Pandemic Plans Are Essential Now More Than Ever

I haven't preached to you about pandemic planning for a while, so here goes. A colleague I was talking with last night pointed out that even a mild flu pandemic in the current economic environment could have catastrophic effects. She's right. For a frightening account of impacts the 1918 pandemic had, visit http://1918.pandemicflu.gov/.

You need a pandemic plan for your business or organization. Your plan needs to include business continuity (If we have to suspend operations for a prolonged stretch, do we have enough cash on hand to pay our bills?), human resources (Do we need to revisit our sick-leave policies regarding people who may miss weeks staying home with sick loved ones?), and legal (What about our contracts with customers and suppliers?).

I've spoken with some whose pandemic plan involves little more than adding hand sanitizer bottles throughout the work site. There are many more meaty issues that you need to deal with. The Institute for Crisis Management for several years has been helping organizations create complete and functional pandemic plans to add to their crisis plans. Sometimes I feel like a boy crying wolf. But this is from pandemicflu.gov: "Many scientists believe it is a matter of time until the next influenza pandemic occurs. However, the timing and severity of the next pandemic cannot be predicted. Influenza pandemics occurred three times in the past century — in 1918-19, 1957-58, and 1968-69."

Get moving on that pandemic plan.