Pandemic Readiness

A key to ensuring that your institution is prepared for a pandemic flu crisis is to recognize that readiness is a point in time, says Mark Hayes, a financial director of Aetna's enterprisewide planning performance and management. "The problem with thinking you are ready is that you stop planning. In the event of a pandemic, the situation may quickly change. The virus may spread more quickly or mutate. Unlike other types of business continuity planning in which you can often play out what an event may bring, there are too many variables with a pandemic," says Hayes, who spearheaded Aetna's pandemic readiness initiative.

One component of Aetna's broad-based employee education strategy included development of an online training course (see "Pandemic Primer" sidebar) that has been completed by more than 27,000 of Aetna's employees. Its purpose, says Hayes, is to provide information about a pandemic as an event and to encourage individuals to consider their own personal wellness and their obligations to help mitigate the risks of a pandemic spreading within the context of their families, coworkers, and their broader community.

"Aetna's pandemic preparedness planning is focused on two critical objectives: to be there—no matter what—for the people who use our services, and to help employees stay healthy," says Elease Wright, Aetna's head of human resources. "The e-learning course was designed to help employees understand the facts about the avian bird flu, the pandemic threat, and steps we can take to protect individuals and their families."

After rolling out its training course, Aetna engaged in a series of pandemic-related simulations. One involved the same scenario played out at two work sites. "What was interesting is that the leaders at each site made a series of decisions that resulted in different outcomes," says Hayes. "Neither outcome was necessarily more favorable, but this brought home to us all that the decisions you make lead to interrelated activities and decisions that may have very different outcomes."

That reflects another key point: A pandemic event is ultimately a local issue, says Hayes. Different localities will inevitably experience a pandemic differently based in part on geography and in part on the variety of decision-making mechanisms and decision makers in place.

Ensure Employee Welfare

Chief among an institution's concerns in the face of such a crisis is the readiness of its employees to respond at work and at home. "If employees don't feel prepared to take care of themselves and their families, then they aren't going to function well at their jobs," says Vivian Moore Lawyer, chief human resources officer at Montgomery College, Rockville, Maryland. Training sessions that the community college has provided through its faculty and staff assistance program have drilled employees on the importance of developing response plans at home.

As for the college's plan of action, Lawyer says it is taking its lead from Montgomery County, which has in place an elaborate emergency command center. Because the college has been designated as a potential site for administering emergency services, it is centrally involved in broader regional crisis planning. In her own role, Lawyer and her staff have worked to help each campus develop a general plan that includes defining and designating essential personnel and their backups—recognizing that who is considered essential could be different in the event of a pandemic compared to more typical considerations such as weather-related events.

"It's difficult to say, step by step, what we would do in the event of a pandemic, but the general focus is on preserving our capacity to continue to conduct the essential work of the institution," says Lawyer. At least in her technology-rich county, that could include allowing more employees to work remotely either from their homes or from various telework centers located throughout Montgomery County.

Identify Employee Motivations

Aetna has coupled its focus on preparing employees with planning efforts to maintain continuity in delivery of services to its customers. And that, says Hayes, requires a keen understanding not only of employee composition but also their motivations. "Employers really have to question their fundamental assumptions about the makeup of their workforce. Much of the best practice guidance available even from primary sources such as pandemicflu.gov may provide too generic of a picture. You have to ask how much the general statistics apply to your work site and your employee base," says Hayes.

For instance, while a high absenteeism rate may be more likely in a densely populated area, other reasons exist for why employees may choose to stay home in the event of a pandemic. Don't assume you know how your employees will respond, advises Hayes. At the same time, employers don't have to sit back and guess about employee response. Because demographic differences can account for significant differences in response, employers can develop possible scenarios based on a solid understanding of their unique employee composition, says Hayes.

"Are your employees mostly younger or older? While older workers are among those who may be more susceptible from a personal health risk, if you have a high percentage of younger employees with school-age children or working adults who are a primary caregiver for an elderly parent, you have to be honest about allowing for the decisions these segments of your workforce might make in the event of a crisis," says Hayes. "If the news media is announcing a potential life-or-death situation and it is a question for employees of showing up to work versus sacrificing the health of at-risk family members, you have to allow for the reality that more will choose to stay home," says Hayes. "Any planning has to reflect that reality."

Which leads to a need for appropriate planning to allow more individuals to work remotely to ensure your institution maintains its essential functions, says Hayes.

Equip Employee Productivity

"At Aetna, we started by looking at our current work-at-home population." Approximately 15 percent of Aetna's employees nationwide currently work from home on a regular basis.

"Next, we asked what upward range our current technology would support if we suddenly needed to increase the number of employees who could work remotely in the event of a pandemic," says Hayes. A Valentine's Day ice storm earlier this year provided a good test. The number of Aetna employees working from home that day doubled—without additional infrastructure put in place to accommodate this, notes Hayes.

Aetna has since begun to categorize and prioritize who could or should be prepared to work at home in the event of a pandemic and is taking steps to equip employee productivity. "If, as part of its pandemic planning, an institution determines that it does not have the requisite technology to allow essential personnel to work remotely, the logical next step is to acquire that capability," says Hayes.

Karla Hignite, principal of KH Communication, Tacoma, Washington, is editor of NACUBO's HR Horizons; e-mail: karlahignite@msn.com.