Gagen MacDonald

Swine Flu (H1N1 Flu) Crisis: Communicating with Employees

Many of our clients have told us they are wrestling with how to proactively communicate with stakeholders as well as prepare for a potential situation in which further spread may require organizations to take large-scale action. We wanted to share recommendations of how organizations should plan for and communicate during global medical issues such as the Swine Flu (H1N1 Flu).

Immediate Priorities and Communications

While the Swine Flu, now being referred to as the H1N1 Flu, has not yet significantly disrupted the operations of most organizations, the World Health Organization’s decision to raise the global alert level to level 5 increases the potential of operational disruption in the near-term. We believe it will also raise the level of concern among employees. For the immediate term, communicators should focus on ensuring employees have the information they need to make informed decisions about their personal situation.

In situations such as this, it is important to understand that your employees share the same concerns and fears as the general population. As a corporate communicator, you are in a unique position to provide timely, actionable and reliable information that can alleviate concerns to an extent by ensuring your employees understand your environment, 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: The best way to do this is to 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: There are simple and effective steps proven to reduce the risk of catching and spreading the H1N1 Flu. Reinforcing these behaviors among your employees serves as your best preventative defense and increases the likelihood of early diagnosis.
  • Understanding Your Resources: In case the current level becomes significantly more severe, 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, and that there is agreement on responsibilities.

Business Continuity Planning With Organizational Leadership

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

  • The plans are applicable to an event like the Swine Flu (H1N1 Flu) outbreak. Do these plans cover the personnel and logistical challenges that you will likely 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 organizational partners understand their roles 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 different areas of the organization need to coordinate during the execution of your plan(s)?

In addition, if areas within your organization developed contingency plans independently, we recommend the plans are tested via a simulation to ensure the plans are working in concert when implemented concurrently.

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: Provide consistent (internal versus external), integrated (your message versus public health official statements) and 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, to ensure they are in a position to 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:
    • Ensure you are communicating in a timely fashion by monitoring media updates of the external situation as well as your own intra-company developments and responding accordingly.
    • Make an effort to re-enforce credible and responsible sources such as public health agencies – this will help reduce the potential that rumors will gain legitimacy.
    • Ensure your communications are available to employees who may be working from alternative locations or are putting in extra hours implementing continuity plans. Make sure the information is 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 the priorities above requires the direct 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.