written on August 26, 2009 by Barbara Paynter
What would you do if half of your workers called in sick on the same day? You may think that’s almost impossible, but a White House panel doesn’t think so. They recently released a report asserting the 2009-H1N1 influenza (formerly known as the “swine flu”) could infect as much as 30-50% of the U.S. population, with more than half of those individuals becoming sick enough to seek medical attention. This may come as a surprise, but it shouldn’t. Even though the mainstream media got bored with the “swine flu” last spring and moved on to other stories, experts have been warning for months that this pandemic could cause as many as 90,000 deaths in the United States alone – in addition to deaths caused every year by the regular “seasonal influenza.”
If projections are right, this pandemic will be concentrated among children and young adults, unlike seasonal flu which typically is most lethal for older adults. This scenario has captured the attention of school officials from pre-school through college because the virus is likely to spread very quickly among students gathered in classrooms, libraries, gymnasiums and college residence halls. Since vaccines are not expected to be available until mid-October, we could see peak infections occurring well before the most vulnerable can be inoculated.
Which brings us back to the original question. Depending upon the make-up of your workforce, your business could be at serious risk as parents stay home to care for their school-aged children and other workers are infected. Worse, if they pick up the virus from their children, it could spread very quickly through your facilities and put other workers at risk. This is especially true because people infected with the virus are contagious before they actually get sick, and can remain contagious for as many as 5-7 days after contracting the illness.
What steps can you take right now? This is a very good time to review and clearly communicate your sick leave policies to your employees. This is one time when you do NOT want employees to come to work when they might be contagious. In this tough economy, some workers may worry about their jobs if they take too many days off work. So it’s absolutely essential that you, as an employer, reassure them that it is not just OK, but preferred that they call in sick or work remotely to reduce the risk of infecting others.
Some questions to ask about your communications:
- Do you have a process in place to communicate information about H1N1 to your employees, vendors and customers? As a business owner, you can be a calming influence if your employees and business partners look to you for accurate information and know that you have a plan in place to deal with likely scenarios that might occur.
- Do you know how to reach your employees quickly in case of an emergency? How about your customers and vendors?
- If you needed to close up shop or move employees from one location to another, could you reach them after business hours?
- Are there functions within your business that are absolutely essential to your operations? If so, have you conducted cross-training so other employees can step into those functions if needed?
- Are systems in place to allow essential employees to work remotely from home?
- Finally, take a look at your facility. Are you doing everything you can to educate people about staying healthy by not spreading germs? Are you cleaning surfaces appropriately and disposing of waste in a safe and hygienic manner?
There’s no time like the present to prepare. The federal government has pulled together excellent resources for small businesses at www.flu.gov. In addition, the Centers for Disease Control have a “communications toolkit” on its website to help businesses and employers implement some of the steps they recommend. The toolkit includes everything from posters for your work sites to sample text messages you can use to communicate with employees. The information is available at: www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/business/toolkit.
Start planning today to protect your business before the pandemic becomes serious.
For credible information, visit these sites:
Centers for Disease Control: www.cdc.gov
Know What to Do About the Flu: www.flu.gov
World Health Organization: www.who.int