Business Preparedness, R

Pandemic Influenza A Business Impact Analysis

RSM McGladrey, Inc. is a member firm of RSM International – an affiliation of separate and independent legal entities.

The only thing more difficult than pandemic planning is going to be explaining why you did not do it!

-- Marja EsveldHealthcare Inspectorate,

Netherlands

Pandemic – A Slow Motion Train Wreck

• History tells that many times we have been scourged by widespread infectious diseases, some have been pushed back by Health Practices and Medical Technologies, yet even then we see periodic outbreaks on such a scale to be called Pandemics.

• Some variations cause what we term seasonal flu, harvesting a quarter million souls, world wide. Some variations pass almost unnoticed.

Pandemic – A Slow Motion Train Wreck

• Every once in a while a variety emerges that is a monster, decimating the human race, as it did in 1918.

• We are now faced with a strain of Avian Influenza, H5N1 that has all the hallmarks of making a significant impact on human history.

• The straight truth is that we are no better prepared than we were in 1918, and a whole lot more vulnerable. The best we can do is prepare for the worst and hope for the best.

• We have nowhere to run!

"All the other catastrophes we've had in the world in recent years at the very most put screen doors on our borders. This incident will shut a six-inch steel door,“

Dr. Michael Osterholm

"You're just going to have to be strong enough to keep your head down for a year,“

Sir Richard Branson, Virgin Group

Impact on the Business Community

• Communicable disease experts predict that another pandemic will occur although the timing and pattern will be unpredictable

• There is no way to prevent a pandemic from occurring

We Are Overdue!

Pandemic Influenza – What can we expect?

• High absenteeism

• Challenges getting to/from worksite

• Psychological impacts on workforce will be extreme

• Social distancing efforts may dramatically change hours of operation or close businesses temporarily

• Economic losses – small businesses at greatest risk

• A Pandemic of even moderate intensity will bring the global business community to it’s knees … many business will never recover.

• It will not be business as usual. The disruption of global supply chains, loss of outsourced supplies, development processes and manufacturing; the collapse of export markets will be the downside of Globalization.

• Every Wal-Mart store will be stripped clean in a matter of weeks.

Pandemic Influenza – What can we expect?

Pandemic Influenza – Reality Check

• Business Continuity Planning– Very few have pandemic flu response plans in place

• Human Resources Management– Generally no policies or plans addressing impact of pandemic flu

• Communications– Need for accurate, consistent, up-to-date information and a means to deliver it

Preparing your Organization for a Pandemic

Pulling It Together

“In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable”

Dwight D Eisenhower

“No plan survives contact with the enemy”

Moltke

Pandemic Incident Response Plan

• BCP/DR focuses on loss of FACILITY!

• Pandemic Incident Response Plan focuses on loss of PEOPLE!

• BCP/DR assumes adequate staff is available for recovery

• Pandemic Incident Response Plan assumes high levels of employee absence

• The buildings and computers are still working, there just isn’t any people to do the work!

Pandemic Influenza Planning Assumptions

• 15% of the workforce is absent for 8 weeks because school closures oblige working parents to stay home and look after children. Note that this proportion will vary according the particular workforce.

• 40% of those remaining at work become ill at some time during the 8 weeks of the first pandemic wave.

• The workplace attack wave will mimic the pattern that is expected in the general population.

• Every person who becomes ill has a minimum of 7 shifts off work.

• There is a 100% relational absence rate – that is, for every person in the remaining workforce who gets ill, another will not come to work because of the need to look after a sick spouse or children, or a disinclination to travel or work.

• 3% of workers who become ill from pandemic infection will die.

The 5 step plan for Pandemic Incident Response Planning

• Plan development stage – Plan for it

• Monitoring stage – Keep an eye on it

• Pre-Pandemic preparation stage – React to it

• Pandemic stage – Manage it

• Post Pandemic stage – Recover from it


Corporate Pandemic Response Color Code

Stage Business Strategy Corporate Alert Color Code

1 – Plan Development Stage (Plan for it)

Develop and implement comprehensive pandemic incident response plans.

Green


• Appoint a Divisional Representatives to report conformity to policies.• Develop a means to actively communicate timely information to all employees.• Continue to revise all continuity plans.• Distribute information kits to all personnel.• Develop secondary sources of supplies.• Stockpile critical components/Accumulate cash reserves.• Review and relax sick leave policies.• Consider re-tasking existing resources as needed.• Modify facilities/workplaces to comply to recommendations.• Inform Stakeholders and management of progress.• Maintain a policy of Robustness and Flexibility in planning.






Green

2 – Monitoring Stage (Keep an eye on it)

Maintain awareness of the current pandemic situation

Insure that senior management is aware of developments

Yellow


• Division Representatives report conformity to policies and suspected or confirmed infections.• Distribute gloves, masks and hand sanitizer to workforce.• Begin recommended Work Force Policies.• Operationalize Telecommuting.• Secure Financial Resources. • Monitor Supply Chains and Product/Service Demands.• Keep workforce actively informed of progress.• Review existing plans and modify to conform with accumulated experience.• Notify State and Local Authorities of State of Readiness.






Green




Yellow

3 – Pre-Pandemic Preparation Stage (React to it)

Activate the comprehensive pandemic incident response plan.

Orange


• Division Representatives report conformity to policies and suspected or confirmed infections daily.

• Disperse workforce and maintain functionality remotely.• Reduce facility workforce to essential functions.• Provide support for displaced workforce.• Adjust production to compensate for displacements.• Collapse hierarchical management chains.• Maintain close working relationships with community leaders and State and Local

Authorities.






Green




Yellow



Orange

4 – Pandemic Stage (Manage it)

Using the pandemic incident response plan, maintain the continuity of critical business functions.

Red


• Division Representatives report conformity to policies and suspected or confirmed infections daily.

• Increase Facility Security.• Begin Lockdown Procedures.• Maintain Essential Internal Functions.• Inform State and Local Authorities of Operational Levels.






Green




Yellow



Orange


Using the pandemic incident response plan, maintain the continuity of critical business functions.

Red

5 – Post-Pandemic Stage (Recover from it)

Initiate steps to return the critical business functions to normal operations.

Restart suspended operations. Evaluate plan performance Adjust the plan as necessary. Return to Monitoring stage

Blue

Recovery!

?It’s Up to You!

Essential Elements of Pandemic Planning

• Identify a pandemic coordinator and/or team with defined roles and responsibilities for preparedness and response planning. The planning process should include input from labor representatives.

• Identify essential employees and other critical inputs (e.g. raw materials, suppliers, sub-contractor services/ products, and logistics) required to maintain business operations by location and function during a pandemic.

• Train and prepare ancillary workforce (e.g. contractors, employees in other job titles/descriptions, retirees).

• Develop and plan for scenarios likely to result in an increase or decrease in demand for your products and/or services during a pandemic (e.g. effect of restriction on mass gatherings, need for hygiene supplies).

1.1 Plan for the impact of a pandemic on your business:

• Determine potential impact of a pandemic on company business financials using multiple possible scenarios that affect different product lines and/or production sites.

• Determine potential impact of a pandemic on business-related domestic and international travel (e.g. quarantines, border closures).

• Find up-to-date, reliable pandemic information from community public health, emergency management, and other sources and make sustainable links.

• Establish an emergency communications plan and revise periodically. This plan includes identification of key contacts (with back-ups), chain of communications (including suppliers and customers), and processes for tracking and communicating business and employee status.

• Implement an exercise/drill to test your plan, and revise periodically.

"Without constant practice, the officers will be nervous and undecided when mustering for battle; without constant practice, the general will be wavering and irresolute when the crisis is at hand.“

Sun Tzu “The Art of War”

• Forecast and allow for employee absences during a pandemic due to factors such as personal illness, family member illness, community containment measures and quarantines, school and/or business closures, and public transportation closures.

• Implement guidelines to modify the frequency and type of face-to-face contact (e.g. hand-shaking, seating in meetings, office layout, shared workstations) among employees and between employees and customers (refer to CDC recommendations).

• Encourage and track annual influenza vaccination for employees.

1.2 Plan for the impact of a pandemic on your employees and customers:

• Evaluate employee access to and availability of healthcare services during a pandemic, and improve services as needed.

• Evaluate employee access to and availability of mental health and social services during a pandemic, including corporate, community, and faith-based resources, and improve services as needed.

• Identify employees and key customers with special needs, and incorporate the requirements of such persons into your preparedness plan.

• Establish policies for employee compensation and sick-leave absences unique to a pandemic (e.g. non-punitive, liberal leave), including policies on when a previously ill person is no longer infectious and can return to work after illness.

• Establish policies for flexible worksite (e.g. telecommuting) and flexible work hours (e.g. staggered shifts).

• Establish policies for preventing influenza spread at the worksite (e.g. promoting respiratory hygiene/ cough etiquette, and prompt exclusion of people with influenza symptoms).

1.3 Establish policies to be implemented during a pandemic:

• Establish policies for employees who have been exposed to pandemic influenza, are suspected to be ill, or become ill at the worksite (e.g. infection control response, immediate mandatory sick leave).

• Establish policies for restricting travel to affected geographic areas (consider both domestic and international sites), evacuating employees working in or near an affected area when an outbreak begins, and guidance for employees returning from affected areas (refer to CDC travel recommendations).

• Set up authorities, triggers, and procedures for activating and terminating the company’s response plan, altering business operations (e.g. shutting down operations in affected areas), and transferring business knowledge to key employees.

• Provide sufficient and accessible infection control supplies (e.g. hand-hygiene products, tissues and receptacles for their disposal) in all business locations.

• Enhance communications and information technology infrastructures as needed to support employee telecommuting and remote customer access.

• Ensure availability of medical consultation and advice for emergency response.

1.4 Allocate resources to protect your employees and customers during a pandemic:

• Provide information for the at-home care of ill employees and family members.

• Develop platforms (e.g. hotlines, dedicated websites) for communicating pandemic status and actions to employees, vendors, suppliers, and customers inside and outside the worksite in a consistent and timely way, including redundancies in the emergency contact system.

• Identify community sources for timely and accurate pandemic information (domestic and international) and resources for obtaining counter-measures (e.g. vaccines and antivirals).

• Develop and disseminate programs and materials covering pandemic fundamentals (e.g. signs and symptoms of influenza, modes of transmission), personal and family protection and response strategies (e.g. hand hygiene, coughing/sneezing etiquette, contingency plans).

• Anticipate employee fear and anxiety, rumors and misinformation and plan communications accordingly.

• Ensure that communications are culturally and linguistically appropriate.

• Disseminate information to employees about your pandemic preparedness and response plan.

1.5 Communicate to and educate your employees:

• Collaborate with insurers, health plans, and major local healthcare facilities to share your pandemic plans and understand their capabilities and plans.

• Collaborate with federal, state, and local public health agencies and/or emergency responders to participate in their planning processes, share your pandemic plans, and understand their capabilities and plans.

• Collaborate with federal, state, and local public health agencies and/or emergency responders to participate in their planning processes, share your pandemic plans, and understand their capabilities and plans.

• Share best practices with other businesses in your communities, chambers of commerce, and associations to improve community response efforts.

1.6 Coordinate with external organizations and help your community:

• Essential services will be severely disrupted due to absenteeism

• Media and public scrutiny will be intense and unrelenting

• There will be NO OUTSIDE ASSISTANCE available!

• We will be facing this basically ALONE!

Are You Prepared?

The only thing more difficult than pandemic planning is going to be explaining why you did not do it!

-- Marja EsveldHealthcare Inspectorate,

Netherlands

RSM McGladrey, Inc. is a member firm of RSM International – an affiliation of separate and independent legal entities.

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