AUSTRALIAN COMPANIES are falling behind their global peers in planning for an Avian flu outbreak, despite heightened concerns about the pandemic’s potential impact
AUSTRALIAN COMPANIES are falling behind their global peers in planning for an Avian flu outbreak, despite heightened concerns about the pandemic’s potential impact.
According to a global survey from Mercer Human Resource Consulting, Australian organisations are more concerned than their global counterparts but just 12 per cent have established a pandemic preparedness budget. Globally, things are not much better with 17 per cent of organisations developing budgets.
Asia, however, is well ahead with 25 per cent of organisations having budgets in place. Observers have pointed to Asia’s experiences in dealing with the 2003 Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak, which, while smaller in predicted magnitude than a potential Avian flu, invokes many similar risks.
During the SARS outbreak, Chinese organisations required employees to undergo medical tests and screenings to ensure that work duties could be performed without risks to other workers. In Hong Kong, meanwhile, banks sent home staff to be ‘quarantined’, for use in the event of infection of other staff, and established ‘clean’sites for the quarantined workers to man.
Beyond Asia, however, business continuity (BC) experts have serious doubts about the robustness of pandemic planning. “It’s no secret that business continuity plans don’t measure up to the scale and type of threat we are facing,” said a source responsible for BC at a major government department who asked not be named.
“Many BC plans have been based on short-term issues such as a building falling over. This is totally different – you might be without staff for three months. That’s going to be disastrous for many businesses. Then there’s the fear factor – I’m not going to want to be around other, potentially infected, people.”
Businesses should avoid relying on the Federal and State Governments for assistance in the event of a pandemic. Experts said both governments are likely to focus only on essential services.
“There is no doubt that an influenza pandemic will occur,” said Scott Wilkinson, medical director at International SOS. “It will be an extended event of months or perhaps years – very different to other business continuity issues,”he said.
“Any planning will have to respond to changing events quickly. Government support to business will be limited – I don’t think we can look to government plans to assist business – they are aiming to continue with essential services only, particularly in Australia.”
While Australia falls behind Asia, it is well ahead of the US, which has virtually no experience of disease-related BC planning. Just seven per cent of US firms have allocated budget for bird flu planning, yet 80 per cent expected a negative impact on their profits.
While US firms indicated they would ratchet up spending in the event of an outbreak, it could be too late.
“We believe that, to be effective, investments are better made at the planning stage,” said Jim Reynolds of Mercer in the US. “Once a pandemic occurs, such expenditure may be seen by some employees as a bribe to risk contracting life-threatening illness. Therefore this approach is unlikely to be the most effective way to address a crisis.”
