Eleven Sets of Questions Every Firm needs to Answer about Its People

1. OSHA “General Duty Clause”

You are well aware of OSHA’s most basic mandate to provide a reasonably safe and healthy work environment. The question is will you be seen in compliance going into and during a pandemic? [Note: This is not some bureaucratic abstraction. It is a menacing economic, brand, and employee relations issue- particularly in our litigious society. Companies that haven’t properly prepared could be exposed to lawsuits by employees- and/or survivors- who allege their enterprise didn’t take proper precautions to protect them. Plaintiffs may argue that a defendant-company did not prepare nor take steps that its comparable, peer organizations did.]

2. Communications now . . . and in the crisis

Are you briefing your people on the general strategy, what they need to do now, and what they need to be prepared to do if a crisis unfolds? Will you tell them what they may encounter- with different levels of severity- at work and in their communities with transportation, schools, stores, banks, doctors, hospitals, etc.? Will you broach the potential of civil unrest in some circumstances? [Note: Communications are crucial; however, you don’t want to start before you are prepared. If your executives start talking about the potential of a pandemic before you have resolved most of these eleven sets of questions, it will not be pretty; and leadership’s credibility will be squandered. (If questions come up before you are ready to talk, just say that you understand their concern; you want them to know the company is earnestly working on a comprehensive plan; and you will brief everyone as soon as the essential details are resolved.) As for talking about tough challenges, it might seem crazy to raise these issues, but you will minimize shock and hysteria and assure better business outcomes by “conditioning” employees to what they may face. Importantly, your firm will win major points in the short-term for its preparations, candor, honesty, and trustworthiness- credibility that will be invaluable when you most need to be persuasive down the road.]

3. Training

Will you train people in thwarting the spread of infection at work- keeping hands away from nose and eyes, washing hands regularly and thoroughly, disinfecting work spaces, etc.? Will you advise them about how to prepare at home and how to keep their family members healthy? [Note: This is one of many preparatory steps that can change behaviors and produce immediate results for the company at a very low cost- e.g., reducing routine absenteeism due to common colds and seasonal flu.]

4. Medical interventions

Are you going to require everyone (without egg allergies) to have annual flu shots? Are you going to also require pneumococcal vaccinations? Are you going to provide antiviral medications to all employees (and to their family members)? Are you going to pay for all of these? [Note: This is a really “loaded” subject- with public health, business, employee relations, tort liability, regulatory, and even ethical implications. If you give antivirals to just employees, you still may have people staying at home to take care of sick family members. If you don’t give antivirals to your people, what are you going to say when they wonder why their neighbors received such protection from their employers? How are you going to deal with prescription dispensing laws? How will you minimize employees’ misusing antivirals (e.g., for colds) which could create “resistance” to the drugs and erode their efficacy over time?]

5. Replacement and contingent staffing

Have you defined the most critical functions within your enterprise and the most essential jobs within those groups or units? For those key-job holders who may miss work for weeks, have you identified peer-matches, former-incumbent matches, near matches, and trainable matches to step into their roles? [Note: This is one of the crucial considerations. It requires serious work. If it’s not done in advance, things could be quite chaotic. Think of peers or supervisors who can do the work becoming exhausted after three straight weeks of 14-hour days, etc. Not coincidentally, doing this preparation will almost certainly improve operations in the short-term by better identifying high-potential players, cross-training people for greater versatility, etc.]

6. Decision-making protocols and preparation

With some board members, executives and key leaders out of action, what provisions are in place for contingent decision making? Do certain corporate governance matters need to be attended to? Are you holding periodic simulations to prepare replacement or secondary decision-makers to deal with situations often handled by their bosses? [Note: Such training further identifies “high potential leaders,” accelerates the growth and abilities of managers, and strengthens day-to-day operational functioning right now.]

7. Executive protection

Are your proposed protocols for executives and top managers- transportation, isolation, personal security, etc.- going to provide a strong image of leadership or one of resentment? [Note: This is a major employee relations/morale/commitment issue on which I believe some companies are getting dubious advice. Whatever way you go with these decisions, they will sweep through the organization for better or worse.]

8. Incentives for key people

Your enterprise may deem it necessary and appropriate to pay certain kinds of people incentive pay for coming to work, being on contracted jobsites, making crucial business trips, etc. It’s quite possible that you may choose to pay critical talent in a given business group premium pay but not others in the same unit. Are you going to answer questions about such provisions, openly disclose them, or try to keep them secret? [Note: First of all, this is obviously a very real but distinctly touchy subject. Secondly, whatever you do, it’s likely to leak out. Further, employees who have to come to work- vs. those who get to work at home- might understandably expect some special pay. And people working in the same department may find it inherently unfair that some get incentives and others don’t. Be prepared with rational and persuasive responses.]

9. Pay for quarantined people

What happens if the county health department sends all tenants in your high-rise office building home for three weeks of quarantine? They may be ready and able to work. Will you pay them? If you don’t, and they show up for work, what will you do? [Note: These are the kinds of dicey issues that start to add up- depending on which way you choose to go. They could add up cost-wise and become daunting. They might also add-up in terms of employee relations/morale/commitment and become daunting. These scenarios need to be identified in advance and priced out in terms of cost against potential loss of talent who could decide to go somewhere else that has more generous provisions for employees.]

10. Pay for people without remaining sick leave

What if the pandemic strikes early in the flu season, say November? Some if not many employees may be running low on sick leave for the year by then, and they could quickly use up their sick leave balance. Or maybe you give only ten days of sick leave, and the average flu recovery time is 17 days. Will you provide full pay, partial pay, or no pay in this extraordinary circumstance? [Note: There may be bimodal responses from your executives or staff specialists, i.e., no extension or we have to help them. Chances are that neither is that simple. Your company will have to model out several scenarios to get a sense of the economic impact vs. employee relations effects. Obviously, companies with stronger reserves have the latitude to do things that hard-pressed companies can’t. Therein is the rub between companies that can protect their brand, community standing, and commitment of key talent, and those who can’t.]

11. Work at home protocols

Will you provide computers and connection services free-of-charge to employees? How will you assure secure traffic? How are you going to provide IT support to them? What happens if the internet infrastructure flags? How are you going to track time worked for everyone and overtime for non-exempt people? How comfortable are managers going to be about an “honor” system? [Note: As you know there are major debates about whether the internet will slow or buckle with the work-at-home traffic surge. Even those who say the technology won’t falter allow that it could get dodgy if too many IT specialists working in pivotal functions are not available to troubleshoot issues. And the payroll administration will be a big challenge either way.]

There will be winners and losers in terms of overall strategies and preparation … and your firm’s response to these eleven issues in particular. The impact- either penalties or rewards- on productivity, customer service, key talent retention, and shareholders will be significant and long lasting.