Pandemic Planning - Top Ten Tips to Increase Your Business Resilience
Since June 2009, the spread of the so called 'swine flu', H1N1 influenza virus has officially been classified by the World Health Organisation as a pandemic. Whilst infection rates have been high, symptoms have for the majority been relatively mild. 
Health experts continue to monitor the situation closely but there is still great uncertainty about how, or if, the pandemic will evolve. One thing that most people can agree on is that it is prudent to take some basic and pragmatic business continuity steps to prepare for a potential worsening pandemic situation to ensure your organisation stays up and running. Pandemic aside, it makes good business sense. Here we give our Top Ten Tips to increase your business resilience.
The potential impact of pandemic flu on the UK workforce
According to the recently updated swine 'flu specific planning assumptions produced by the Cabinet Office on 3rd September 2009, infection rates could result in workforce absence of 12% over and above normal holiday and non-pandemic illness. These estimates do not include the absenteeism caused by having to care for sick relatives, or staying at home for fear of catching the flu. This could cause an additional 15% of the workforce to be absent. Once an employee has been taken ill, employers should prepare for that person to be absent for an average of 7 working days for those without complications and 10 working days for those with complications.
So, what can you do to minimise the potential impacts of staff absence on your business?
1. Build on existing business continuity and crisis management arrangements
The key difference between a pandemic situation and 'traditional' business continuity incident (where planning typically focuses on premises and IT) is that the prime impact is people. Planning for a pandemic should therefore build on your existing business continuity and crisis management arrangements. So first, look at what you currently have in place and how it can be adapted.
2. Consider your vulnerabilities
Consider what your vulnerabilities are as a business. You might want to gather a few people together from across the organisation to do a quick analysis. Some considerations include;
- Staff with specialist skills i.e. succession planning
- Location i.e. urban / rural / global
- Resilience of external suppliers and other stakeholders
- Demand for your services and whether these would be affected by a pandemic situation
- Key tasks that need to be performed on a routine basis
- Resources that underpin the organisation such as IT and premises
- Key events and diary dates
3. Identify your business priorities and minimum staffing requirements
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