Is Your Company Ready for Pandemic Influenza?

You will also find that things that are often taken for granted, such as child care, can be overlooked. If there is a pandemic and child care workers are affected, will your employees be able to come to work if they don’t have anywhere to leave their children? Remember, if a pandemic does occur, outbreaks are expected to occur simultaneously, preventing shifts in resources that commonly occur in other natural disasters and illnesses will come in waves.

As with any crisis management program, the program should be tested before its use. A tabletop drill is the method of choice for this testing. It allows key players, from participating groups within a company, to gather in face-to-face, round-table settings and talk through expected actions for a pandemic influenza emergency scenario. This allows for evaluation of the plans and procedures and resolves questions of coordination and responsibility. Tabletop drills are typically informal, and a moderator facilitates discussion among participants. The moderator should be someone who understands what the company has planned and who can effectively initiate and guide discussions.

Planning for a crisis should not be viewed as doom and gloom but rather as a prudent way to help your company, your employees, your customers and your community safely through a time of crisis. –FQ

Gary Ades, Ph.D., is senior vice president for EHA Consulting Group, Inc. (www.ehagroup.com) a company that specializes in helping companies before, during and after a crisis. He can be reached at 479-254-9026 or [email protected].