Dealing with the "flu"

[JohnGlenn]

According to a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention news release titled "CDC says US flu season starts early, could be bad" released December 3, 2012, "Significant increases in flu activity in the United States have occurred in the last two weeks, indicating that an early flu season is upon us. These increases in activity overlap with National Influenza Vaccination Week (NIVW) being observed December 2-8, 2012. According to Dr. Melinda Wharton, Acting Director of CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, “Increasing flu activity should be a wake-up call. For anyone who has put off vaccination: It’s time to get your flu vaccine now.”
Influenza takes its toll on staff - production lines and office personnel alike. The question for employers - and this is where the risk management practitioner comes in - is "How to deal with the flu threat?"
Some options:
(1) Encourage employees to get flu shots on their own
(2) Pay for flu shots for (2a) critical staff or (2b) all personnel
(3) Allow time off - paid or otherwise - for employees to get flu shots
(4) Bring medical personnel to the work site(s) to offer the inoculations
(5) Offer a "reward" (however small) to those who take the needle
(6) Create a policy and procedure for those who cannot or will not be inoculated (checking with legal counsel before casting same in concrete)
The full CDC release is at http://www.cdc.gov/flu/spotlights/early-season-nivw.htm
What is your organization planning to do?

[ReynoldsLR]

When I was at the USDA, our DR Exercise included a "pandemic" component where we simulated an emergency quarantine that required all participants to work remotely for the exercise. Very good contingency to test. Exercise was successful.

[JohnGlenn]

ReynoldsLR
How do you operate a production line from remote sites? It's not a "work-from-home" (or "hoteling") option.

The problem with all DR plans and too many BC plans is they don't consider manufacturing. They also usually fail to consider staff who interface with customers - in person (e.g., sales, service prsonnel) or via phone/email.

With influenza, we are considering a partial reduction of personnel and the very real potential of spreading the ailment.

[ReynoldsLR]

Our exercise was strictly building the virtual servers, webfarm to mainframe, infrastructure and connectivity. There are personnel who had to be onsite, but those that could work remotely on builds were asked to do so.

A production line/manufacturing business would be hard pressed to overcome a quarantine.