Many approaches have been used by different corporations to address planning for the next pandemic. The following framework ties many of these approaches together and should help create a roadmap for an organization beginning the planning process as well as assist the more advanced planner in doing a gap analysis on their existing plan.
 

Phase 1: Build a Pandemic Response Planning Effort

• Educate executives so that company leadership has a clear, consistent, fact-based understanding of a pandemic’s range of likely impacts, appropriate pandemic planning assumptions, possible mitigation strategies and useful trigger points⁵¹
• Create an enterprise-wide planning group that examines pandemic issues from a broad perspective within the organization⁵²
• Collect and review existing business continuity plans. In developing pandemic plans, companies should leverage their existing Crisis Management Plans and be sure that pandemic plans are aligned with other planning efforts⁵²
• Evaluate the potential risks and vulnerabilities specific to your enterprise based on an assessment of pandemic flu’s ability to disrupt the functioning of people, processes, and technology and determine appropriate strategies to mitigate these disruptions⁵⁰
• Use “scenario-driven” planning as a tool to facilitate the disaster planning process. This important step involves envisioning and exercising business plans and conducting operations within assumed circumstances that represent a real-world disaster situation. Many businesses utilize scenario-driven planning to produce formal continuity-of-operations plans for all known significant business disruptions. Click here to go to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) planning scenarios
• Identify products or services that will be essential or in increased demand during a pandemic⁵³
• Identify the company’s most critical operating processes and devise a way to conduct those critical processes in the face of extremely challenging conditions. One method to organize these processes is to divide them into three categories⁵¹
1. Processes that can be suspended
2. Processes that can be maintained with remote access
3. Processes that require human interaction in an office or plant environment
• Tie important elements of the plan to predetermined trigger points.⁵⁰ Many businesses use the WHO Pandemic Phases and/or the US Government Pandemic Response Stages as their trigger points
• Document in detail the actions necessary to prepare for each increased pandemic threat level, as well as eventual stabilization and recovery after the threat subsides⁵⁰

Phase 2: Communicate and Exercise50,51

• Build organizational awareness of the pandemic situation and communicate planned actions to critical stakeholders
• Develop a communication strategy for internal and external audiences
• Educate employees
• Communicate plan details, including communication protocols
• Inform employees of anticipated policy changes that may result from planning needs
• Ensure that all contact information for employees, customers, suppliers and other constituents is up-to-date to ensure expedient communication
• Prompt each function and business unit to scrutinize its existing continuity plans
• Exercise planned strategies and actions to validate and ensure preparedness and familiarity with current pandemic response plans
• Provide training with regard to basic health, safety and environmental practices required in the event of a pandemic
• Establish a liaison with public health organizations, local government and emergency response agencies

Phase 3: Monitor50,51

• Monitor the progress of the influenza threat, using the classification systems determined by the World Health Organization (WHO) and/or the US Government Response Stages
• Ensure that executive management is aware of the current pandemic conditions and potential impacts
• Track government and health organizations’ responses and advisories
• Track employee absenteeism trends

Phase 4: Activate Plan and Manage Problems50

• Activate the pandemic planning actions appropriate to the current conditions or trigger points
• Assess the changing impacts and conduct ongoing incident management measures specific to your organization’s people, processes and technology

Phase 5: Stabilize Operations and Recover50

• Initiate steps to stabilize operations and continue business functions
• Restart suspended operations and continue to monitor the overall pandemic situation
• Update planning assumptions and revise business continuity plans to reflect new post-influenza environment
• Plan for the possibility of additional pandemic influenza waves