Pandemic Planning and the Aging Workforce Challenge
— Sustaining a Competitive Advantage
A MorganFranklin White Paper
by Jeremiah Rothschild
and Timothy Kutz
www.morganfranklin.com
Abstract
A highly infectious avian influenza (H5N1) virus found in poultry throughout Asia, Europe and Africa has raised concerns amongst global leaders and public health professionals. In less than three years, the H5N1 virus has spread to over 50 countries and has killed over 56 percent of infected persons. If the virus mutates and becomes readily transmissible between humans, a global pandemic may be imminent.
The immediate danger of a global outbreak of avian flu is not from the actual illness itself, but from uncoordinated efforts and countermeasures. For example, during the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) epidemic people practiced social distancing, which resulted in a shock to the services industry. Employers experienced high levels of worker absenteeism, there was a general unwillingness to use mass transportation and costly backup procedures were necessary at times. With over 90 percent of critical public infrastructure in the United States maintained by the private sector, the Department of Homeland Security and the President have urged businesses, particularly those in the public health, supply chain, financial services and telecommunications industries, to develop contingency plans to mitigate the risks of pandemic scenarios.
To effectively prepare, business leaders must assess their operations and determine minimal requirements to sustain vital functions. In doing so, executives will be able to simultaneously address another emerging threat — the aging workforce problem. Therefore, businesses and government should consider constructing a strategy as a means to develop and test contingency plans to cope with the looming loss of a significant portion of the workforce. External expertise is required, however, to identify critical organization subject-matter experts and to define processes that will eliminate single points of failure through the implementation of cross-training and knowledge management (KM).
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