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| Pandemic Flu Overview |
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Pandemic flu planning has been always been a component of business continuity planning but the current situation has brought this issue to the forefront of our planning efforts. The current outbreak of the H1N1 influenza virus has spurred planning efforts across the state. On this page you will find information about the efforts of the DAS Influenza Coordination Team, recommendations to strengthen your business continuity plan, and a list of resources for more information about this outbreak.
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| DAS H1N1 Flu Coordination Team |
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DAS Human Resources Division is leading a statewide coordination effort to provide policy guidance and direction to state agencies regarding the current outbreak of the H1N1 flu virus. This team is made up of delegates from the Department of Justice and DHS Public Health, in addition to representatives from the Department of Administrative Services Director’s Office, Human Resources Division, Risk Management, and Enterprise Business Continuity Program.
The contact for this effort is Rebecca Gray, with the DAS HR Management and Consultation section. In addition to handling all HR inquiries, Rebecca is coordinating the response to questions regarding risk, business continuity, etc. She will collaborate with other divisions of DAS, the Department of Justice, and the DHS Public Health Division.
Contact:
Rebecca.Gray@das.state.or.us
(503) 378-8301
Executive Building
155 Cottage Street NE
Salem, OR 97301
This group has developed a website to post policy and guidance documents:
DAS Influenza Coordination Team
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| Business Continuity Planning |
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A loss of workforce due to pandemic flu can create a business continuity problem for any organization. Thankfully, your agency should have already done a great amount of planning!
Your organization should have already identified your critical business functions, those services and tasks your agency must provide to the public. These critical functions must be provided even if your agency has a shortage of workers. Most pandemic planning scenarios estimate that 25-50% of your workforce may be absent or unavailable for the duration of the pandemic. You must ensure that your agency can carry out critical business functions even with high absentee rates.
The Enterprise Business Continuity Planning Program has three recommendations to strengthen and improve your business continuity plans for a pandemic situation:
Conduct a survey of staff skills
This will involve identifying those staff members who may be able to fill in or assist in the completion of your critical business functions. These employees may not currently be assigned to these tasks, but their previous work experience or particular skills sets may allow them to complete these functions. So, for each critical business function, create a list of all staff who could perform the required tasks, whether they are currently identified in your BCP or not. This will hopefully provide you with a list of staff who could implement your business continuity plan if necessary during a flu outbreak.
Test remote working connections
If your business continuity plan identifies having employees work from home, test those connections now. Make sure that anyone who might need to be able to work remotely has the ability to do so in advance.
Update your communications plans
Make sure you can communicate with your staff if they are not in the office. This means creating or updating call trees and wallet cards. Additionally, make sure your staff can access and update their voicemail messages remotely.
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| Influenza Resources |
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