HRfocus June 2003
Dealing With the Threat of SARS
It's not just scientists and health officials who are challenged by SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome). Although there have been only a few cases or suspected cases in the U.S. and SARS has caused no deaths here, the disease is raising concerns about how businesses should react to protect employees from possible contagion.
Recently, HR professionals have been discussing these issues on the Society for Human Resource Management's member bulletin boards. HRfocus hopes that the resources and suggestions below can help your organization prepare to cope with this latest workplace threat. And if you haven't updated your overall emergency plan lately, the suggestions in the sidebar will be timely.
DEVELOP A PLAN
You can protect your organization from both safety and legal viewpoints by creating a plan now. This will allow you to take action quickly in the event of an outbreak instead of hashing out what to do in a panic. A plan can also provide legal protection by determining a policy that is as fair as possible under the circumstances.
Q&A AND RESOURCES
Here are questions and answers that can help your firm prepare to handle an epidemic, as well as sources for ongoing information:
* Should the company restrict travel to high-risk areas? Many companies are doing so, and it does seem wise. It is harder to ban personal travel, but you can encourage employees to avoid the affected areas.
* Can the company require quarantine for an employee who may have been exposed to the disease? This has been a hot discussion point on the SHRM bulletin boards. The consensus seems to be that the company can ask the employee to go into voluntary quarantine, and it can pay for the time off. One to two weeks seems to be the average time frame for such quarantines.
* What can the company do if someone in an office contracts SARS? When this happened to an Intel employee in Hong Kong, the office where the person worked was closed and the 50 to 60 people were asked to work from home for a week. This may seem extreme, but until more is known about the disease, it may be the prudent approach.
* What other steps should we take? The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the World Health Organization (WHO), and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) have all issued recommendations concerning travel, as well as information on symptoms of the disease. Keeping up with changes at these sites will help you plan your policies. Links to bookmark:
- Information Regarding Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS): www.osha.gov/dep/sars/index.html#ml
- Interim Guidelines About Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) for Persons in the General Workplace Environment: www.cdc. gov/ncidod/sars/workplaceguidelines .htm
- Interim Domestic Guidance on Persons Who May Have Been Exposed to Patients With Suspected Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS): www.cdc.gov/ncidod/sars/ic-closecontacts.htm
- SARS Information for Travel: www .cdc.gov/ncidod/sars/travel.htm
Updating Your Other Emergency Plans
Unfortunately, SARS is not the only workplace threat these days. To update your overall emergency plan, HRfocus suggests these resources:
* Membership in the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM; www. shrm.org) will give you access to SHRM's Emergency Response Toolkit, which includes white papers, state military leave laws, and other general links and resources.
* HR consultant Marsh has established the Marsh e-Learning Center for Crisis Readiness, designed to help business professionals learn how to prevent, prepare for, respond to, and recover from a range of crises.
Ambassador L. Paul Bremer III, chair and CEO of Marsh's crisis consulting practice, heads the Crisis Academy team. The Academy focuses on crisis-management best practices developed over the past decade by leading organizations. The online approach makes it affordable and accessible, overcoming budgetary, distance, and scheduling constraints-features that Ambassador Bremer believes will make the Academy particularly useful to midsize organizations.
Marsh has also created a PowerPoint security briefing, "Security in a Dangerous World," a self-directed course that can be distributed throughout an organization via intranet, e-mail, and hard copy. (Note: You can buy a single copy and distribute it at no extra charge.) A complimentary preview of the presentation is available on the Web site at www.marshcrisisacademy.com.
* The American Society of Safety Engineers has released a list of steps you can take to enhance readiness for workplace emergencies, including:
1. Reassure employees that you're developing safety measures for their protection.
2. Increase security, surveillance activities, and outdoor lighting, and check the identification of those entering your buildings.
3. Update and review with employees your company's emergency response plan. Make sure the plan includes all current local, state, and federal emergency service numbers.
4. Offer escorts through parking lots.
5. Coordinate your emergency response plan with other local businesses and with your municipality. You should also discuss emergency planning with customers whose offices are visited regularly by your staff.
* Use the resources of the Federal Emergency Management Administration. FEMA has guides to national security emergencies as well as to citizen preparedness. Visit www.FEMA.gov or www.globalsecurity.org/security/library/report/2003/fema-security.pdf for a copy of the guide to national security emergencies.
* Check out your employee assistance plan (EAP). Most providers have resources and guidelines for dealing with unusual levels of stress and depression related to terrorism and war. If your EAP doesn't provide these services and references, ask for them.
* Develop systems to track employees who are traveling or working offsite. Provide contact points or a separate phone line for information and support during an emergency or crisis.
Copyright © 2003 IOMA
