Checklist for managers during a disease outbreak
Pre-outbreak plan
☐Make sure every office has a representative in the central outbreak team
☐The team should include the heads and members of HR, Finance, Operations and IT
☐Every member of the team should know their delegated duty
☐Select a Coordinator among the members
☐Make sure central team members create a quick, efficient plan to deal with the outbreak
☐[List activity]
☐[List activity]
Business continuity procedure
{In this section, a subsection is created for each team.}
The admin team procedure:
☐Has someone from the central team been in contact with the company-approved healthcare provider for advice on actions to take such as what to do or drugs to stockpile?
☐Have we stockpiled masks of efficient quality?
☐Have we stockpiled a supply of hand sanitizers for the office? Have you instituted a frequent sanitization of public surfaces such as door handles, copier buttons, lift buttons, etc? An effective way to prevent contagion is to regularly clean these surfaces and ensure employees wash their hands or use sanitizers.
☐[List activity]
☐[List activity]
Business continuity procedure
The IT team procedure:
☐Do we have a backup if the IT staff falls ill?
☐Has IT ensured that all staff can securely work from home via laptops?
☐Has IT created a backup communication system outside the corporate server for staff (e.g. private “invite-only” Facebook group)?
The HR team procedure:
☐Has HR communicated the sick leave policy to all staff?
☐Has HR contacted the staff and communicated the situation with the regional/national/international HR?
The Operations team procedure:
☐Do we have the updated home and mobile numbers of every employee in the even SMS messaging or conference call is needed?
☐Have we grouped staff into units in case we need to rotate them between working at home and at the office to lessen the chance of contracting or spreading contagion? Does every employee know what group they are in (e.g. Group A, Group B, etc.)
☐Do Operations have a plan in case as many as one-third or even half of the workforce gets sick?
☐[List activity]
☐[List activity]
The Finance team procedure:
☐ Have we made sure our finance department has a backup plan to ensure transactions continue no matter what happens?
☐ Do the account directors have the full, updated for clients (their mobile and home number as well as their email) and vice versa?
