New Jersey Firms Get Ready for H1N1

View a webcast of the Chamber's Sept. 30 H1N1 seminar

By Scott Goldstein

Facility workers are wiping down door handles and elevator buttons at the offices of Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey.

PSEG has handed out flu medicine to its employees and their family members, and has stockpiled ready-to-eat meals for in-office employees and personal protective equipment for workers who work outside company offices.

Hand sanitizers are all over the building at Global Crossing headquarters in Florham Park.

The flu season is here. And this year, companies are taking extra steps to prevent an outbreak of H1N1, known to some as swine flu. In case prevention doesn’t work, they are preparing for the possibility of widespread employee absences. A report delivered to the White House last month suggested H1N1 could infect half the U.S. population, more than double the number that occurs in an average flue season.

“The big companies have in-house experts that handle business continuity issues, but many small and mid-size companies haven’t given thought to what they would do in case of high absentee rates,” said Matt Conlon, vice president of market development at Cantel Medical Corp., a Little Falls-based provider of infection prevention and control products. “There is a lot companies can do.”

Though H1N1 is not as dangerous as experts initially feared, it is easily transmittable, making it a serious concern.

“A lot of companies call me and say, ‘Can you give me a template for a pandemic preparedness plan?’” Conlon said. “I don’t do that because every company is very different. They need to ask what’s right for their organizations. At the seminar, we’ll cover every aspect of the physical threats and the threat to business.”

Here are some tips from Conlon that all companies can use:

• Institute hygiene policies: Put hand sanitizer stations outside elevators. Place posters, which are available on the Web, in bathrooms to remind people how to properly wash their hands. Also, place paper towels near bathroom doors so people don’t have to open them with their bare hands.
• Be proactive: Instead of relying on cleaning staff, place tubs of disinfection wipes all over the office and ask employees to wipe down hot spots such as door knobs, water cooler and elevator buttons, fax machines – all shared equipment.
• Revisit sick leave policies: Encourage workers who are sick or have loved ones who are under the weather to work from home so they do not infect others in the workplace. Perhaps you should temporarily alter sick-leave policies during flu season to encourage people to stay home.
• Break employees into groups: Identify critical employees who can work from home during a severe outbreak, as well as non-critical employees and high-risk employees, such as pregnant women, who don’t need to be in the office.
• Social distancing policies: In case of an outbreak, close lunch rooms and other areas where people congregate. Plan for staggered shifts so fewer people are at work at the same time.

“We certainly are promoting employees to practice good ol’ hand hygiene,” said Len Resto, global director of risk management at Global Crossing.

The company provides its 5,000 employees with information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Web site which explains how to spot flu symptoms. “We ask people to use common sense and to know when to stay home,” Resto said.

He added, “Most companies are not going to tell an employee you must or should get a vaccine, but we suggest they talk to a doctor about whether or not to get vaccinated.”

Global Crossing, which touts its reliable communications service, conducts periodic meetings to discuss how the company will respond to various scenarios. “When we consider pandemics, we ask: Are people cross-trained? Can people work remotely? It’s good to know in advance,” Resto said.

PSEG purchased Tamiflu, a flu medication, for its 10,500 employees and their family members. This is to be taken by an individual when they receive explicit instructions from the company, said Mike Paszynsky, vice president of security & claims at PSEG and the officer responsible for the company’s master flu plan. The company’s medical director expects flu season to begin peaking in the second half of October, Paszynsky said. “We’re ready,” he added.

If absentee rates become alarming, PSEG will invoke its “flu plan,” he said. This involves closing all locations except for previously designated buildings, and instituting a screening process to prevent sick employees, contractors, visitors and delivery workers from entering the building. “If anyone who reports to the building appears to be sick, they we will determine whether or not the person will be allowed in,” Paszynsky said. “The bottom line is we don’t want sick workers coming to the workplace.” Screeners have been trained to spot flu symptoms and to even use body temperature measuring devices to determine if people have a fever, Paszynsky said.

Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey regularly conducts “what-if” exercises, said Douglas Falduto, the company’s director of corporate investigations and security.

“What’s unique to a pandemic is it has a human element that is not predictable,” Falduto said. “If there was a disaster in Newark, I would know there are 3,100 that can’t get to work. I have a plan to move them to alternate locations. With a pandemic, some people will come to work, others will not because they won’t want to get on a train or will not want to work closely with others. It’s more of a personal decision that will be hard to predict and account for.

“We hear the numbers – 40 percent to 50 percent of the population can be infected – and it may be more absences than that because healthy people won’t want to come in and risk getting sick,” added Falduto.

However, “I try to dispel the notion that you will wake up one morning and 40 percent of the workforce won’t be there. This is something that will transpire over flu season.”

It’s vital to take the time to prepare, Falduto said. “From a planning prospective, I feel pretty comfortable,” he added. “But when it shakes out, we’ll really see how efficient all that work is.”

Scott Goldstein is the communications manager for the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce.