HR Pandemic/Communicable Illness Guide Excerpts

If 40% of your staff was absent during an influenza outbreak, could your institution survive?

Firestorm’s Human Resources Reference Guide is intended to assist organizations in Human Resource planning for a pandemic or communicable illness outbreak .

Unlike the disasters that most companies plan for, a pandemic primarily will not affect equipment and facilities, but rather the people organizations depend on to produce products and services. The current assumptions about a pandemic’s duration push the boundaries of most existing absence-from-work policies. Therefore, organizations must thoroughly examine their human resource management practices and policies, refining and/or implementing policies that address the long timeline of a pandemic event.

It is possible that an organization’s workforce could be depleted by 40% or more at any given time during the H1N1 pandemic. The impact and recovery could last 18 to 24 months. The majority of steps needed to prepare for this risk are operational. Human Resource issues, such as how employers plan to address screening, monitoring, leave, absenteeism, and other processes and policies involving their workforce are critical, and have strategic implications. In making plans, employers will confront many federal and state regulatory challenges that must be considered. Firestorm’s HR Reference Guide should be considered in conjunction with all guidance given by national, regional and local authorities.

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