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Could your Organisation Survive a Pandemic? |
The UK Government has published A National Framework for Responding to an Influenza Pandemic co-ordinated by the Cabinet Office and the Department of Health. This document aims to provide information and guidance to assist and support public and private organisations across all sectors in understanding the nature of the challenges of a pandemic and developing, testing and maintaining pandemic preparedness plans. It makes good business sense for all organisations to follow their advice.
Estimates suggest that organisations should prepare for 50% of staff becoming unavailable for work for a 12-15 week period during a pandemic. Experts predict that global deaths could be anything between 2 and 50 million.
• In 1918, the ‘Spanish’ flu pandemic killed an estimated 20-40 million people worldwide – more lives lost than during the First World War.
Should a pandemic strike, international trade would face severe disruption leading to a damaging shortage of goods and materials. Transport on all fronts would be affected and many industries from retailing to the hospitality trade would see demand dwindle as people stay at home out of potential danger. Countries such as Britain, which is more densely populated and trade-dependent, are likely to be hardest hit.
The supply potential of global economies would be impacted as organisations suffered acute staff shortages; this could have a knock-on effect by raising inflation thus giving central banks a dilemma as to how they should respond. Inevitably there would be a fall in stock markets.
• The World Bank has announced that a pandemic could easily cost the global economy up to US$ 800billion.
The Department of Health suggests that 14.5 million people in the UK could become ill with a minimum of 50,000 deaths over a period of about six to nine months; depending on the virulence of the flu virus up to 750,000 deaths could occur. This means that a significant percentage of an organisation’s staff would be absent from work, or may not return to work, which could prove disastrous to some businesses.
Although key organisations may be gearing themselves up to cope with a possible pandemic, there is evidence to show that many have just not thought how they would maintain continuity of business in the event of such a crisis. Organisations must take action now to ensure business continues throughout all phases of a pandemic, that a focus on staff welfare is maintained, assets are safeguarded and cashflow is protected.
Personal issues will be at the forefront in the event of a pandemic. Not only could a significant number of staff be off sick, but additionally there will be those who are away from the workplace caring for sick relatives or other dependents. To enable businesses to cope with these staff losses, priorities will include setting up IT functions to allow remote working for key personnel and ensuring communication channels are kept open.
The onus is now on the business community to do all it can to put in place effective contingency arrangements to mitigate the effects of a pandemic. Incorporating pandemic preparedness planning into business_continuity_management is a logical way of minimising risks to an organisation.
• The SARS outbreak in 2003 affected more than 8,000 people in 30 countries across 6 continents within 4 months of the global alert – 800 people died.
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Swine flu - how you can prepare for a pandemic |
| Swine flu has made it back to the headlines as the WHO raises the pandemic alert level to Phase 6 signifying that a global pandemic is now under way. More ... |
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