A pandemic has the potential to cause greater, and more unpredictable, disruption to organizations than any other business interruption. As such, pandemic planning should be an integral element in a corporation’s business continuity capabilities.

 

The recent swine flu outbreak has forced corporations to assess their level of preparedness in the event of a pandemic. Unfortunately, a comprehensive, off-the-shelf pandemic preparedness plan cannot exist. The plan must be carefully tailored to meet the specific needs of individual companies and their employees. There are, however, important aspects of a preparedness program that can serve as a blueprint to steer companies in the right direction towards creating a reliable, consistent and flexible plan. In the event of a pandemic, how would your organization answer the ten questions below? Your answers will help you determine your level of preparedness and single out areas for improvement.

 

 

Managers need sources they can trust when protecting staff and making difficult commercial decisions. In the early days of the H1N1 outbreak, news media frequently missed nuances when reporting government information. For example, on travel warnings, employers relying on media alone have faced extraordinary difficulty in maintaining a balanced perspective—both during the early “hype” and then later “dismissing” phases of reporting. At a high level, the risk hasn’t changed, even though the tone of reporting has.

 

-         Commitments the firm will make to protect employees and ensure duty of care;

-         Types of preparedness measures the firm will create and maintain;

-         Budget available for planning; and

-         Individuals responsible for implementing these programs

 

Few observers would have predicted a new, novel influenza strain would emerge in North America (most eyes were still on Southeast Asia after the SARS and H5N1 scares). And fewer still would have guessed that so many people would be sick—and containment a failure—by the time we became widely aware of the outbreak. Indeed, many firms figured they would begin planning if and when a new strain emerged. In reality, firms without preparedness plans had little to no time to prepare for the H1N1 outbreak. And without strategic, guiding principles to guide tactical implementation, all many employers could do was stock up on soap and worry.