Pandemic Plans
By Sarah Hamaker
It will probably come and go in waves lasting six to eight weeks at a time. Everyday life as we know it will be utterly disrupted. A third of the population could succumb to the illness, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). While it is difficult to predict when the next influenza pandemic will occur or its severity, whenever and wherever such a pandemic starts, everyone in the world is at risk - and so is your business.
With 98 percent of the U.S. population shopping at convenience stores every month, especially for their motor fuels needs - convenience and petroleum retailers could feel the effects of a pandemic to a greater level than other businesses. And without proper preparation, the effect on your business could be fatal.
Most health experts agree that there will be another flu pandemic, but no one can say for sure when or how severe the virus will strike. A recent survey by the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions and The ERISA Industry Committee (ERIC) non-profit association found that an increasing number of U.S. employers acknowledge the real threat of a pandemic flu. However, there remains a wide gap between companies that acknowledge the threat (73 percent) and those that feel they have adequately planned (52 percent) for a flu pandemic.
"America's employers are recognizing the need to reform their policies and prepare for the possibility of pandemic flu that could infect a large number of citizens - impacting not only their business operations but the entire U.S. economy," Tommy Thompson, independent chairman of the Deloitte Center for Human Solutions (and former U.S. Department of Health and Human Services secretary), commented in a press release. "While the survey findings reflect some positive improvements in planning preparation, companies need to analyze if and to what degree their critical business operations will be affected by a pandemic flu."
"I think if you don't have a plan, you're liable to be out of business if a pandemic happens," says Jay Ricker, president of Ricker Oil Company. The Anderson, Indiana-based company runs 30 Ricker's convenience stores in the state. "You've got to prepare for a pandemic because your customers are going to remember if you weren't prepared."
Experts agree that the effects of an influenza pandemic could be lessoned if people and businesses prepare beforehand.
"We are critical infrastructure and we must stay open," says Robert Forsyth, president of FKG Oil Company (Belleville, Illinois), which operates 70 MotoMart convenience stores. "We [convenience stores] deliver the majority of the fuel to the nation and emergency response vehicles won't be able to run if we're not open."
The most likely candidate for a human flu pandemic is the highly pathogenic avian H5N1 virus, or "bird flu." that has already occurred across eastern Asia and some other countries. The H5N1 virus raises concerns about a potential human pandemic because it is especially virulent; it can be spread by migratory birds; is transmittable between birds and mammals and, in limited circumstances, from birds to humans; and like other influenza viruses it continues to evolve.
Since 2003, an increasing number of bird flu cases have been reported in Azerbaijan, Cambodia, China, Djibouti, Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Thailand, Turkey and Vietnam. More than half of the people infected have died, with most of these cases all believed to have been caused by exposure to infected poultry.
Avian flu symptoms mimic typical human influenza-like symptoms, including a fever, cough, sore throat and muscle aches, and can include eye infections, pneumonia, severe respiratory problems and other severe and life-threatening complications. Humans have little or no immune protection against a bird flu virus. All influenza viruses mutate, and if H5N1 mutates to a form that can spread easily from person to person, a worldwide outbreak of the disease could begin.
Currently, no commercially available vaccine is available to protect humans against the H5N1 virus and until a new pandemic influenza virus emerges, a vaccine cannot be developed. However, the United States is working closely with the World Health Organization and other countries to find ways to identify influenza outbreaks that could become
a pandemic.
Because convenience stores are important to the country's infrastructure and are located in every community, they will be affected directly by such an outbreak.
"It's going to affect the outside world, like getting product delivered, and it will probably affect the way we do business," says Gary Bylsma, director of Human Resources for Muskegon, Michigan-based WESCO Inc., which operates 51 convenience stores and 6 Subway restaurants. "A pandemic might mean eliminating public gatherings; it may mean you would not be dealing with customers on a face-to-face basis - maybe using more plastic, like credit cards," he says.
"In a worse-case scenario, we've even talked about the possibility of putting pumps on stand alone and just closing the stores down," adds Kyle Esh, WESCO's training manager. "We're looking at it from all aspects of our operation."
"We will be seen as a high-risk setting," agrees Forsyth. "Everyone's guessing that a third of infections will be by casual contact, so people will avoid our stores unless we make specific plans."
Reviewing your general emergency-preparedness plan can serve as the springboard to developing a pandemic plan, which requires an examination of many more variables.
"A pandemic plan needs to have a lot more preparation than a regular catastrophe because a pandemic will affect so many aspects of our business," says Ricker. "For example, just think about how transportation will be affected.
Are you going to be able to get product - gasoline, groceries, beverages? Everyone works on a just-in-time inventory system and if there's a run on a product such as bottled water, you'll have people coming into the store wanting to buy every single thing you have."
"A pandemic plan is a form of an emergency-preparedness plan," adds Blysma. "A pandemic will be a global problem, not just local, and because it will affect so many people - from associates to suppliers to customers worldwide - we can't rely as much on others like during a natural disaster when other parts of the country could provide aid."
With all the things to consider in a pandemic plan, the task may seem overwhelming. Here are some considerations to get you started:
"We tried to identify what are the critical functions that we really need to do during pandemic waves, and the associates presently performing those functions," says Bylsma. For those critical functions, he suggests training three people to perform the tasks: the person who normally does the job and two back-ups in the event they are unable
to work.
"Look at your business operation from staffing to internal support at the corporate and store level," adds Karen Mitchener, director of human resources for Ricker Oil Company.
Ask them about their pandemic plans. "Make sure your vendors have contingency plans so you can operate fairly seamlessly," says Mitchener.
"Plan ahead so that you will have adequate supplies of bottled water, bleach, rubber gloves, surgical masks, etcetera - all the things customers will need during a pandemic," says Mitchener.
The more jobs that can be performed remotely the better, given the highly contagious nature of influenza. "Talk about your home-office operations," says Forsyth. "Find out how quickly you can link every employee from their home to the office."
Decide who will call employees, who will implement the plan and who the key people will be. Make sure you cross-train at least one other person to be familiar with the communications plan. "We will be establishing a chain of command with a person who will take leadership and set up a process whereby we could communicate to others," says Blysma.
The Department of Homeland Security estimates that employee absenteeism could reach 40 percent or higher during the prolonged period of an influenza pandemic. Here are some ways you can help your employees weather a pandemic:
Because many convenience store employees, like cashiers, generally have little or no sick leave, think about adding a provision to your current policy that would allow absences due to a flu pandemic. "Your current policy might be that they'll all be fired if they miss so many days," says Forsyth. "The flu could mean they would be out for a large number of days, either sick themselves or caring for a sick relative."
For example, at Ricker's, store cashiers do not have sick time, but as part of its pandemic plan, the company addresses that issue. "We would put into place a sick leave plan that would make it easier for employees who are ill to stay at home," says Mitchener.
WESCO began offering flu shots to employees this year. "We wanted to get people thinking about health and safety for themselves," says Blysma. Wesco also brought in county health department officials to talk about influenza. "We wanted to start creating awareness of trying to control the infectious nature of any type of flu," he says.
"Educate employees on hygiene and illness, and how to minimize the spread of disease through washing hands, cleaning surfaces, wearing masks and recognizing the early symptoms of the flu," adds Forsyth.
For those whose jobs can be done off-site, provide IT assistance with setting up a home office. "Train people on how to work apart and also how to work together safely," says Forsyth.
The main agenda of a convenience store's pandemic plan should address how to stay open to serve customers. Here are some suggestions for how retailers can continue keeping the store open with fewer in-store staff:
or companies with multiple locations, closing some stores and shifting available staff to operate fewer stores would help alleviate expected worker shortages.
"We have identified which locations we would close if we were having difficulty receiving fuel, which locations we would make primary," says Mitchener. "For example, if a store is located in a small community and is the only location selling fuel, we would keep that one open and close a store in a community where we have multiple locations."
Convenience stores open 24 hours a day should consider closing during the third shift as fewer employees report to work.
"We're considering setting up people-less types of transactions wherever possible," says Blysma. "For instance, WESCO may only offer pay-at-the-pump fuel options at certain locations if we have difficulty staffing all our locations."
Another possibility is using security drawers for in-store purchases, notes Forsyth. "For stores that have the drawers with glass between employees and customer, there would probably be some protection there," he says.
Items that could be hot commodities during an influenza pandemic include bottled water, alcohol wipes, disinfectants, surgical masks, rubber gloves, hand sanitizers, bleach (to disinfect water if the municipal water system has problems) and other related health and medicinal items. Also, stores probably won't be selling freshly prepared food given the expected worker shortages.
Getting cash to fill in-store ATMs might fall to the convenience store if the banks are understaffed or closed. You might also need to pay employees if the payroll company can't cut checks on time. "Are the banks going to be open? Are you going to have access to cash for your ATM? How will you pay your people? These are the financial questions to ask," says Ricker. "Worst-case scenario would have us acting as our own bank," adds Mitchener.
While creating a comprehensive influenza pandemic plan can seem overwhelming, these convenience store retailers say the alternative of not being prepared is even scarier. "Experts say two weeks from when they find a pandemic starting overseas, it will reach our shores," says Ricker. "Two weeks is not enough time to prepare in advance."
Sarah Hamaker is a freelance writer based in Fairfax, Virginia.