Is Your Organization Prepared for the Coronavirus?

As Coronavirus continues to spread around the world, U.S. organizations are being advised to prepare for how they will respond if their workforces are impacted. While recent reports indicate that the disease remains mild in approximately 80% of patients, we should be ready for significant disruption, especially when considering the following:

1. Even with mild symptoms, infected employees would need to remain out of the workplace until they are symptom-free.
2. Many employees who are not infected would need to stay home and help care for sick relatives

3. Many school systems are making plans for students learning from home which could require employees to stay home to supervise or assist.

4. Employee anxiety over possible infection would probably increase absenteeism.

As we have seen with other countries, Coronavirus can spread very quickly. In the event that it spreads in the U.S., you are not going to have much time to figure how you need to respond. That is why if you don’t already have an up to date Pandemic Plan, now is the time to get one. Your Pandemic Plan should be customized to the needs of your organization and your employees. It should include how you will provide employee communications, policy adjustments such as your sick leave policy, and flexible work arrangements. It should also include environmental aspects such as workplace hygiene and limiting group gatherings.  Essential functions of your organization should be identified as well as orders of succession and delegations of authority.

Fortunately, there are resources available to help you prepare your Pandemic Response Plan. 10 Questions for an HR Pandemic Plan from Gartner should help as well as the FEMA Pandemic Prep Template. The CDC is also a valuable resource for Coronavirus planning information. Keep in mind that you or someone else in your organization should serve the role of Pandemic Response Plan Coordinator. Typically someone in human resources or operations serves in this role. There are also HR Consulting Firms such as IgnitionHR who can help. The key is to get started now. Organizing when “you know what” has hit the fan is the worst time.

If you would like to schedule a call to review your Pandemic Plan options, feel free to click this LINK.