However…if you have any concerns then the article in Personnel Today gives some useful, albeit fairly common sense, pointers.
The advice, perhaps unsurprisingly, looks remarkably similar to the guidance given during the bird flu outbreak of 2008. We recall several companies producing very detailed, and thankfully unnecessary, disaster recovery plans at that time.
So our advice at this point in time would be to apply common sense and take appropriate measures if any of your staff have travelled to affected areas or come into contact with people who may be infected.
If the risks in the UK increase then more action may be required and we’ll share any advice we receive.
Of course it’s never a bad idea to consider a business contingency / disaster recovery plan for your business, as a bad case of flu can drastically reduce your workforce for several weeks over the winter, and it’s useful to consider how the business critical aspects of your operation would continue in extremely bad weather, transport disruption, extended power, phone or internet failure.
We’re not suggesting you produce an extensive document that no one ever looks at ever again but planning a few simple measures to ensure you can maintain business functions is a good idea.
One simple yet critical thing we’d suggest is ensuring that you have an up to date contact list for your employees and their next of kin so that if anything unexpected happens you can communicate with everyone who needs to know. And have the same to hand for your key clients so you can let them know what is happening too.