The H1N1, formerly know as swine flu, has been in the news for a few months. It was thought to have leveled off but it appears that this may not be the case. Long story short, it looks like the world is going to be hit with a pandemic. This means lots of people sick and lots of people caring for sick family members. What this means to your business is that you need to prepare now!
Tips on Preparation
If your company does not have a disaster recovery plan, Fingertip towels now is the time to get one. For now let's assume there is a pandemic. You will need to do a couple of things to prepare.
Review Leave Policy - Make sure you have one and it is clear. If you are a small business you need a handbook and a leave policy.
Cross Train - Figure out who has job functions that don't have a backup. Any person who performs a function that you can not afford to live without needs a backup. Taking that one step further you need to have a backup plan for every critical function of your organization.
Quarantine - Are there job functions that can operate remotely for a short time. Leverage technology to allow people to work remotely. In a quarantine situation, the fewer places a person has to visit the lower the likelihood that they will come in contact with someone who is contagious. Additionally if someone has to be away from work to care for a sick relative, it would be helpful if they could perform some of their job function away from the office.
Backup Plan - What are there outside resources you can use to operate your business in case you have an outbreak in your office. By that I mean can you maintain operations with a significantly scaled back operation? Do you have a rel=nofollow continuity plan in place that includes a temp staffing service in case of disasters? One that knows your business and can provide you short term help? What is your plan if your city/area is put under quarantine? Do you have clear lines of authority and rel=nofollow job descriptions in case of disaster? Make your backup plans during now.
The point is to prepare now. Make those contingency agreements now so when the time comes you can be prepared. It could save your business. Remember people are your most important asset. Make sure you have them in place and they know their responsibilities in a crisis and you stand a better chance of your business surviving.
Trained as an electrical engineer, Tom now applies the process and analysis skills to attracting and hiring top employees for his clients. For those who want to give it a go for themselves, Tom has created Staffing and Recruiting Essentials, a web site for small and medium size business who want to attract and hire great people. Of course the hope is that someday you will want to hire Tom and his company but in the mean time, give it a try yourself or get his free e-book titled, The Top 5 Hiring Mistakes.
No comments:
Post a Comment