Information for Businesses

Impact on business
How to prepare
Business continuity plan
• Three basics
• Info you will need
• 10 steps to business continuity
Things to consider
Protecting employees' health
Links

Impact on business
The Canadian Pandemic Influenza Plan assumes that 25 per cent of the Canadian workforce will take five to eight working days off over a three month period. During the peak of the pandemic, estimates suggest that absenteeism will double in the private sector and increase by two-thirds in the public sector.

 

How to prepare
As businesses and employees you should think about your readiness to deal with emergency situations at work. Develop a business continuity plan for pandemic influenza. The Checklist for Businesses, Pandemic Business Continuity Planning Guide and Essential Services Action Plan are all resources that you can us to help prepare your business for a pandemic. Preparedness will limit the impact of an influenza pandemic or other emergency situations on all.

While businesses need to be prepared to develop a plan to ensure essential business functions continue during a pandemic, you should also prepare a pandemic plan for your household and family. For more information on how to prepare your family and household for a pandemic, visit our Information for Families and the Public page.

If an influenza pandemic strikes, governments at all levels and federal, provincial and regional health officials will collaborate to provide up-to-date information and recommendations to the public. Your company's managers, human resource department and employees should pay close attention and follow the guidance provided.

 

Business continuity plan
Business continuity means ensuring that essential business functions can survive a natural disaster, technological failure, human error or other disruptions. Many existing business continuity plans anticipate disruption such as fires, floods, etc. These events are restricted to a certain geographic area and the time frames are fairly well defined and limited. An influenza pandemic, however, demands a different set of assumptions since it affects many provinces and countries at the same time and all businesses. Resources that are typically available during common disasters such as the Emergency Measures Organization and the Canadian Red Cross may be overwhelmed by requests and demands. Essentially, your business will need to be self-sufficient.

The three basics
Business continuity management consists of three basic elements:

  1. What you do to reduce risk before an event (prepare)
  2. How you respond during an event (response)
  3. What you do to recover after an event (recovery)

Info you will need
Before you start, gather the information you will need to assist in the development of a plan and the preparation for a pandemic.

  • A complete list of employees
  • A complete list of all potential suppliers and vendors
  • Establish a list of key contacts and gather all contact information for this group
  • Determine those functions which are critical to the survival of your businesses and a plan to keep minimum function in these areas.
  • Establish a secondary location(s) to continue business operations should your current location be ordered to close. This may include exploring options such as work-from-home arrangements or telecommuting.

10 steps to business continuity
Here is what you can do now to maintain business continuity.  Keep in mind that many strategies take time to implement.

  1. Plan for the impact of a pandemic on your business. Check that existing contingency plans are applicable to a pandemic.  In particular, check to see that core business activities can be sustained over several weeks. 
  2. Identify other critical inputs (i.e. raw materials, suppliers, sub-contractors), services/products and logistics required to maintain business operations by location and function during a pandemic.
  3. Determine which outside activities are critical to maintaining operations and develop alternatives in case they cannot function normally. For example, what transportation systems are needed to provide essential materials? Does the business operate on “just in time” inventory or is there typically some reserve?
  4. Plan accordingly for possible short interruptions of essential services like sanitation, water, power, and disruptions to the food supply.
  5. Identify your company’s essential functions and the individuals who perform them. The absence of these individuals could seriously impair business continuity. Build in the training redundancy necessary to ensure that their work can be done in the event of an absentee rate of 25 to 35 per cent or more.
  6. Maintain a healthy work environment by encouraging healthy behaviours at all times and posting tips on how to stop the spread of germs at work. Promote good hand hygiene and respiratory etiquette: hand-washing, covering your cough and staying home when ill. Ensure that waterless antiseptic hand agents are available for use.
  7. Establish or expand policies and tools that enable employees to work from home with appropriate security and network access to applications, if possible.
  8. Expand online and self-service options for customers and business partners, if possible.
  9. Communicate with and educate your employees. Tell the workforce about the threat of pandemic influenza and the steps the company is taking to prepare for it. In emergencies, employees demonstrate an increased tendency to listen to their employer, so clear and frequent communication is essential.  Encourage personal preparedness.
  10. Updatesick leave as well as family and medical leave policies, and communicate with employees about the importance of staying away from the workplace if they become ill. Concern about lost wages is the largest deterrent to not coming to work when ill.

Things to consider

  • Some business facilities may be ordered closed by a Medical Health Officer to assist in controlling the spread of infection. Closures could require the delivery of products or business services through alternate means.
  • In the event of a pandemic, employees have the option of leaving their jobs. They also have the right to refuse to perform work if they believe it is likely to lead to their suffering serious harm. Many other employees may not come to work because they are frightened. However, their belief must be on reasonable grounds, and they must have attempted to resolve the matter with their employer before they can continue to refuse. The right to refuse unsafe work does not apply unless the understood risks of the work have materially increased. To avoid such situations, it is best to have had discussions with staff prior to any pandemic occurring.
  • Businesses must plan for border and air space closures. Shortages may occur because of disruptions in transportation systems. Some supplies destined for Newfoundland and Labrador travel considerable distances by truck, ship or aircraft, and are vulnerable to any disruption.
  • The delivery and manufacturing of important supplies may be delayed or stopped due to the inability of suppliers to meet demands because absences of workers/drivers and other transportation staff.
  • The highest rate of death during the 1918 pandemic was among the 20 to 40 year-old age group. This group comprises a significant portion of the workforce.
  • Your business may play a role in maintaining essential public health or safety services in communities, such as utilities, pharmaceuticals, food delivery and health care.  

 

Protecting employees' health
Take common-sense steps to limit the spread of germs. Make good hand hygiene and respiratory etiquette a habit. Encourage your employees by setting a good example:

  • Hand washing is the most important thing you can do to protect yourself and others. Wash hands frequently with soap and water or use a waterless antiseptic hand agent if soap and water are unavailable.
  • Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue or your sleeve when you cough or sneeze.
  • Put used tissues in a waste basket immediately.
  • Clean your hands after coughing or sneezing. Use soap and water or a waterless antiseptic hand agent.
  • Ask people to use a tissue and cover their nose and mouth when coughing or sneezing and to wash their hands afterwards.
  • Keep your hands away from your mouth, nose and eyes.
  • Stay home when you are sick or have influenza symptoms.
  • If you are ill, avoid contact with others until influenza-like symptoms have resolved.
  • Avoid contact with people who have influenza-like symptoms.
  • Practice other good health habits to keep your body strong so it can fight infection: eat a well balanced diet, exercise regularly, manage your stress and get plenty of rest.

 

Links
The following websites offer more information and additional resources to help your business prepare:
Public Health Agency of Canada
Pandemic Business Tool Kit
Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety
College of the North Atlantic - Pandemic Planning Course Information