Business Implications of the Swine Flu
The endless coverage of the Swine Flu is tiring, but perhaps business people should be paying more attention. You think the NCAA basketball tournament affects productivity? Wait until half of your workers are bed-ridden and don’t show up for work.
A limited quantity of H1N1 flu vaccinations will be available in about a month (feared by health officials to be too late to slow down a potential outbreak in October). The U.S. government and the American Medical Association are advocating that workers get flu shots immediately, and not wait until “Swine Flu “shots are available. Influenza puts a quarter of a million people in the hospital every year, so organizations (who incidentally take on 75% of the health care cost burden) may need to think more proactively about protecting their workforce.
In this case, there really are few alternatives to prevention/education. Perhaps, we need to educate our employees about washing hands more thoroughly (you may actually have to follow the old rule of singing “Happy Birthday” in your head to calibrate the time needed to remove the germs from your hands). Most importantly, if an employee is sneezing and coughing and appears ill, send him or her home!
Let’s not forget that much of workplace absenteeism due to the swine flu could have as much or more to do with our employees’ children being sick or schools/daycare facilities being closed in addition to employees being sick. Over half of the cases hospitalized for the swine flu this spring and early summer were children under 17 years of age. Make sure you have the technology for employees to be productive from remote locations, like home.