Advance planning is vital to helping businesses survive a possible pandemic or other health-care crisis, according to Paula H. Harvey, SPHR, GPHR. In the wake of the current Swine Flu outbreak, the advice Harvey recently provided in an interview with BLR is worth revisiting.

Whether or not you believe that a pandemic is a realistic possibility, it is important to prepare for the worst. "Even a bad flu season could make things difficult, especially if you have a small company," says Harvey, president of K&P Consulting in Charlotte, North Carolina (www.kandpconsult.com).

Absenteeism Poses Major Threat

Preparing for health-related crises should be part of an employer's overall crisis management planning, Harvey says, noting that employers need to address in advance how the company would continue to function if, for example, one-third of its workers were absent, or if its facilities were quarantined and workers could not report to work. Who would speak to the media, and how HR would communicate with employees?

One of the biggest problems that a pandemic or healthcare crisis poses to employers is absenteeism caused by employees who have fallen ill themselves, working parents who must stay home with sick children, or those who have to stay home with children whose schools have closed to curb the spread of an infectious disease, she explains.

Harvey recommends brainstorming about all of the possible crises that could strike and then creating a scenario-based plan. Although much of the response will be the same for different types of emergency, employers will be better prepared to respond to a particular emergency if they can simply flip to the "pandemic" or "tornado" or "terrorism" section of their crisis management plan, she says.

When developing the plan, assign responsibilities to specific job titles, not to specific employees, she says. That will help avoid confusion if someone has changed jobs or left the company. Discuss what to do if certain people called in sick.

Ounce of Prevention

Employers can help minimize the effects of a healthcare crisis among its workforce by taking preventive steps, according to Harvey. She recommends adopting a health and wellness program, offering flu shots, and encouraging employees to get enough sleep and wash their hands thoroughly. Regularly cleaning common work areas also will help, as will encouraging employees to visit their physician and, most importantly, stay home when they are sick.

Harvey also offers the following advice:

Tap into available resources. The Society for Human Resource Management (www.shrm.org) offers variety of sample crisis-related policies, according to Harvey, who served on the SHRM disaster relief panel that compiled the policies.

Test your plan. Once you've created a crisis management plan, "you need to do fire drills with it," Harvey says.

Provide training. In addition to familiarizing employees with the plan, offer basic first-aid classes, educate employees about bloodborne and airborne pathogens, and provide tips for effective hand washing.

Update the plan yearly. Creating a crisis management plan can be time-consuming, but annual updates are much less cumbersome.

Calm your workers' concerns about swine flu with BLR's booklet on protecting yourself from infectious diseases.