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March 2020 - Business Continuity: Pandemic Response Plan

Published on March 1, 2020

The spread of the Coronavirus (CODIV-19) is becoming an increasing concern. Have you considered what will happen to your business if the virus does become a pandemic? The director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, Dr. Nancy Messonnier, warns “now is the time for businesses, hospitals, communities, schools and everyday people to begin preparing.” All businesses should have a Business Continuity Plan in place. This is a plan describing how an organization will continue to function during or after some kind of emergency, disaster or event (such as a fire, equipment failure, flood, theft, ransomware, etc.) It involves proactively creating a detailed plan outlining how your critical services or products can be continued in an emergency situation. With the recent outbreak of the Coronavirus, it is a good reminder of the necessity of including a Pandemic Response Plan as part of your complete Business Continuity Planning. If there is a serious infectious disease outbreak, such as a pandemic flu, how will your business be affected? What factors do you need to consider? Of course, we don’t want to be alarmist, however, the time to plan for a disaster is before it hits, not during. How a Pandemic Could Affect your Business Each business is unique so plans and needs will vary, however the following are a list of possible effects of an outbreak to a business: Lack of Staff Employees may be unable to report to work for a variety of reasons: - They are sick with the virus - Schools are closed due to outbreak and parents remain home to provide childcare - Employees fear for their health and safety and prefer to stay at home - A mandatory quarantine is ordered. Interruption in Acquiring Supplies or Materials Supplies necessary to running your business may not be available if transportation avenues are interrupted. Businesses you regularly rely on to buy products from may not be available themselves due to the pandemic. Reduction or Restrictions on Public Meetings or Gatherings and Travel Business meetings may not be possible. Conferences may be cancelled and business trips may not be possible or judicious. Disruption to Other Services In more extreme situations, services such as telecommunications, financial/banking, water, power (hydro), gasoline/fuels, medicine, or the food supply. How to Plan for a Pandemic So how do you plan for such an impactful event? The first step is to determine how an outbreak will impact your business. Set priorities - determine what is critical and how the loss of this critical element will affect your business. The “item” that is critical can be anything or any one: personnel, systems, site, access to systems or the site, etc. These are the items you need to focus on maintaining during a crisis. How detailed or extensive your plan is will depend on your priorities and the size of your company. There may be some areas where you must maintain full operating order, while other aspects may not be critical. Next, you can develop plans to work around these situations. What must be done in the short-term vs. long-term? Decide how you will overcome obstacles. Develop a clearly defined and documented policy. It is critical to establish a pandemic management team so that all employees know ahead of time who will do what, and who will be the leader/ commander. Remember to plan for how your business will adapt when other organizations and the community that you rely upon are also in the same situation. Solutions to some of the above problems include:
  1. Setting up the ability for employees to work from home when appropriate is an excellent way to alleviate the staffing challenges caused by a pandemic. There are multiple technical solutions available accomplish this. A Virtual Private Network (VPN) can be set up so that employees can log into your business network while off site and have access to all resources. VOIP phones, teleconferencing and instant messaging apps can keep everyone connected despite being physically separated.
  2. Decide on alternative staffing arrangements. Ensure people are cross trained to cover the job duties of others, and that they are comfortable performing these added job tasks and responsibilities.
  3. Postpone face-to-face meetings, and unnecessary travel. Try telephone or video conferences instead. There are many video conferencing software options such as Zoom and RingCentral. Some of these companies are making their tools free to encourage people to use them.
  4. Provide training in effective personal hygiene (including handwashing) as well as providing supplies for handwashing and personal hygiene. Ensure cleanliness of surfaces where the virus may reside (door handles, elevator buttons, shared telephones, etc.)
  5. Communicate the importance of employees staying home if they are ill or think they are ill. If employees have symptoms, encouraging them to stay home and not penalizing them in some way is very important. Allow enough time for people to recover completely and return to work healthy.
  6. Update sick leaves and family medical leaves. Make sure employees know exactly what your policies are for sick leaves or family care leaves and issues regarding pay. Communicate if the company will be following special rules for a pandemic situation.
  7. Be prepared to make decisions about when to stay open, when to close to visitors, or when to close your business completely.
  8. Ensure everyone knows who is next in line for management/decision makers should someone not be available. The alternates must be trained to fulfill their roles in the plan.
“This is not a time for fear,” advises Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of WHO, “This is the time for taking action now to prevent infections and save lives now. Fear and panic doesn’t help. People can have concerns and rightly so. People can be worried and rightly so. But the most important thing is to calm down and do the right things to fight this very dangerous virus.” Use the following tools and resources on the websites below to help prepare your pandemic response plan: https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/pdf/businesschecklist.pdf https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/specific-groups/guidance-business-response.html https://www.ccohs.ca/outbreaks/ - Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety http://www.chamber.ca/resources/pandemic-preparedness/