Swine flu could have serious consequences for small and medium size businesses so ensuring your business is properly prepared is essential.

Ministers have warned that in a worst case scenario, 100,000 people could contract swine flu every day by the end of August, with 1 in 8 employees forced to take time off work. Should these projections come to bear, the sheer number of people affected will undoubtedly have an impact on business productivity and the wider economy.

The British Chambers of Commerce is hosting a live WebTV show on Tuesday 28th July at 11am to discuss the current situation, how businesses should prepare for swine flu and how you should react if it hits your business.

Joining presenter Ian Collins in the studio is David Frost, the Director General of the British Chambers of Commerce and Dr Laurence Buckman, the Chairman of the BMA's GPs Committee. They will also be joined by representatives from two businesses – Robert Stead and Sue Hill – who will discuss how their businesses are coping with the crisis.

This is a prime opportunity to give businesses a chance to share their own contingency plans and ideas they have already implemented to deal with the spread of swine flu in the work place.

H: Host, Ian Collins
D: David Frost, Director General British Chambers of Commerce
L: Dr Laurence Buckman, Chairman GP’s committee and BMA
R: Robert Stead, Polycom
S: Sue Hill, Sue Hill Recruitment

H: Hello and welcome to the British Chambers of Commerce Swine flu seminar, I’m Ian Collins. Now the government is warning that up to 100,000 people a day could be contracting swine flu by late August, with 1 in 8 employees forced to take time off work, and economists are warning that GDP could be significantly reduced just as the UK tries to recover from the biggest recession since World War II. So over the next 20 minutes or so we’ll be looking at how you can best protect your staff from swine flu, and minimise the impact on your business. We have a trio of experts with us in the studio, David Frost, the Director General of the British Chambers of Commerce, [sat] by Dr Laurence Buckman who is the Chairman of the GPs Committee and the British Medical Association, and [sat] by Robert Stead from Polycom, a business with over 2500 staff worldwide. Gentlemen welcome to the program. Laurence first of all let’s sort of clear up exactly what your current stance is on swine flu and what’s happening with the entire pandemic

L: Swine flu isn’t a terribly serious illness at the moment, apart from the very small number of people who’ve tragically become very ill or died. Most people will notice no difference from ordinary flu, a high fever, a dry cough, muscle aching, a feeling of rottenness and a few days with paracetamol and plenty to drink and it will go away

H: So are you suggesting that there’s an overreaction there a little bit?

L: I think people are scared that this might be something bigger than it is. This appears to be a fairly weak virus, it’s nasty but it’s relatively harmless.

H: Ok. We’ve already had lots [of questions from viewers]. Of course the affect on business, David Frost is – you know a huge issue. We said at the beginning there the potential devastating affects of what it may do, GDP and the like, particularly on the back of a bad recession. How much of this is bearing out to be true from what we were told at the very beginning that this could devastate businesses? Is it panning out like that?

D: No I don’t think it is at the moment, but we start to get really concerned when Andy Burnham, Secretary of State for Health said right at the beginning of July that this could hit 100,000 cases a day by the end of August, and we thought that could have a significant implication for business if large numbers of their employees are off for short but intense periods. Either with this flu or having to look after relatives or indeed if the suppliers can’t get goods through or public transport system is severely disabled, so that’s why we have taken a lead in starting to provide some I think pretty basic advice to companies on how to get through this

H: Are you hearing of companies that are becoming devastated by this? Perhaps because of the perception, who knows, but is there tangible evidence at the moment that this has had a real devastating affect or have we been pretty good in the UK at just understanding and being slightly measured about it?

D: I think at the moment we’ve been – good at being measured. Undoubtedly companies aren’t above being hit but not I would suggest devastated. We put up on our website www.britishchambers.org.uk the ability for companies to post up their own experiences, how are they getting through this and what advice they’re giving to employees and how they’re starting to plan, and we have got a constant stream of companies from across the UK feeding into that

H: Also with us is Robert Stead from Polycom, Robert – well first of all tell us a bit about Polycom

R: Well Polycom is a large organisation, we have 2500 people in 32 countries worldwide, but what perhaps is unique about Polycom in this environment is we provide a lot of business communication systems, video and audio communication systems which we are using to manage the impact of swine flu on our own business

H: And what has been that impact at the moment?

R: So far we’ve seen quite a number of cases in our UK offices, and we’ve been advising people who’ve been exposed to stay home for a couple of days, use the technology we have and work from home until they know whether there’s a serious impact. And we’ve seen very little disruption and we’ve seen very little productivity impact because we have this home working approach

H: Well that is it doctor isn’t it, I mean what is that specific advice because – you talk to different people, some say keep staff away, don’t come within 5000 miles of the office because you might contaminate the entire borough, others say that’s absolutely fine, it’s like having a bit of a cold, bit sniffly, take some paracetemol, go to bed and come back to work. Which one is it?

L: If you have flu, any kind of flu, you ought to stay off work for 7 days. And the reason for that is very simple, because you’ll spread it to other people. If you spread it to large numbers of your work colleagues you’re likely to disable the firm, whereas if you stay at home, you’re not going to do that. So it seems prudent to stay at home. But in a modern technology era many people can either work from home or do something useful at home, so they don’t have to damage the business that much. Obviously some businesses like transport and fuel suppliers and things like that are much more significantly affected by such action, but if you’re ill, 7 days off is enough

H: Ok. There is a question here from – this comes from newbusiness.co.uk which touches on some of this – should business owners look to implement flexible working hours now? David Frost, does that seem to you to be one way of assisting this, people can’t always get into work but they might be able to work from home, or do a different set of hours all together?

D: Well I think as Laurence was saying, there are – we work in a service-based economy and it’s perfectly feasible for many employees to work from home – by laptop, broadband connectivity to the server and away, but for many businesses it’s not too easy. We have a substantial number of companies who are in manufacturing, a number who are in retail where it’s face-to-face – not so easy so that’s why companies need to start to plan and yes, flexible working could be an approach to that

H: Is that something you could do in your own company?

R: Absolutely and I think my message will be – be prepared for that to happen. As part of the swine flu outbreak I suppose we should call it, that’s certainly a good thing to do, but it also benefits in the broader sense

H: Sure. Here’s a quote. Now this one comes up quite a lot, this is about disinfectant wipes and the like, this comes from Peter Abbott – “if we were to use disinfectant wipes on hard surfaces, door handles etc to combat the spread of the virus, how often would they need to be used in order to maintain an effective barrier?” Because I hear real conflicting advice about this stuff – I just imagine that the owner of those disinfectant bottles of stuff is laying on a hammock in Barbados right now

L: I’m sorry to disappoint him then; you only need soap and water

H: Is that right?

L: You don’t need any fancy kit; just a wet paper tissue with soapy water in it will get rid of any virus particles. How often do you need it? Well it’s as often as people cough over it or those coughers touch something that they’ve coughed onto. Probably every few hours is enough. Probably if you’ve just coughed on something then it would be a nice idea to wipe it over, but a wet soapy tissue is fine. You don’t need chemical disinfectants.

H: Ok let’s just remind everybody of the National Flu Pandemic service hotline, this is rather useful to have – 0800 1513 100. There is a website as well which is www.direct.gov.uk/pandemicflu but again Doctor just to bring that issue back in of people calling that help line number, we’re told that the line almost crashed on the first day, too many people trying to get in – you’ve got to be measured about this haven’t you? You’ve got to be realistic about what’s really wrong with you?

L: Yes. In non-pandemic times people often say they’ve got flu when actually they’ve got something – they’ve got a cold or something else, but real influenza is absolutely classic – high fever over 38, dry cough, muscle aching, maybe diarrhoea maybe a sore throat, maybe a headache. If you’ve got those features phone the help line, it’s working now, it did nearly crash at the beginning but that was the journalists making it crash

H: Do you think it was?

L: Yes

H: Blame the journalists, absolutely. On that point, Paula Bennett – “what is the advice for employees coming to work when other members of their immediate family have swine flu?” Because that’s been a huge issue hasn’t it, people think well I haven’t got it, but my mate’s got it, or my wife or girlfriend’s got it – so there is that genuine concern

L: Unless you’ve been coughed over by someone who’s really poorly or unless you’ve actually got childcare issues and you’ve got to stay there to look after somebody else, I think it’s quite reasonable to go to work. Critical businesses who are worried about a risk of rapid spread probably should tell someone whose looking after someone whose sick to stay away for a couple of days, if they’re caring for somebody whose actually ill. If all you’ve done is bump into somebody who’s got swine flu, you don’t have to stay away from work. If you’re actively looking after somebody whose poorly then it’s worth staying off for a day or two, just to avoid infecting the rest of the business

H: Ok, Robert Stead from that point of view, I mean it’s quite difficult to balance, I suppose, knowing when staff are absolutely genuinely ill, or they think they’re ill and I guess some people could potentially use this as a bit of an excuse

R: It’s absolutely feasible I think in both directions, that some people will have the illness and not realise, and some people will feel they have it and in fact not, and it’s a question of being prepared and being a little bit flexible in the working patterns at least while the epidemic, the pandemic, runs its course

H: Well on that very point, to discuss that impact on typical small businesses, earlier I caught up with Sue Hill. Sue Hill runs Sue Hill Recruitment which is the UK’s largest independent recruitment agency for information and knowledge managers. Sue has 15 staff, up to 120 temporary staff working for her. I began by asking her what contingency plans her business had made for swine flu?

S: I think we’re keeping the hygiene industry in business at the moment, making sure that we do have hand wash and that all our soaps are hygienically acceptable. Signs up in the office. We’ve referenced all of the websites and made sure that our own staff and our temporary workforce are aware of the symptoms and how it might affect them. Secondly we’ve made the facility for most of them to be able to work from home, so whether it’s just going straight into web mail or being able to access through VPN, the systems that we have, as you can imagine in recruitment we have quite complex and complicated systems, and we have to think about things like paying our temporary workers every Wednesday so the money’s in their bank on a Friday. That’s important to them and they may have rent to pay. So it’s important that my staff can get access to the information and work from home. Having found and researched the information I won’t be stopping there. I’ll keep reviewing it, watching how things change. I’m a bit of a nerd, I read the newspapers, I look on the web and I do know when to go further and look for more information.”

H: Thank you Sue. Back with our panel. David Frost, let’s turn to you on this issue. This comes from www.thebusinessdesk.com – “will it be the straw that breaks the camels back for small businesses, this issue of swine flu?” There is of course already a pretty aggressive recession taking place, a lot of small businesses struggling anyway. This is really the last thing they need

D: No I think we’ve got to be more optimistic than that. We saw in the early July from our own survey work, some signs of optimism starting to come back into the economy. The reason we’re taking a lead on this swine flu is because we think if companies plan for it, if they put procedures in place, it needn’t really become that major an impact within business. I think the other thing to say is we are working with the government, we are working with the department for business, Lord Mandelson, particularly on issues to do with finance to ensure that the banks understand the problems that companies are going through, and they adjust their lending policies to help companies who are hit by, who are going through maybe difficult times

H: Well on that point Alex from www.politics.co.uk says “how important is the role of the government in dealing with swine flu for businesses?” What’s your point of view on that?

D: Well it clearly has a role; I mean it’s put up on its website support to business. We think there’s some way to go on that, we’re looking at some of the, for example US websites perhaps more friendly, more practical advice. The government has to have – understand quite clearly the impact on business, the impact on the economy and it’s got to start putting some pressure on the banks to help companies get through this

H: And have they grasped that do you think? We know that they met with the banks only yesterday on this very issue, but do you think there is a true grasp of that severity?

D: Well I think the very fact that they started to put some pretty horrendous figures out at the beginning of the month of what the impact could be, I think shows an understanding across government of the impact, so yes it’s up to organisations such as our own to continue to monitor that, to get the real impact through to the government so that they can respond and put practical help in place

H: Isn’t one of the issues that even if it’s, as you said Doctor, it’s a mild version of something you know some people will get a more severe bout of this but generally speaking most of us are OK after a few days, but it’s those few days if we have this figure that Andy Burnham, the Health Secretary quoted of 100,000 people a day, that’s going to have a serious effect on infrastructure and things, just people who drive the trains, the buses, those who deliver your letters, getting to work, just doing your day-to-day stuff makes it almost impossible with those kind of figures, if they’re to be believed

L: It’s only if they all happen at once. We know that statistically 40% of the population will get this particular version of flu within the next year. If they all have it on Monday, that clearly is going to be an enormous problem for everybody. If on the other hand they’re spread throughout the year, and spread in location, and that’s what appears to be happening, we’re getting hot spots in various places, if you’re not in a hot spot, actually there’s not a lot going on right now, and I suspect that what we’re going to see are little mini waves, little outbreaks in various places and for businesses that aren’t in one specific location (not in a hot spot) then the chances are they’re not going to be knocked over by this particular virus

H: And what are the sort of practical things that people can do? I mean we talked about those wipes, you said actually soap and water is pretty good – but are there other things? I still see some rather – what I can only describe as dodgy characters – sneezing like nutters on tubes and trains and never putting their hand up. I mean what’s all that about?

L: You’re better off with a paper tissue actually. Putting your hand up means you’ve got it on your hand

H: Yes

L: And you’re going to touch someone else. Sneeze into a paper tissue, blow your nose. Wash your hands. Wipe over things that you’ve sneezed over. If you do those things, that reduces the risk. I think there is a case to be made for companies who have air conditioning actually looking and seeing that their air conditioning filters are working properly, because there’s no doubt that compressurised air systems actually spread the virus faster if you’re unlucky enough to have somebody in the building with it

H: Well on that point, Manish Grover says “what steps should human resources departments take to pre-empt a swine flu outbreak? Would you advise companies to prepare staff to be fully equipped to work from home, have external staff – in outer offices and other offices or temps on stand-by – is shorter term outsourcing an option?” What about yourself Robert, what kind of steps have you taken in that direction?

R: I think you need to be pragmatic about that and we have specifically equipped people to home work, not just remote access to email and telephones, but also allowing them to conference with each other, audio and indeed video conferencing at times, and those are things that all businesses can do if they don’t have the technology internally at the moment, they can use external service providers, BT conferencing is a very obvious one, and look at some of the software tools that are there. But have those facilities in place in case they’re needed

H: We should also mention as well David that the interactive aspect of what we’re doing here today makes this advice panel all rather different from most advice that people get

D: Absolutely. We saw this as an ideal way of showing to companies, showing to their employees that you can do business in a different way. This would have been inconceivable two or three years ago but the very fact that we can communicate literally across the globe from a small studio here in mid London shows the new way of working that we’ve got

H: So you get the kind of best practice advice from each other and the like, and I think you know people watching this now, and this is going out to many, many businesses, individuals who are watching, who will perhaps be reassured to hear that the measured approach that I think you guys collectively seem to be giving off here, because there is certainly two types of responses. There are those that are panicking, running around the place like headless chickens saying the great plague has returned, what do we do? Shut the doors, don’t let anybody out, wear masks and these terrible sights at airports of people coming into the country wearing masks as if we’re all contaminated in some way but broadly speaking I think doctor, are most people being quite measured about how they’ve responded to this?

L: I think there has been an awful lot of overreaction. People have been terribly scared, we haven’t reacted to the fact that in previous years, quite recent years, there have been large numbers of people who’ve died of flu. This flu is really not very virulent, not very dangerous. What makes it impressive is the large numbers of people with mild symptoms. It’s not going to be a terrible virus that’s going to kill hundreds of people. It might, but it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen. Much more likely large numbers of people are going to be off work for a few days, and that’s going to affect businesses who aren’t prepared and of course we’ve been talking about flu for a long time now, people should have been prepared, and if they’re not they’ve still got some time, probably the next wave is coming in the autumn so they’ve got a month or two in which to get their heads round preparing themselves

H: And just to turn back to you David Frost, what are those examples of best practice in business that you’ve seen in the way people have dealt with this?

D: Well I think the first one is where the management team has got together with key employees and started to think through what would happen if 5 / 10 / 20% of their employees were off for a week, what would that mean for the business, where you’ve got employees in a small group, for example part of the accounts team, that they know which everyone is doing, they know where the documents, they know where the files are. Those that are thinking forward and saying if someone’s off, we need to alter their email address so we’re putting a bounce back on it saying they’re not in the office so important emails aren’t stacking up in the inbox. And ones that are talking through to their suppliers, because of course it will be the suppliers that feel they’re going to get hit, and also letting their customers know that they may have a problem as well. It’s those that are thinking forward

H: And what are your members telling you? I mean how are they dealing with this at the moment, is it all pretty calm?

D: It is pretty calm and I think what’s impressed me is that the way that our website is being used for companies to post up examples of how they’re handling it, how they’re planning for that and how other companies are dialling into that and actually learning from some of the experience up there as well

H: Sure. Here’s an important question, this comes from David Clark and I have some sympathy with this because I woke up this morning with a little bit of a tickle in the throat, and straight away I diagnosed myself with full blown man flu. And he says “how do I tell if an employee has normal flu, man flu, or swine flu?” It’s a really good question because in a busy lifestyle in the 2000’s, we get a bit stressed; sometimes we do get a tickle or a cough

L: Ordinary flu and swine flu are the same thing. It’s just that this year’s flu is called swine flu. It’s got a name, but it’s no different to any other influenza except the virus strain’s slightly different. How do you tell? You’ve got a temperature over 38, over 100.4. If your temperature’s below 38 you, for the moment, haven’t got swine flu. Now you might get it in the next few hours, but you haven’t got it now. If you’ve got a tickle in your throat, there’s lots of reasons – you might have a cold. That isn’t swine flu. That doesn’t need any treatment. If it’s just a tickle in your throat, go to work

H: Ok. Let’s just get a final piece of advice then from all of you, if you had to encapsulate how you respond to everything that’s happened in the last few weeks, and to the few weeks ahead – Robert Stead first of all, how do you give out that golden nugget of advice?

R: I think it’s being prepared to have people working from home some of the time, as a preventative and as a controlling measure. Be prepared

H: Ok. David?

D: Well I think as you said earlier it’s a very difficult time for businesses at the moment, the focus of the business is on getting through this recession. What they need to do is just to take a bit of time out, sit down as a management team, sit down with their employees and think through the implications for their business if this does take off

H: Ok. Dr Laurence Buckman?

L: Stay calm. This is relatively mild. If you think you’ve got flu, call the flu line. If you don’t think you’ve got flu but you feel ill, call your doctor

H: Ok, good advice. Gentlemen thank you very much indeed. Thank you for being with us. Once again National Flu Pandemic Service Hotline 0800 1513 100, website www.direct.gov.uk/pandemicflu . Thank you to all of our guests, thank you to everybody who sent in a question. If you would like some comprehensive information on how to minimise the impact of swine flu on your business, then please visit the British Chambers of Commerce website www.britishchambers.org.uk, everything you need is on there on the home page. I hope you found everything we’ve discussed here useful. Thank you for watching and from us here, goodbye