By Tom Barritt, Partner and Managing Director, Consulting Businesses, Ketchum
From the July 2006 issue of PR Tactics.
Copyright 2006 PR Tactics. Reprinted with permission by the Public Relations Society of America (www.prsa.org).
Avian flu has transcended media hyperbole. Corporations can’t afford to treat the threat as if Chicken Little again claimed the sky is falling. There’s a critical difference between avian flu and past health threats. Some scientists fear the virus could mutate into a form that could pass easily between humans, triggering a pandemic that could put millions at risk and dramatically harm the global economy. Media coverage has reached epidemic proportions, fueled by concerns over the readiness of business to manage through a pandemic.
The debate over avian flu recalls the SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) epidemic of several years ago, which quickly crossed borders in Greater China and spread to Canada, affecting numerous industries.
Some sectors are more vulnerable to the threat of a pandemic such as airlines, shipping and transport companies, as well as leisure facilities like amusement parks and large-scale shopping malls. Their product may not only be impacted, but their services may also spread the disease. Institutions that provide infrastructure, such as hospitals, banks, utilities and retailers will also be exposed if services start to fail.
A corporate response to avian flu requires full coordination between crisis response, risk management and business continuity, supported by strategic communications outreach to critical audiences. While public health officials and the media work to create a sense of urgency about the potential for pandemic, corporations face the challenge of an accelerated timeline. An avian flu pandemic could hit more quickly than it would be possible to effectively plan and practice a response, produce enough of the currently available treatments or undertake research to develop a vaccine for the disease.
Business continuity planning is a minimum requirement for most companies. In conducting vulnerability assessments, companies should look at every corporate system or business that could be affected and develop recovery options for each system or business and crisis response capabilities against each potential situation. Crisis scenarios — complete with communications objectives and strategies — should be developed around the potential for a pandemic and could include:
- Country borders closed or flights to infected regions grounded.
- Employees quarantined due to outbreak in a specific area.
- Disruption of supply chain; critical services overtaxed.
- Work stoppages resulting from death of employees.
- Pandemic effects on operations in several countries at once.
- Concern (real or not) that flu can spread through the company’s products or services.
- Backup facilities closed because of flu outbreak in a region.
- Company stock valuation declines as confidence in the industry wanes.
Infectious disease is rarely included in the typical business conversation, and the topic must be handled with careful planning and sensitivity. In preparing crisis plans, companies should consider all audiences and develop communications about the company’s response and what each audience can do to be a part of the solution. Companies should:
- Communicate to employees proactively about disease prevention and compliance with company response efforts and safety guidelines.
- Provide investors with detailed information about business-continuity efforts and prepare to communicate about the impact of staff illnesses or the effects of large numbers of health claims on company benefit plans.
- Develop communications for customers that put risks in context and deliver clear information about what the company is doing to protect constituents.
Getting accurate information to employees and the public during a pandemic presents challenges for companies. Corporate silos must be dismantled for effective crisis planning.
Miscommunication could easily intensify in a pandemic, as seen with SARS, anthrax and the early days of AIDS, and it will require diligence of senior management to ensure that internal and external communications channels stay open. It’s essential that information be provided in a controlled, factual and instructive way, which allows the public to use the information gained proactively.
Companies should integrate emergency-preparedness plans with appropriate government bodies and NGOs. It’s critical to understand how public resources will be allocated during times of crisis and what reactions and trigger points government agencies will have. Companies concerned about the risks of avian flu should turn to risk managers, business-continuity planners, crisis managers and even epidemiologists. From a public-health perspective, the seamless coordination of communications between local, state and federal agencies as well as the public at large will make the difference between containment and escalation of fear and further spread of disease.
In the end, business must continue to operate and focus on the most important audience — the customer. Maintaining the quality of service that customers expect when faced with the circumstances of a depleted work force or an interrupted supply chain will be the greatest challenge. Preparedness plans will need to go far beyond basic risk management and response and include long-term campaigns for managing expectations among customers.
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