Gagen MacDonald

H1N1 Virus—or “Swine Flu”—remains an issue of pressing, and even growing, importance

As public health agencies gear up for a second wave of H1N1 virus (“swine flu”) in the northern hemisphere, there is increased emphasis on the role of businesses and employers in preparing to respond to a general outbreak. Following are recommendations for planning to communicate during what is expected to become a time of widespread infectious disease.

Immediate Priorities and Communications

In the last few months, the H1N1 virus has established itself as the dominant influenza strain in most parts of the world. The pandemic will persist as the virus continues to move through susceptible populations, and it could worsen as larger numbers of people become infected. There is increased potential for operational disruption in the near term and rising concern among employees about their health and safety. For the immediate term, communicators should focus on ensuring employees have the information they need to make informed decisions about their personal circumstances.

Remember that your employees will have the same concerns and fears as the general population. As a corporate communicator, you can provide timely, actionable and reliable information to alleviate anxiety. Make sure employees understand the situation, the company’s response and any steps they can take to protect themselves.

Crisis Communication Planning

At this stage, a crisis management system should be put into action to monitor the situation – internally and externally. And the crisis communication plan should be implemented with a focus on three objectives:

  • Keeping Calm: Provide your stakeholders with understandable and reliable information that reinforces the main message you’ll hear from public officials, “do not panic.” The CDC is regularly updating its Swine Flu (H1N1 Flu) website.
  • Building Your Defenses: Public health agencies are advocating that people be vaccinated against seasonal influenza and the H1N1 virus. Clarify what, if any, coverage your health plans provide for flu vaccines and whether your organization will be offering vaccines for employees at the worksite. Additionally, reinforce simple and effective steps – hand washing, covering both the mouth and nose when coughing or sneezing – to reduce the risk of catching and spreading the flu.
  • Understanding Your Resources: It’s important to ensure that there is clarity around relevant issues such as your company’s travel, sick leave and alternative work arrangement policies; agreement on who is responsible for managing those issues; and, a plan for making this information available to employees.

Business Continuity Planning With Organizational Leadership

If your organization does not already have business continuity plans, encourage your leadership team to develop them in case the outbreak does impact your operations (e.g. building closures, altering operational procedures and enacting travel restrictions). If these plans are already in place, review them to ensure:

  • The plans are applicable to an event like the swine flu outbreak. Do these plans cover the personnel and logistical challenges that you may face with a global health issue? For example, do plans depend on being able to work in and through geographies with confirmed outbreaks?
  • Your team’s resources are in place to enact the plan(s). Have you had any staffing changes that removed employees with specific responsibilities within these plans? Have replacements been briefed and trained?
  • All areas of the business are ready to enact the plan(s). Do your partners understand their roles and the resources needed to implement the plan(s)? Are their resources trained and in place?
  • Roles and responsibilities are clearly defined across the organization. Is there a clear understanding of the cross-organizational roles and responsibilities and how to coordinate during the execution of your plan(s)?

In addition, we recommend that all contingency plans are tested to ensure they work together.

Mid-Term Priorities and Communications

Execution of Business Continuity Plans and Overarching Communications Strategy

If the situation escalates to a point where you need to alter your day-to-day operations, companies should be prepared to implement business continuity plans and execute an overarching communications strategy with the following priorities:

  • Protect Your People: Designate a single, “turn to” resource for communications that is consistent (internal versus external), integrated (your message versus public health official statements) and provides actionable (what can your employees do) information about the impact of the outbreak. This is critical to helping people protect themselves and maintain business operations to the fullest extent possible.
  • Maintain Your Business: Your customers and employees need to understand how you intend to alter your operations to serve your customers if required. Your communications plan also should involve other business partners, including suppliers and vendors, to ensure they can continue to serve your needs.
  • Meet Your Communication Responsibility: Communicate in a responsible way – this includes considering the timeliness, accuracy and means of delivering your messages. Your audiences will have access to information well beyond what you send them, and you will be in a position to reinforce or discredit other sources.
    • Monitor media updates of the external situation as well as your own intra-company developments and respond accordingly.
    • Re-enforce credible and responsible sources such as public health agencies – this will help diminish potential rumors.
    • Ensure your communications are available to employees who may be working from alternative locations or are putting in extra hours implementing continuity plans. Information should be delivered in a clear and concise manner that is easily accessible and conveys the proper sense of urgency.

Developing and executing a successful plan that accomplishes these priorities requires the involvement of your senior leadership, HR and Communications staffs. Representatives from your legal team should also be consulted to ensure you are properly balancing the need to maintain a safe workplace with the privacy rights of individuals.

How We Can Help

Several Gagen MacDonald consultants are experienced in leading the development of communications plans surrounding previous global health issues such as the SARS and bird flu outbreaks, as well as developing crisis communication plans. We can also help your team stay in touch with breaking developments on a real-time basis if needed. Please contact us if there is anything we can do to support you.