smallest enterprises.

Identify and protect key players
For all professional service sectors (including accountancy), staff are the prize assets. Companies should first identify who in their workforce would be deemed status critical (i.e. who would be needed to keep the operation running in the event of a crisis). It’s usually during such situations that the normal hierarchy is set aside and new key roles are identified.

Organisations will vary in their specific needs, but some positions will be near-on universal, such as the IT manager to ensure safe storage of data; a facilities manager to ensure the smooth running of phones and faxes, and security staff to look after the safety of premises.

Having identified the key individuals, businesses can arrange suitable contingency measures. For instance, are there succession plans in place to ensure deputy cover? Do key workers have the ability to work from home and is the business in a position to support them if their families are struck down by the flu? Continuing in the HR vein, organisations also need to ask themselves whether they have a good network of company retirees who could support the organisation if staff numbers were badly depleted by illness.

Reduce risks
Clearly, for some employees the workplace may constitute an unacceptable level of risk and therefore it’s sensible for the business to examine what can be done to mitigate the threat. The appointment of an influenza manager is recommended if such a role doesn’t already exist. He or she will (among other responsibilities) ensure the workplace has adequate supplies of tissues, medical and hand hygiene products, cleaning supplies and other equipment such as masks. It will also fall to either this role or HR colleagues to establish a system of monitoring staff who are ill or suspected of being ill and to encourage staff to return to work once they are better.

It may also be sensible to institute a policy of ‘social distancing’ , whereby undue contact is avoided by shutting down office focal points such as water fountains, and keeping meetings to a minimum, or conducting them over the phone, or outdoors.

Communicating measures
An integral part of your business continuity plan should examine how best to communicate your preparedness for pandemic to both internal and external stakeholders. Staff members need to be made aware of what’s to be expected of them during the situation and of the moves being taken by management to control the situation.

Companies should make effective use of intranet sites and internal ‘hotlines’ to keep employees informed of developments. Reassuring customers and other stakeholders that you have plans in place will assist in establishing consumer confidence. Organisations should also consider communicating the nature of their plans to customers. This may include advising on your decisions to minimise face-to-face contact, or to even close the workplace during a pandemic.

Former Chairman of the US joint chief of staff, Colin Powell once said: “There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.” A good business continuity plan should form the basis of any organisation’s preparedness, but it’s advisable to learn from its failures by testing the plan before it’s too late.

Peter Roberts was previously head of communications for BBC News and is now senior associate director of the issues and crisis management department at Hill &Knowlton.

 

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