Flu could decimate already-thin workforce

A quick pop quiz:

What are the most critical processes in your business?

And how would you get those things done if the people normally responsible were absent?

John Challenger, chief executive of the Chicago-based outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, cautioned recently that a possible H1N1 flu outbreak, plus the recession-stressed workforce in most businesses today, could equal real trouble for firms that don't think about just such questions.

"Companies are understaffed, and may have moved into survival mode," said Challenger. "Add to that an outbreak of H1N1, and a company is not prepared to send people home to keep other people from catching it."

"Deep gaps occur if all the sudden a wave of key people were sidelined," he said.

Challenger cites a Harvard School of Public Health survey that indicates just one-third of companies could sustain their business if half their workforce were absent for two weeks. Dr. Bert Eichold, head of the Mobile County Health Department, last week reminded that at one point a SARS outbreak had 60 percent of Canada's professional workforce sidelined.

Of course, in a place that plans regularly to keep business moving in the event of hurricanes, it's hard to imagine the flu shutting a company down.

"But this has been a difficult process to plan for; this is not something we have dealt with," Steve Kirkham, distribution manager for the Mobile Division of Alabama Power Co., said last week. "There are so many 'what if' scenarios."

Kirkham leads the statewide pandemic preparedness effort for a company that he said takes seriously its role as a critical service provider. The last thing Alabama Power wants is people in cold, dark homes trying to recover from the flu.

The company has items such as masks, gloves and hand sanitizer already in place for quick distribution. It has given employees tools for avoiding flu and adjusted sick-time rules where applicable.

Challenger predicts high absenteeism during the coming flu season.

"Because of H1N1, people are far more aware of the risks out there," he said. "There will be far fewer people who choose to come in when they're sick. Few people who are working will want people to come in sick."

Eichold encouraged use of tips on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control Web site (www.cdc.gov/business) to help manage risk.

"In a pandemic that affects the whole U.S. or all of North America, every community is going to have to be self-sufficient to a certain degree," he said. "Good planning will help have better outcomes."

(Readers may write K.A. Turner at the Press-Register, P.O. Box 2488, Mobile, AL 36652-2488, call her at 251-219-5644 or e-mail

kturner@press-register.com.)