As I am about to organise an HR conference on business contingencies for a flu pandemic, I listened to a webinar by the HR and pay consultancy Mercer this afternoon. A lot of the basic stuff about swine fever preparations has been covered elsewhere, in Personnel Today for example, but there was some useful heads up stuff on issues like preparing for home working and making sure people get paid properly or at all.
For example, if it's possible you may have a lot more people working from home during a pandemic, then it is a good idea to test your IT system to make sure you have enough bandwidth and server availability, as well as ensuring the security arrangements do not leave you at risk.
When it comes to pay, the Mercer speakers advise employers to segment the workforce to calculate the likely impact of a pandemic, including adjusting sales bonus targets to take into account lost time due to absence, quarantine etc. They also pointed out that you need to make sure there is back up for whoever administrates the payroll system or risk employees not being paid at all.
