What should businesses do to prepare for swine flu?

On Wednesday, the World Health Organization increased the swine flu alert level from a 4 to a 5, indicating a pandemic is looming. While healthcare facilities and schools across the country are responding and being proactive to prevent the spread of the virus, non-healthcare businesses should also be prepping their employees and crisis plans in the event of an outbreak in their office or buildings.

Businesses should take this as an opportunity to review their crisis plans and ensure they are ready to deal with the virus so it doesn’t affect business-as-usual. Although the majority of cases have been found in people under the age of 18, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, patients range in age from 8 to 81, and working adults should take extra steps to protect themselves from the virus.

Communication is crucial in a crisis situation. There are several strategies businesses can employ to ensure employees are aware and understand what the virus is, how to protect themselves against it and how the company will handle an outbreak if one occurs.

Awareness

Companies should form a team of managers who will decide how to communicate to employees about the virus, including what it is, how it is transmitted and simple steps to take to prevent the spread of the virus. This can be the same group of people who handle the crisis management at the company. Part of this team’s message for employees should include encouraging them to proceed with a normal daily routine, yet with precaution.

Develop a Plan

Every company should have a crisis plan in place, and a key aspect of that plan should be communication. A crisis plan not only protects the company but also its employees. Having a plan in place prepares your company for good response time and consistent messaging that will promote your company as stable and strong, even when a crisis hits. This remains true for any crisis, including health emergencies.

Communication

This team should also devise a plan that includes a statement that can be used to communicate to the company’s clients, customers and to the public, in the event of an outbreak within the business. The statement should include information about how the company is handling the outbreak, ensuring the area is cleaned properly and other employees are safe.

Also, the company should communicate an internal plan to employees that allows those who show signs or symptoms of the flu to work remotely so as not to spread the virus to other staff in the office.

Businesses should be prepared to answer questions from employees about using sick leave or paid time off and privacy issues when discussing if employees should work from home if they show signs of flu symptoms.

It is important that companies begin to look at these issues and develop a plan now rather than when the virus hits their area or office building. By initiating a plan today to help educate employees and reviewing sick-leave and work-from-home policies, it will help prevent or downsize a crisis later.

Our client Coverall Health-Based Cleaning System specializes in infection control and is helping businesses be prepared for potential swine flu outbreaks in offices. Coverall is offering checklists and educational information about identifying "hot spots" that are prime areas of germ and infection transmission. The company is also offering insight about the proper cleaning methods and materials needed to clean an area that has been infected by swine flu. For more information about Coverall and its services please visit www.coverall.com.

Crisis Management

The Role of Social Media in Crisis Management

The short news cycle is becoming even shorter with the growth of social media venues, and messages about your company, whether good or bad, are going to spread at rapid pace. Now is the time when your company should incorporate social media into its crisis management plan.

Every company should have a crisis team in place at all times. This team should include key executives, a public relations executive or team, legal counsel and a digital communications expert.

There are three key parts to a crisis management plan – preparation, response and recovery.

Preparation

Preparation is the first part of crisis management to ensure the second and third phases are carried out effectively. While it is true that there is no way to plan for every potential crisis, you can start by holding a brainstorming session with your company’s executives to discuss possible crisis situations and then develop a plan for each situation.

There are a few strategies companies can incorporate in the preparation phase of crisis management. The most common strategy is to select one spokesperson to eliminate confusion when the media start asking questions, and message points that specifically address key issues of various stakeholders should be drafted and ready.

Also, your company should create accounts on various social networking sites before a crisis occurs to allow for an easy transition to responding to a crisis using these outlets when the time comes.

Response

Response is the most important part of the crisis management plan because it can make or break your company’s reputation. In the past, when a crisis occurred a company had 24 hours to respond before the opportunity was lost. Now, with the rise of social networking venues companies should take no longer than 4 hours to respond to public concern. Proactive communication on the bad news does at least two good things: It gives you more control over the timing, and it gives you the opportunity to frame the story in the best possible way.

During a crisis, at least one team member should be monitoring and tracking coverage and comments on all news sites, including the more traditional online versions of print media, as well as, Twitter, blogs, YouTube, Facebook, etc. With the increasing use of digital and social media which gives users the ability to connect with thousands of consumers and share thoughts immediately, it is utterly important for companies to also be communicating via these channels. Gone are the days when a crisis would occur and the company had an entire news cycle before it appeared in the papers and was made public.

Not only should your company be as responsive as possible using social media, the key spokesperson chosen should also be made available to all media inquiries and answer questions without a ‘no comment’ response. When companies use the ‘no comment’ response or cannot be reached to answer journalists’ questions, the public assumes the worst.

Recovery

After a crisis occurs, it is important to close the loop with strategies that repair any damage to your company’s reputation, public image and internal relationships with stakeholders. This is one area where a public relations team plays a key role.

Implementing strategies for recovery using social media will continue to climb the ladder of importance. Not only will a PR team need to draft and distribute an effective news release in response to a crisis, but the team will also need to go online and initiate conversations and response to consumers’ comments and concerns on various social networking sites.

A good crisis PR program is not going to make all your problems go away, but it can minimize the impact of negative publicity on your company’s reputation and maybe even contribute to its survival.