Did you know that pandemics can increase very drastically and exponentially is as little as a few weeks, they often come in waves, each successive wave being more serious. In fact, our businesses in today’s global, ”just-in-time” economy are more vulnerable than at any time before in human history. Just imagine that 40 percent of your employees are absent due to illness and another large segment is gone to take care of sick family members and/or volunteer in the community to provide essential services.

While many disasters impact primarily things like telephones and telecommunications, a pandemic flu uniquely requires a strong HR response: the pandemic flu would primarily impact people, and staffing.

What does this mean for your company? Has your HR executive been involved in developing a business continuity plan to deal with the impact of a pandemic on your workforce and provide education/advice to staff? Such a plan would need to address a range of issues from how to deal with potentially huge absenteeism and loss of productivity – at a time when your company might already be stressed due to the economy – to the need for specific policies not only pertaining to sick leave for employees but also for dealing with employees that are absent to care for family members, parents that need to stay home to care for children when their schools are closed, staff involved in volunteer efforts to deal with the crisis, and staff that may simply be too scared to come to work. You also need to make sure you have a plan in place for how to proceed if your key employees become sick or even die. Do you have a scalable telecommunications policy in place and criteria for what employees can effectively work from home (this may also entail preparatory work by your IT staff to ensure that you are technologically set up to allow employees to log in from home). What about flexible working hours and staggered shifts? Do you have videoconferencing technology in place (in case of a pandemic, there will be rush for those services, so may want to think about getting ahead of the crowd now)? Will the impact of a pandemic on your company be severe enough to force layoffs or even closure because your services will be in less demand, or will you see a huge surge (for example internet, videoconferencing, and healthcare)?

Here is a link to CDC’s web site providing businesses with an important checklist: http://pandemicflu.gov/plan/businesschecklist.html

What is your company doing?