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| Keeping your business running during a flu pandemic |
| Thursday, 11 June 2009 | |
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So the World Health Organisation has declared the first global flu pandemic since 1968. What does that mean for your business? Is it time to panic? Well, in the words of Dr Keiji Fukada of the World Health Organisation: “It does not mean that the severity of the situation has increased.” He adds: “We also do not know how this virus is going to evolve. It could become more mild over time, or it could become more severe over time, or it could stay pretty much as it is now.” Overall, the message remains much the same as it has done since this outbreak first made the news: be alert, be prepared. What are the risks to business?The main risk outside of the healthcare sector is in the number of staff expected to be absent from work during the height of a community outbreak. This is made up of:
Other risks include:
What should businesses be doing now?1. Encourage good hygiene practicesThe influenza virus is spread by droplets in coughs and sneezes. These can remain infectious on hard surfaces for up to 24 hours but is killed by something as simple as soapy water. Encouraging staff to adopt the “catch it, bin it kill it” routine and ensure that surfaces are regularly wiped will go a long way to preventing the spread of disease in your workplace (not just influenza). Posters and screensavers with the campaign message can be obtained from the Department of Health website at http://tinyurl.com/yrw638 2. Encourage responsible self-certification of sickness and self-isolationThere is a culture in this country that views it as virtuous to struggle on and come into work as normal when suffering cold and flu symptoms. In fact, this simply gives the virus more opportunity to spread around the workplace. Therefore, people with symptoms of infectious diseases should be encouraged to stay away from the workplace until the infectious phase of the disease has passed. If appropriate to your business, this is a good time to review and encourage working from home. With over 60% of UK households having broadband connections and many of the remainder being in the coverage area of 3G wireless broadband, the cost of providing home-workers with access to the office IT system and even the office telephone system through VoIP is now extremely low. Even without the benefits to business continuity, such a scheme can have immediate effects on employee productivity and morale. 3. Review cleaning regimesReview your cleaning contracts and checklists to ensure that the high-risk virus transmission sites are getting the attention they deserve. The highest risk sites are hard surfaces that are touched by many different people such as:
4. Plan for staff absenceUK Resilience – the Cabinet Office department responsible for emergency planning in the UK – advises large employers to plan for staff absence rates of 15% above their normal levels for a 2-3 week period and for small businesses to plan for absence levels of 30% or higher for very small businesses. In addition, they advise: “To take into account possible parent-worker absences in the event of school closures, employers should also consider and plan for the impact on their businesses of possible school closures, taking into account the make-up of their workforces (e.g. the proportion of their staff with children under 16).” Properly planning for high levels of staff absence requires an understanding of the entire business process and which parts of that process are critical. Those tasks that can be delayed for 3-4 weeks without significant business impact should be identified as well as the tasks that cannot be delayed. This allows plans to be put in place to divert resources away from the processes that can be delayed as the need arises. It may also be necessary to train staff and to document the critical processes well so that those not normally familiar with the tasks will still be able to carry them out competently. 5. Plan for potential changes in demandAs I mentioned earlier, businesses in different sectors are likely to face quite different issues with changes in demand. A company supplying healthcare products, for example, might want to increase their stocks of items such as gloves, facemasks and hand gel so as to be in a position to meet the likely increase in demand. Organisers and venues of large public events will want to review their contingency plans and financial situation in the event that events need to be cancelled or attendances are much lower than expected. Where businesses have insurance against risks such as the cancellation of events, it would be wise to check the small print now to ensure that global pandemics are not among the exceptions. 6. Avoid writing knee-jerk policiesH1N1 influenza (swine flu) is now well established and spreading within the UK. Policies placing restrictions on travellers such as banning people from the workplace who have recently travelled from Mexico are therefore useless. Similarly, there is no evidence whatsoever of an increased risk from eating pork or other pig-based foods. Policies banning bacon sandwiches would therefore have no affect on infection rates either. As ever, the goal for business continuity planning is “business as usual”. Yes, these are far from usual times but good continuity planning makes a business stronger and more able to out-pace the competition even in tough times. |