Communicating with your employees

Providing the right communications to your employees can help to reassure them of their safety and value, as well as help to reduce both stress and the spread of infection. Here are a few tips for effective employee communication during the flu season.

Establish a pandemic team
The first major step to keeping your employees informed is to create a pandemic team. This team can implement infection control techniques, communicate updates and recommendations to employees, track illness in the office and serve as an information resource for employees with questions or concerns.

Provide regular flu updates
The primary goal of employee flu updates is to keep employees informed, creating awareness but not fear. Updates should provide only information on large-scale changes or recommendations. New guidelines surrounding infection control or medication use should be part of an update, but not the tracking of provincial or national case numbers, as they may change frequently.

Information should be obtained directly from widely recognized Canadian governmental bodies and be instructive on how to prevent or manage influenza once it strikes. Encouraging employees to get vaccinated through flu shot clinics held at the workplace (when available) or through local clinics can also help to limit the spread of both seasonal and H1N1 influenza viruses. To aid employers, Benefits Canada has provided a guide to the 2009/10 H1N1 and seasonal flu vaccinations.

The Flu Vaccination Guide provides up-to-date information on how to obtain the seasonal and H1N1 flu shots across Canada. The guide also includes regional health contact information and Web links for additional support and guidance. The Flu Vaccination Guide can be found at www.pandemicready.ca/benefitscanada.

Encourage proper infection control
Instituting consistent and effective infection control measures should be an organization-wide initiative led and enforced by management. Infection control measures against H1N1 can also help your staff avoid the seasonal flu.

Did you know? Hands are responsible for spreading approximately 80% of common infectious diseases. Educating your employees about proper hand-washing and sanitizing techniques is crucial.

Strategically placed hand-washing or sanitizing stations in the workplace are crucial to the success of proper infection control. Put up reminder posters around the office and communicate step-by-step recommendations to all your employees.

Encourage your employees to clean and disinfect their workstations and any common surfaces on a regular basis. You may want to set aside a specific time, company-wide, for employees to do so.

Advise employees to stay home if they are sick
Ill employees who attend work pose a significant threat to their colleagues. An employee infected with H1N1 or seasonal flu can infect their co-workers simply by coughing or sneezing. Part of infection control activities must be devoted to educating employees about when to stay home and how to get better. You may want to include the following information in your communications:

• A symptom checklist to help employees understand what symptoms to be aware of;
• Recommendations on when to contact a doctor or seek medical advice and how to take care of themselves or loved ones;
• Information on illness notification process in the office — how to get a hold of the pandemic team or the employee’s supervisor; and
• Pandemic sick leave policies. Anxiety about lost wages is the largest deterrent to self-quarantine. Institute flexible sick leave policies to encourage voluntary isolation.

Don’t be afraid of employees staying home sick. When you consider the risk of spreading infections, a sick employee at home costs less in lost productivity than a sick employee at work.

Communicating openly and regularly about your company’s policies, recommendations and updates throughout the flu season will help your employees feel protected. By reducing anxiety and keeping everyone properly informed, you can ensure productivity and minimize the risk to your business caused by the 2009/10 flu season.

Lindsey Thompson, RN, Clinical Coordinator with Novus Health..

For more information on employee communications and pandemic planning, including communication templates, order the Pandemic Ready Kit from Novus Health at www.pandemicready.ca