WorldatWork White Paper | OCTOBER 2017 Business Continuity Planning for Illness Outbreak or Epidemic Send White Paper submissions to: [email protected] Executive Editor Andrea Ozias I [email protected] I 480-304-6738 Design WorldatWork (worldatwork.org) is a nonprofit human Senior Graphic Designers I Jamie Hernandez I Kris Sotelo I resources association for professionals and organizations Hanna Norris focused on compensation, benefits, work-life effectiveness and total rewards — strategies to attract, motivate and retain an engaged and productive workforce. WorldatWork and its affiliates provide comprehensive education, certification, research, advocacy and community, enhancing careers of professionals and, ultimately, achieving better results for the organizations they serve. WorldatWork has more than 70,000 members and subscribers worldwide; 95 percent of Fortune 500 companies employ a WorldatWork member. 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Office 1100 13th St., NW, Ste. 800 Washington, D.C. 20006 Toll-free: 877-951-9191 Phone: +1 480 951 9191 Fax: +1 480 483 8352 worldatwork.org 2 Table of Contents 4 | The Scope of an Outbreak or Epidemic 5 | Current Level of Preparation Among Organizations 6 | What Total Rewards and HR Professionals Can Do 9 | Luck Favors the Prepared 10 | References worldatwork.org 3 The Scope of an Outbreak or Epidemic When an employee at any organization misses work due are warning signs before an illness turns into a to the flu or any other illness, the toll it has on the widespread outbreak and disaster. Good business business can be, literally, sickening. Tasks must be practices require that risks be managed to mitigate the shuffled to other workers, meetings rescheduled, effect of any kind of interruption, including widespread deadlines missed and profits lost. On the other hand, if employee illness. That is the essence of BC planning: the employee comes to work with symptoms of the flu Ensuring an organization has contingencies in place or any contagious illness, the effects can be just as bad, that allow it to stay up and running and quickly recover or worse. An average of 111 million workdays are lost from a disaster. in the United States each year due to the flu alone. Now While many BC plans cover corporate infrastructure add these flu days with every other illness that threatens to become an epidemic, like a rare H1N1 virus (e.g., computer networks, buildings), they fail to take into account the human factor that is especially affected or a preventable measles outbreak. The implications of in an illness disaster. A 2015 Staples survey ranked the worker absenteeism can be frightening to HR and total damage of an illness outbreak at an organization as rewards professionals and organizations that rely on equal to a natural disaster or a security breach, and healthy and productive employees. more damaging than a product or customer service issue. An emergency plan for a natural disaster is Employers should be prepared, and solid business important for any organization, but the implications and continuity (BC) planning can help organizations and duration of a crisis situation, with illness infecting an their leaders weather the flu season or any outbreak entire workforce, require a different type of BC plan. that infects many employees. A workforce that is infected with an illness outbreak or With the flu being such a predictable illness threat to pandemic has a trickle-down effect: It could limit the entire economies each year, why isn’t its workplace toll availability, supply or delivery of essential goods and declining with advances in medical research and public services, interrupt critical business supply chains and education? One reason is that employees don’t always potentially threaten the ability to sustain critical infra- act based on what they know. 79% of workers went to structures. Also, consumer demand for items related to work sick in 2015 even though nearly three-quarters of infection control likely will increase dramatically, while employers (74%) provided designated sick days, interest in other goods may decline. The potential effect according to a 2016 Staples survey. on society underscores the need for individuals, families, businesses, organizations, government agen- Educating employees on the effect of their illness on the cies and communities to be prepared. The BC plan organization is only one part of what employers need to needs to address absenteeism, interruptions to product do with their BC plan to defend themselves against an or service delivery to customers, and potential business illness disaster. In a world of global news, social media closures. and information-immediacy, thankfully there usually worldatwork.org 4 Current Level of Preparation Among Organizations organizations, employees still get sick. And many still go Most employers allow for a designated number of sick to work even when they know they’re contagious. days each year that an employee may take, and co- workers take on extra responsibilities while the Of course, organizations with a telework policy are employee is out. Two-thirds of employers responding to more flexible in responding to employees who feel they the “2015 Employee Benefits” report published by need to work but don’t want to get others sick. A 2015 SHRM offered a wellness program in their total rewards Gallup poll found that 38% of employees telework at package that, undoubtedly, would promote awareness least twice per month, and the trend continues to grow. and education about flu and other contagious illness prevention. The bad news, though, is that only 60% of Having a policy for teleworking, sick leave and awareness about illness and epidemics are all things employees at large companies said they are aware that that will help an organization be prepared. a wellness program exists at their organization, according to RAND Corp. research. And of this 60%, only 40% actually participated in the program. The H1N1 swine flu of 2009 and 2010 triggered pandemic fears and many businesses to change practices to protect employees and customers, Why Do Sick Employees Still Show Up at Work? especially their operations in Mexico. Insurance company Grupo LM&S, located in an area of Mexico with the most detected cases of the disease, made use of their 33% fear losing their job if they take a sick day. BC plan quickly, encouraging most employees to work from home. For employees working in the office, face say their workload is too busy to take a 58% masks were provided and information consistently day off. communicated about signs and symptoms of H1N1, means of transmission and prevention. The BC plan 25% don’t feel confident someone else could focused on keeping people healthy led to the business handle their work. not having to stop operations. Among business decision makers, 39% think that going to work while sick shows they put in extra initiative, and 30% say their boss expects them to come to work. Source: Monster.com and Staples surveys Wellness initiatives often are responsible for a very important offering that reduces the risk of a workplace epidemic: flu shot clinics. A 2015 SHRM survey found that 61% of participants offered on-site flu shots to employees. The typical cost of a flu shot is $25 to $29, far less than the cost of one day’s absence and a doctor’s visit. The flu shot is not a guarantee that the employee will be safe from the flu that year, but it is a popular step that prepared employers are offering. Wellness programs also often focus on healthy lifestyle choices, such as exercise, healthy eating and not smoking — all of which, according to vast research, boosts the immune system to fight diseases like the flu. But even with wellness efforts and sick leave offered by worldatwork.org 5 What Total Rewards and HR Professionals Can Do Total rewards and HR professionals can play a vital role • Avoid congregating in break rooms. in keeping the business operations going in the face of • If a face-to-face meeting is more practical, minimize an illness outbreak. While policies for telework, sick the meeting time, choose a large room and sit at leave, wellness participation and hiring a cleaning crew least 3 feet away from each other. may have been agreed upon when the organization was founded and perhaps reviewed annually, a crisis such as Employers also can monitor individual employee risk half of the employees being sick with the flu requires for complications.