Pandemic influenza preparedness: A survey of businesses

Smith, Philip W.; Hansen, Keith; Spanbauer, Lori; Shell, Duane F.

doi:10.1016/j.ajic.2006.11.008

Cited by 22 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…Managers in collaboration with human resource management professionals need to develop a communication plan, which clearly presents the decisions related to the business continuity plan of the organization during the pandemic ( Smith et al , 2007 ). Furthermore, managers should maintain continuous communication with their employees whether they are physically present or not in the workplace ( Greer & Payne, 2014 ).…”

Section: Suggestions and Recommendations: What Can Be Done From A Hummentioning

confidence: 99%

COVID-19 and employees’ mental health: stressors, moderators and agenda for organizational actions

2020

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Background: This paper examines the impact of coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak on employees’ mental health, specifically psychological distress and depression. It aims at identifying the main stressors during and post COVID-19, examining the main moderating factors which may mitigate or aggravate the impact of COVID-19 on employees’ mental health and finally to suggest recommendations from a human resource management perspective to mitigate COVID-19’s impact on employees’ mental health. Methods: This paper is a literature review. The search for articles was made in Google scholar, Web of Science and Semantic scholar. We used a combination of terms related to coronavirus OR COVID-19, workplace and mental health. Due to the paucity of studies on the COVID-19 impact on employees’ mental health, we had to draw on studies on recent epidemics. Results: The identified literature reports a negative impact of COVID-19 on individual’s mental health. Stressors include perception of safety, threat and risk of contagion, infobesity versus the unknown, quarantine and confinement, stigma and social exclusion as well as financial loss and job insecurity. Furthermore, three dimensions of moderating factors have been identified: organizational, institutional and individual factors. In addition, a list of recommendations has been presented to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on the employee’s mental health, during and after the outbreak, from a human resource management perspective. Conclusions: Coronavirus is new and is in a rapid progress while writing this paper. Most of current research are biomedical focusing on individuals’ physical health. In this context, mental health issues seem overlooked. This paper helps to broaden the scope of research on workplace mental health, by examining the impact of a complex new pandemic: COVID-19 on employees’ mental health, from social sciences perceptive, mobilizing psychology and human resource management.

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Section: Suggestions and Recommendations: What Can Be Done From A Hummentioning

confidence: 99%

COVID-19 and employees’ mental health: stressors, moderators and agenda for organizational actions

2020

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“…A survey of 50 pharmaceutical and biotech companies found 40 out of 50 companies did not have a preparedness plan to deal with pandemic situation [4]. Businesses may need to reconfigure, repair and seek government interventions [5].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Behaviour of occupational health services during the COVID-19 pandemic

Ranka¹,

Quigley²,

Hussain³

2020

Occupational Medicine

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Background Disasters, crises and pandemics are emergencies which impact on businesses severely. The COVID-19 pandemic reached its peak in mid-April 2020 in the UK. During this period, NHS Occupational Health Services (OHS) were stretched to their limit along with other health services. OHS may have had to change their pattern of operation, operating times, services offered, etc. to cope with the pandemic. Data about business model modifications, services offered by the OHS businesses during the pandemic could help in better utilization of OHS resources in the future. Aims To understand the behaviour of OHS in different parts of the country during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods An online survey link was sent to both accredited and unaccredited UK Occupational Health Physicians (OHPs). Results Sixty-two OHPs responded to the survey. In the current pandemic, 51% of the OHS (95% CI 0.38–0.62) offered weekend or out-of-hours (OOH) services, 21% had to employ extra staff (95% CI 0.13–0.33) and 54% had to change their working hours (95% CI 0.41–0.65). Ninety per cent of the OHS (95% CI 0.78–0.94) continued to offer routine services; however, there was a decline in offering vaccination services. Fifty-six per cent of the OHS (95% CI 0.42–0.67) offered a dedicated telephone line and 46% of the OHS (95% CI 0.32–0.56) started a dedicated COVID-19 queries inbox. Conclusions There was a change in the behaviour of the OHS to cope with the pandemic. Having a dedicated helpline to manage the crisis situation seemed a logical step whilst offering routine services.

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“…Studies have implied that many businesses are not currently implementing influenza vaccination programs, even though recent concerns of a pandemic have motivated some businesses to develop pandemic influenza preparedness plans. [14, 17, 38-39] One potential problem is that existing studies have been from specific workplaces at specific locations. For example, a study of a Malaysian petrochemical plant demonstrated that workplace vaccination clearly decreased influenza-like illness rates and absenteeism.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Economics of employer-sponsored workplace vaccination to prevent pandemic and seasonal influenza

Lee

Bailey

Wiringa

et al. 2010

Vaccine

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Employers may be loath to fund vaccination programs without understanding the economic consequences. We developed a decision analytic computational simulation model including dynamic transmission elements that determined the cost-benefit of employer-sponsored workplace vaccination from the employer's perspective. Implementing such programs was relatively inexpensive (<$35/vaccinated employee) and, in many cases, cost saving across diverse occupational groups in all seasonal influenza scenarios. Such programs were cost-saving for a 20% serologic attack rate pandemic scenario (−$15 to −$995) per vaccinated employee) and a 30% serologic attack rate pandemic scenario (range −$39 to −$1,494 per vaccinated employee) across all age and major occupational groups.

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Pandemic influenza preparedness: A survey of businesses

Cited by 22 publications

References 2 publications

COVID-19 and employees’ mental health: stressors, moderators and agenda for organizational actions

COVID-19 and employees’ mental health: stressors, moderators and agenda for organizational actions

Behaviour of occupational health services during the COVID-19 pandemic

Economics of employer-sponsored workplace vaccination to prevent pandemic and seasonal influenza

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