When swine flu panic hit this spring, did you take proactive steps to prepare your company for the losses that would be caused by mass absenteeism? If you’re like the majority of managers in most businesses, the answer is no. However, according to a new article from MIT Sloan, preparing for a flu pandemic should be on every manager’s to-do list.
In “Fever, Chills and Losses,” author Amin Mawani, an associate professor at the Schulich School of Business at Toronto’s York University, advocates stockpiling masks, gowns and antiviral medication in order to keep staff healthy and working. Yet is proposing those preparations something you can do in a company meeting without sounding like a doomsday enthusiast? Perhaps your colleagues will take you seriously if you share Mawani’s list of benefits:
- 1. Economic advantage: “The companies that can prevent absenteeism during a pandemic will be well-positioned to take market share from those that can’t — a situation that may be hard to reverse once the panic subsides,” Mawani writes.
- 2. A reputation for preparedness: Going public with your plans can give your image a boost. Mawani says, ”Customers care about reliability and will value a supplier with a plan for weathering an economic shock.”
- 3. By spending a little, you could save a lot: From a cost-benefit standpoint, the relatively low cost of making a plan and stockpiling items will potentially save substantial revenue, should a pandemic hit.
The article cites a 2007 survey from a Harvard Business School conference that found only 13 percent of reporting businesses were prepared for a pandemic. Some of the reasons that few companies make these preparations are shortage of funds, lack of know-how in crisis planning and logistical or ethical concerns with ordering and dispensing prescription medications.
Is your company one of the few making pandemic preparations? Does making such plans seem like a valuable use of company resources?
Flu kit image courtesy of Flickr user Archie McPhee Seattle, CC 2.0
