3 ways firms are preparing for swine flu
October 15, 2009 by Sam NarisiPosted in: Economy, In This Week's E-Newsletter, Latest News & Views
It’s swine flu season, and many companies are facing a great challenge: allowing people time off to prevent disease from spreading — without putting too big a dent in productivity.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend employees with swine flu stay home for seven days or until they’ve been symptom-free for 24 hours, whichever’s longer, according to a recent Chicago Tribune article.
Seven or more days is a long absence, especially in this economy. Many managers will probably be reluctant to allow that much time off. But they need to understand how low productivity could drop if the flu spreads to several workers.
Some of the ways the Tribune reports companies are dealing with the issue:
- Financial company CME Group, Inc., has beefed up its telecommuting capacity so more employees can work from home if necessary.
- In addition to offering seasonal flu shots and adding hand sanitizer dispensers in its offices, Kraft developed a special emergency response plan that includes options such as bringing employees from other areas to plants hard hit by absenteeism.
- Ravinia Plumbing and Heating, a company of fewer than 40 employees, has cross-trained workers so operations won’t be disrupted if some folks are absent.
Has your company taken any steps to deal with the anticipated swine flu outbreak? Let us know in the comments section below.
Tags: absences, swine flu, telecommuting, time off
October 16th, 2009 at 1:15 pm
We also have done a significant amount of additional cross training in critical operations positions, have added or stocked additional amounts of flu-related items to our first aid kids (disposable themometers, “dust” masks, additional hand sanitizer and alcohol wipes for door knobs, keyboards and telephone receivers, etc). We paid for seasonal flu shots for any employee who wanted it (had about 50% participation). We are keeping “flu logs” to keep track of the numbers, average length of time out, symptoms exhibited etc so we will be aware if the occurrances look to be of “epidemic” numbers at any of our facilities. We installed “hands free” hand sanitizer dispensers in many locations.
October 23rd, 2009 at 1:48 pm
I can’t convince our Management team and owners that there may be problems and that we should plan for some absenteeism. Granted, last year we weren’t hit with any major sickness issues, but who knows what this flu season will bring. Anyone else have this denial problem? And, if so, what have you been able to do about it?