Prepare Your Property for a Flu Pandemic

The AHLA encourages its members to have a response plan in the event of an influenza pandemic. The following websites can be consulted for information, resources and checklists.

The American Hotel & Lodging Association has developed a guide to help you prepare for and address the impacts of a flu pandemic for your property.  Click here to access their manual.  Remember that references to government plans and activities in that manual refer to the American government, not to what the Alberta or Canadian governments may be planning.

The Hotel Association of Canada has resources to help your property reduce the spread of viruses and communicate with guests and staff in the event of an outbreak.

Alberta Health Services suggests these 10 steps your property can take to prepare for a flu pandemic:

1. Plan for the impact of a pandemic on your hotel or motel. Check that existing contingency plans are applicable to a pandemic. In particular, check to see that core business activities can be sustained over several weeks.
2. Identify critical inputs (i.e. food, linens, suppliers, sub-contractors), services/products and logistics required to maintain business operations by location and function during a pandemic.
3. Determine which outside activities are critical to maintaining operations and develop alternatives in case they cannot function normally. For example, what transportation systems are needed to provide essential materials? Does your property operate on "just in time" inventory or is there typically some reserve?
4. Plan accordingly for possible short interruptions of essential services like sanitation, water, power, and disruptions to the food supply.
5. Identify your property's essential functions and the individuals who perform them. The absence of these individuals could seriously impair business continuity. Build in the cross training necessary to ensure that their work can be done in the event that 25% - 35% of your employees are unable to come to work.
6. Maintain a healthy work environment by encouraging healthy behaviours at all times and posting tips on how to stop the spread of germs at work. Promote good hand hygiene and respiratory etiquette: hand-washing, covering your cough and staying home when ill. Ensure that waterless antiseptic hand agents are available for use.
7. Establish or expand policies and tools that enable employees to work from home with appropriate security and network access to applications, if possible.
8. Expand online and self-service options for customers and business partners, if possible.
9. Communicate with and educate your employees. Tell them about the threat of pandemic influenza and the steps your property is taking to prepare for it. In emergencies, employees demonstrate an increased tendency to listen to their employer, so clear and frequent communication is essential. Encourage them to prepare their family for the possibility of a flu pandemic.
10. Update your sick leave and family and medical leave policies and communicate with employees about the importance of staying away from the workplace if they become ill. Concern about lost wages is the largest reason people come to work when they are ill.

Some strategies will take time to implement - this Influenza Pandemic Business Checklist can help.  Alberta Employment & Immigration has created the Best Practice Guideline for Workplace Health & Safety During Pandemic Influenza.

For additional resources, visit these websites:

Public Health Agency of Canada - www.fightflu.ca

Alberta Health and Wellness - www.health.gov.ab.ca

Public Safety Canada - www.safecanada.ca