Employers Association: Employers taking steps in response to H1N1 flu, SHRM survey reports

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Employers taking steps in response to H1N1 flu, SHRM survey reports

In response to the H1N1 flu outbreak, the majority of U.S. employers (78 percent) are educating employees on flu prevention measures, developing employee communication strategies (71 percent), disinfecting common areas (69 percent) and providing hand sanitizers, disinfectants and masks (68 percent). But most organizations are not implementing additional precautions (such as limiting travel or recalling expatriates) due to the H1N1 flu, according to an online poll conducted April 29 to May 5 by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). Some 462 HR professionals participated in the poll.

Selected survey findings:

72 percent are not restricting nonessential employee business travel in general and have no plans to do so.
79 percent have not asked—and don’t plan to ask—employees who have traveled recently to or from affected areas to see a medical provider before returning to the office.
Although the U.S. government has asked employers to consider stockpiling antiviral medications to dispense to front-line health care workers and other critical employees, only 11 percent of employers are doing so and only 8 percent plan to do so, according to the poll.
96 percent have not curtailed product shipments to or from affected regions of the United States or internationally and have no plans to do so.
94 percent are not recalling expatriates in international locations where there are confirmed cases and have no plans to do so.
83 percent are not limiting business visitors from affected regions and have no plans to do so.
64 percent are not implementing an alternative to business travel, such as videoconferencing or audio conferencing, and have no plans to do so.
54 percent are not setting up telecommuting options if there is an outbreak in their local area or region and have no plans to do so.

The results of SHRM's survey are contrary to other recent surveys, which found organizations implementing changes to their business travel practices.

“If organizations have very few employees who travel or employees only travel a short distance for business, then they may not be concerned with creating strategies related to business travel,” theorized Shawn Fegley, SHRM survey research analyst. Or perhaps it’s because most respondents in the SHRM poll (57 percent) don’t think swine flu will have a negative impact on their organizations’ overall business operations; 40 percent thought it would have a moderately negative impact.

Also, a majority said their organizations had a disaster preparedness plan in place, and nearly all said it included emergency communication and business continuity planning.

Organizations were nearly evenly divided about sending home employees who come in with flu- and cold-like symptoms—37 percent do that now, 30 percent plan to do so, and 33 percent don’t take that action and don’t plan to do so.

Source: www.shrm.org

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