Pandemic Communications Checklist

By Angelique Rewers, ABC, APR

Whether or not the swine flu will escalate into a full-blown pandemic remains to be seen. In recent weeks, government health officials were tempering their remarks on the morning news programs. However, they also warned that the swine flu is not going away – and a second wave next flu season could be severe.

In the meantime, it's a reminder that it's better to prepare for the worst-case scenario while hoping for the best. Here's a quick checklist of things to be thinking about.

Stay informed. Keep up-to-speed on the latest information about swine flu (or any pandemic) using reliable, official sources – not the mainstream media who often get details wrong in their haste to be first.

Here are several good sites to monitor:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/

U.S. Government: http://www.pandemicflu.gov/ 

U.S. Health & Human Services: http://www.hhs.gov/pandemicflu/

WHO: http://www.who.int/csr/disease/swineflu/en/index.html

Mayo Clinic: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/swine-flu/MY00675

Communicate the basics. At a minimum, your organization should have or be planning to communicate three things to your employees:

1. What your organization is doing to be prepared. Employees don't need to know the nitty-gritty details. But they do need to know the organization is monitoring the situation and has a plan to respond to such emergencies.

2. Changes in policy. Notify employees about changes in policies, such as avoiding business travel to Mexico. Some companies are also stipulating that employees who travel to Mexico during personal time should not return to work for a certain period of time following their trip. Also provide clear guidelines regarding liberal leave or work-at-home policies.

3. Wellness practices. Now is a great time to remind employees about the importance of washing their hands frequently, coughing or sneezing into the crease of their arm (not their hands), staying home when they feel they are becoming ill, using hand sanitizer, etc.

Make sure the communicators can communicate. Imagine your organization has been severely affected by a pandemic and more than 50% of your employees – including a good majority of the communications team – is now attempting to work from home. Now think about what would happen if your company's remote access to email became overloaded under the increased usage. Would your communications team still be able to communicate with each other? With key executives? At a minimum:

1. Create a hard copy list of key contact information for each other and key executives. In addition to work contact details, also include home phone numbers and personal e-mail addresses as a back-up.

2. Secure remote access. Talk to your IT department to see if it's possible to give the communications team priority access to the company's intranet and e-mail systems.

3. Ensure access to key files. How you would access files or other important data you would need in an emergency situation if your office building was off limits and remote access to the company's server was down? A good option is to use an outside vendor to provide this service.

Dust off your pandemic communication plan. Does your organization have a pandemic communication plan? If so, take time to review it with your team and ensure it's up to date. If not, now would be a good time to get management buy in to create one.

Some things your plan should include:

1. Defined goals. Think about what you want to accomplish through your communications. Continuity of business operations? Public education? Shareholder or employee confidence?

Now is also a good time to decide and secure agreement on whether or not your organization wants to take responsibility for keeping employees informed about the latest health information. This a big undertaking and corporate communications departments should not be expected to compete nor replicate the resources of say CNN or MSNBC. Instead, you might find it sufficient to provide links where employees can stay informed.

2. List of audiences you need to keep informed.

3. Key messages you want to consistently convey.

4. A time line of what information you will share when (such as at each stage of the WHO or CDC threat scales.)

5. Defined responsibilities. Which department or executive is responsible for making which decisions? What is the chain of command? And who is responsible for executing which pieces of the puzzle?

6. The tools you have in your arsenal for sharing information (i.e. newswire service, Twitter, a dark site, an automatic notification system, etc.), as well as instructions on how to access them.

7. Important contact information – both inside and outside the company

Provide a communications refresher to managers. During times of uncertainty or concern, employees want face-to-face communication with their direct supervisors. Be sure this important communications channel is up to the task by giving them the training, tools and information they need to be successful.

(For more ideas on how to make managers an effective part of your communications process, Download Special Report #1 at: http://www.bonmotcomms.com/toolkits.html)

Outline your PR issues and opportunities. Does your organization provide a vital public service such as health care, energy, water, etc? If so, you'll have an obligation to keep the media – and in turn your customers – informed about the measures you're taking to ensure your organization can continue to provide this service even if a significant portion of your workforce is affected during a pandemic.

On the other hand, your organization may provide a service or product that would be beneficial during a pandemic, such as products to keep people healthy, solutions that allow people to work from home, or services that provide back-up options for things like childcare.

Copyright © Bon Mot Communications LLC 2009

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