With cases numbering more than 59,000 across 110 countries, the World Health Organization officially declared the swine flu an international pandemic - the first global flu epidemic in 41 years. According to the Brookings Institute, a mild pandemic scenario would cost the global economy about $360 billion, while an ultra scenario could cost up to $4 trillion within the first year of the outbreak. While no one knows how the swine flu will play out, experts agree that at some point in the future, there will be a global flu pandemic with major economic impact. Is your company prepared to address the problems caused by an infectious disease outbreak?
When people are at risk, the ability to continue business operations and servicing customers is also threatened. The 1918-1919 influenza killed an estimated 50 million people. Imagine if only 40 percent of your workforce was able to show up to work. Could your company continue functioning? What if your call center or corporate headquarters was forced to close due to quarantine? Would your customers continue to be serviced quickly with high levels of satisfaction?
Pandemic Problems – Potential Causes of Business Interruption
The Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS) is cautioning businesses to examine their ability to operate in the event of a flu pandemic, stating that “most catastrophes can be managed with advance, effective preparation.” Many executives know that having a well-developed and executed plan could determine which companies survive and which perish during times of crisis. Unfortunately, most business continuity or disaster recovery plans don’t address the steps needed to mitigate the spread of an infectious disease within a workforce or look at how to reallocate the people and resources need to adequately respond.
There are several issues that will likely affect all types of businesses should a flu pandemic occur. These problems include:
- Workforce Reduction – A portion of your workforce will be unable to come to work because they are sick or afraid of becoming infected.
- Contagious Environment – Your physical work environment may because contagious because ill employees come in even though they should stay home.
- Employee Behavior Changes – Employees may refuse to travel, commute or attend large meetings for fear of infection.
- Loss of Efficiency – Employees will likely have trouble focusing on work, may be easily distracted or need time off to care for family members.
Fortunately, all these potential situations can be alleviated by allowing or preparing employees to work from home using an at-home business model.
Pandemic Planning – Creating a Geographically Dispersed Workforce
Distributed workforce strategies can safeguard your operations by providing the ability for employees to maintain high levels of productivity regardless of their location. This, in turn, allows companies to continue servicing their customers during natural disasters, pandemics or other unforeseen events.
Here’s how it works:
- Customer Care Professionals (CCPs) are situated throughout the United States working from home office locations. (At Alpine Access, for example, we have employees in 1,000 different U.S. cities.)
- Advanced technology infrastructures, including redundant data centers and connectivity networks, easily route or re-route calls to CCPs unaffected by any type of crisis i.e. workers who have not contracted the flu.
- With no lengthy ramp-up times for recruiting, training, or facility build-outs, staffing can be ramped up or down according to need. This saves money as well as preserves the quality of service customers expect from brand-conscious companies.
Establishing a virtual work environment has numerous benefits for companies beyond crisis mitigation. The at-home model has been proven to provide the highest quality service at the lowest price. Fortunately, there are now a variety of ways companies can establish at-home solutions - from outsourcing entire departments to creating an internal, home-based workforce. When looking at the possibility of flu pandemic, the at-home model offers three strong solutions:
Option 1: Enable a portion of existing workforce to work from home.
Starting now, companies can begin to take the steps necessary to allow a percentage of their existing employees to work from home offices. While it takes more than just sending an employee home with a laptop and a phone, companies can engage the services of outside consultants who are experienced at establishing work-from-home operations. These consultants will assess the current work environment and infrastructure, and then provide a detailed “how-to” roadmap for enabling employees to work virtually. From there, companies can take the necessary steps to create a geographically dispersed workforce able to continue business operations should a flu pandemic or other crisis force the physical call center or headquarters to close.
Option 2: Prepare selected employees to work from home if needed.
For companies that want to be prepared but are not ready to take the step of allowing staff to work from home on a regular basis, it is possible to develop a business continuity plan that will kick in only when there’s a need. Again, experienced consultants can help establish procedures and technology infrastructure to be used on a case-by-base basis. For example, conducting a technology audit of employees’ home environments would identify which staffers are capable of working from home. Then, custom thumb drives loaded with software to enable a work-from-home environment would be distributed to those workers to use only when instructed.
Option 3: Establish relationship with outsourced home-based partner.
Of course, the best way to protect your company is to utilize the resources of an outsourced virtual contact center partner. With access to a geographically dispersed, skilled workforce, virtual call centers have completely flexible and scalable staffing. Virtual agents can simply pick up a headset, log on to their computers and begin answering calls immediately. The ability to scale staffing and IT infrastructure up or down as well as instantly route calls throughout the country makes outsourcing a smart, strategic solution whether you’re in a crisis or not.
Right now executives have their hands full navigating today’s turbulent economy. Preparing for a pandemic that may or may not occur might be viewed as something that can be dealt with later or worse, a waste of time. Yet considering the devastating effects an outbreak could have on your employees and your business operations, advance planning is critical. Whether it’s establishing an ancillary workforce or forging a “what if” relationship with an outsourced provider, having geographically dispersed workers available during times of trouble is the best way to keep your operations healthy.
Rob Duncan is Chief Operating Officer of Alpine Access, Inc. a Denver, Colorado-based provider of call center services using home-based customer service and sales employees. Alpine Access clients include numerous Fortune 100 companies in a wide variety of industries.
Rob Duncan is COO of Alpine Access, Inc., a Golden, Colorado-based provider of contact center services using exclusively home-based customer service and sales employees.Duncan can be reached at 303-279-0585.Edited by
Tim Gray
