Companies must subject their contingency plans to rigorous testing to minimise the impact of a possible flu pandemic, analysts have warned.  Most businesses have at least thought about the risks of a flu pandemic and have started planning.  But many are unsure about what to do next; realistic testing is the next vital step say crisis readiness experts, Crisis Solutions Ltd.

"Many organisations have well-developed Business Continuity Plans but are unsure how they would respond to a flu pandemic" says Commercial Director Richard Whitby.  "Often these organisations just need some pointers to come up with a really good, workable plan - the ideas are already within the organisation. For example, how would the HR department deal with people phoning in sick?  Perhaps they could conduct some useful "triage" on the phone, asking questions such as "Have you travelled abroad recently? Are any other members of the family ill?"  Some simple questions can really help an organisation understand very quickly the impending effect on its productivity and get one step ahead of a pandemic."

Crisis Solutions has been running flu pandemic exercises for market leading businesses for well over a year and recently ran a week-long global exercise for a major investment bank.  William McLeod-Scott, who led the Crisis Solutions team that delivered the exercise, said that one of the main objectives had been to put all sectors of the firm under similar pressure to see if planning worked.  In his words “A flu pandemic is different from other scenarios because it would hit right across communities and could last several months.  This was a key consideration in planning the exercise.”

The bank’s exercise was run over six time zones for management teams in the US, Japan, India, the UK and across Europe.  To add realism to the event, the teams had access to live websites providing information based on official plans and streamed video news showing the effects of the pandemic as it spread across the globe.  Detailed modelling of the impact of the pandemic was done using Crisis Solutions FluPlanner^TM software and this enabled the teams to practise dealing with staff health issues and the potential disruption to business operations caused by the absence of key personnel.

The exercise control centre, based in London, provided constant information updates as well as questions from the staff, clients, counterparties and the media.  The participants were able to share information and documentation using a secure exercise intranet, built and hosted by Crisis Solutions.  McLeod-Scott explained that this allowed the teams exchange exercise data in real-time without any risk that it would “spill over” into the real world.

McLeod-Scott said that the simulation helped the firm to identify several gaps in its pandemic policies and procedures.  But he added that the exercise had had an overwhelmingly positive effect.  “The bank gained a great deal of confidence in the global resilience of their firm with the exercise being rated a great success by senior executives.”

According to Crisis Solutions, firms need to be sure that theoretical plans stand the test of rigorous examination so that they actually work when they’re needed.  “Putting the teams under pressure in a realistic simulation bonds them in fire so that when they come to deal with a real incident they are familiar with operations across the business and can respond much more effectively” says McLeod-Scott.