MSN BUSINESS ON MAIN, January 2010

What Businesses Can Do About Swine Flu

By Joanna L. Krotz

It looks like we may have dodged a bullet.

The dread H1N1 — or swine flu — strain continues to spread but appears to be weakening. Even so, people are still being infected and, in mid-June, the World Health Organization declared swine flu to be a worldwide pandemic. As of this posting, confirmed cases had reached nearly 29,000 in 74 countries, with 144 deaths.

It’s obviously too early to call this game.

“We’ve done extensive research on disaster planning for businesses,” says John Thomas, a risk-management specialist at Stearns Financial Services Group in Greensboro, North Carolina. “And we believe owners may have six months or less to prepare for a possible ‘second wave’ of swine flu infections, which could be more deadly than this first.”

The smart move, then, is to get in front of the tide. You want to be ready in case the outbreak turns even more serious or a different kind of pandemic surfaces that is much worse.

Sherri Fallin, CEO of Atlanta-based Duffey Communications, has developed epidemic crisis plans for colleges, businesses and even the Centers for Disease Control. To deal with a swine flu-like crisis, she recommends that “priority planning items include ‘most-likely-to-happen’ and ‘worst-case’ scenarios; work-from-home or satellite location contingency plans; swine-flu employee sick leave and travel policies; and swine flu-specific employee and client communications.”

Such measures depend on the kind of business you run and, of course, the time and resources you can practically invest, especially in these troubled times. But ignoring the hazards isn’t an option. REPEAT: The risks get worse if you do nothing.

Here are on-the-ground tips that can help immunize your business, allay customer fears and safeguard staff from the threat of a health scare.

Create a few backup plans to safeguard business operations

When considering how to cope, think “redundancy” and “flexibility.”

“Small-business owners need contingency plans when employees call in sick or stay home to take care of children or loved ones,” says Michael Shmarak, at Sidney Maxwell Public Relations in Chicago. As a case in point, he invokes the events in Fort Worth, Texas, after a toddler visiting from Mexico died of swine flu in a Houston hospital. The Fort Worth school superintendent shut down the entire district of 80,000 children. Commerce all but stopped as parents stayed home to look after their kids.

You cannot predict which critical operations or people will be out of commission. So, before the fact, you need to cross-train skills and set up Plan B (and even C) backups.

Clarify how employees will work from home and communicate with each other and your customers

Remote work and telecommuting options nowadays are numerous, affordable and reliable. The trick here is to make sure everyone is crystal clear about which one to use in a crisis — and how best to communicate so your business doesn’t miss a beat.

Communications can be as casual as a round robin of daily calls to Ted, the office manager, from everyone’s mobile phone. Or you can ramp up to Internet-based VPN ports, Webcam videoconferencing and real-time LiveMeeting get-togethers. Whichever it is, educate employees as well as vendors and suppliers about how you want to work remotely during a crisis. It’s a good idea to rehearse these procedures at least once a quarter.

You’ll also need to create and distribute formal telecommuting policies and procedures. That is: Clear directions about what you permit, forbid and will compensate. Depending on your industry, you may want to review some federal guidelines before putting such policies into place. If you’re in health care, check privacy issues regulated by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) Privacy Rule. For defense or government contract work, review the small-business regulations issued by the Department of Defense. And if your company is one of the many smaller enterprises that now follow Sarbanes-Oxley guidelines, see the SOX Guide for Small Business.

Keep the workplace clean

“Good housekeeping equals good health,” advises Dr. Mary Capelli-Schellpfeffer, a medical director at the Loyola University Health System just outside of Chicago.

Don’t wait for a crisis to initiate safety-first procedures. Here are some ideas:

- Provide hand-wash sanitizers and make it convenient for workers and visitors to use them.

- Educate workers about what’s called “respiratory etiquette.” That is, cough or sneeze into sleeves or handkerchiefs and properly dispose of tissues.

- Arrange desks or workstations with some “social distance” so infection is harder to spread.

- Launch “wipe-down Wednesdays, where employees sanitize and wipe down computer equipment,” suggests Brian Dempsey at SuiteCommute.com, a St. Louis, Missouri, telecommuting consultancy. Don’t forget keyboards and headsets.

- “Ask your cleaning staff about how the facility is disinfected and what cleaning agents are used,” recommends Nicole Levine-Waizman, founder of Brooklyn, New York-based Home Clean Home, a commercial cleaning service. “For example, bathroom doorknobs and railings need regular treatment and are rarely cleaned.”

- You may also want to stockpile latex gloves and facemasks.

Let customers and employees know you’re ahead of the curve

When the news broke about a possible pandemic, Fullbloom, a wholesale organic baker based in Newark, California, instituted a system to take the temperatures of employees and visitors at the front door. Anyone who gained entrance got a sticker and a mask to show they were healthy. If not, employees were asked to go home (with pay) and visitors were invited to return another day. Hygiene kits were distributed to all employees for home use. Waterless sanitizing soap dispensers were put in place at every entry.

Fullbloom’s procedures were dramatic and clear. Customers and workers were immediately reassured and felt it was safe to shop and work.

Think about what your business can do that quickly sends the message that risks are minimized and that you value safety before profit.

“Retailers can switch to taking payment via credit card over the phone and dry cleaners can ask customers to drop off clothes in a bag,” suggests Max Rudolph, actuary and owner of Rudolph Financial Consulting in Omaha, Nebraska. “The idea is to put procedures in place that lessen contact rates.”

Don’t forget the legal liabilities

Even in a crisis, you are potentially liable to charges that you failed to adequately plan to protect employees, customers or visitors when the threat of a pandemic was widely known, according to lawyer Celynda Brasher at Tueth, Keeney, Cooper, Mohan & Jackstadt in St. Louis. She suggests that when creating contingency measures, “the plan must be workable and tested.”

Other legal concerns may arise from job shifting because of absent employees. That might trigger the need to comply with the Fair Labor Standards Act, which sets overtime and other compensation requirements for exempt and nonexempt positions. Then there are sick leave and family leave laws, many of which are state-regulated, meaning they vary nationwide. For instance, in some states, if an employee gets sick from a coworker, he or she may have a legitimate claim for workers’ compensation if you haven’t done enough as an employer to prevent the spread of infection.

To avoid trouble, keep accurate records and check with your accountant or local authorities before setting up procedures.

What every health-crisis plan needs most is concern, research and advance planning. As specialist Fallin puts it, “A swine flu crisis-management and communications plan is the best way to protect your employees, your customers, and your bottom line.”

Joanna L. Krotz writes about small-business marketing, women’s leadership and management issues. She is co-author of the “Microsoft Small Business Kit” and founder of Muse2Muse Productions, a New York-based custom content provider.