The Top Ten Things You Can Do now To Help Your Business Survive the Swine Flu Outbreak

What is the Swine Flu? The Swine Flu or Influenza A (H1n1) virus caught the attention of the international arena in April of 2009. Since then, it has spread across the globe primarily by inhalation of the virus when an infected person coughs or sneezes; or, by contact with infected surfaces and then touching the face or eyes. H1N1 is of particular concern because:

  • (a) It can cause Death;
  • (b) It is a new virus showing a cross between swine, bird and human genes and people do not have any immunity to it;
  • (c) Even healthy, young people have been made ill by the H1N1 virus.

How Can H1N1 Impact My business?

The H1n1 virus can impact your business by curtailing or stopping your core services or the production and delivery of your products. During a pandemic, you can lose up to 25% or more of your workforce due to illness, school closings, quarantine and other related issues. What if this happens to your supplier or customers? Who will sell you raw materials and who will buy your product? The actions you take are aimed at maintaining your critical services and minimizing the economic and social impacts upon your business.

How Can My Business Survive H1N1 or other types of Pandemics?

1. Establish and enforce a healthy habits/safe work place policy with the expectation that employees and customers will do the following:

  • Wash their hands before and after using the restroom with warm water and soap for 15-20 seconds or use alcohol based hand sanitizers. (Center for disease Control -CDC 2009)
  • Wash their hands before and after meals, smoking, sneezing, coughing.
  • Cover their mouth and nose with a tissue when coughing or sneezing.
  • Clean common areas such as the telephones, headphones, door knobs, etc..., often throughout the day.
  • Employees should Stay home if they become ill. Make this a mandatory policy; especially if, they have a fever, body aches and pains, chills, diarrhoea, vomiting or other common signs of the flu. Employees must be prepared to stay home for seven days after symptoms begin or after 24 symptom free hours-whichever is longer. (CDC 2009)
  • Provide, soap, hand sanitizer, napkins and wastebaskets for employees and customers.

2. Enact the Pandemic section of your Business Continuity Plan/Disaster Recovery Plan. If you do not have either of these documents create an emergency Pandemic plan with the following components and enact it:

  • Succession Plan- Who will manage the company if the owners or primary managers become ill and to what extent will they have authority for things such as purchases, payroll, finances, emergency decisions, etc.
  • Special cleaning routines- for the facility and equipment especially if employees become ill. ·Change in corporate culture- such as handshakes, formal cheek-to-cheek greetings, meeting frequency, close face-to-face contact, etc..., until the threat of the virus passes.
  • Plan for notifying employees, vendors, creditors and customers in the event of the need to close the facility, reduce hours or make any other significant change.
  • Create a binder or folder with the critical and important documents of the business including a copy of the Pandemic Plan, Insurance, suppliers, employee contacts, etc...
  • Identify critical functions and the associated critical staff.

3. Plan for a substitute workforce should employee illness negatively impact production and services. Make these arrangements with temporary agencies, cross-training, part time employees, or retirees.

4. Keep employees up-to-date on H1N1 status and make anticipatory plans based upon government and governing bodies' notifications. Provide employees and customers with information about keeping their households healthy; as well as tell them what to do should someone become ill.

5. Develop pandemic specific policies with regards to sick leave, travelling, scheduling, returning to work, child care needs, vendor and customer interactions.

6. Put aside extra funds to pay for pandemic related supplies and expenses; or, to bolster finances should prices on certain items go up such as they have on masks.

7. Consider onsite day care for workers whose children are healthy and home due to closed schools.

8. Prepare for an increased or decreased need for your product or services.

9. Consider the size of your workforce or customer base. Can you arrange with the health authorities for delivery of medicine or care from a part of your facilities?

10. Review, update and exercise your Business Continuity Plan/Business Continuity of Operation Plan or Disaster Recovery Plan. Dajon Data Management can provide you with plan review and updating services, training development and first time plan creation.