Intranet Checklist for the Flu Pandemic

July 20, 2009 | Comments(4), | Categories: Business value |

With enterprises preparing their plans in case of a flu pandemic this fall, now is the time to get your intranet ready.

741px-SpanishFluWardWalterReed If you haven’t started yet, you’ll barely have time to make it before the flu hits according to predictions in many countries, including where I live. I strongly recommend you give the checklist below to your intranet sponsor or CEO. Make sure they know how much the intranet can help your organization get through this crisis about to happen.

(Influenza ward at Walter Reed Hospital, in Washington, D.C. during the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918-1919. Wikipedia. Public domain.)



Business critical checklist:

1. Can staff access the intranet from home?

2. Do you have on line collaboration spaces and tools in place so that teams can continue to work?

3. Is your senior management team ready (psychologically and technically) to communicate to staff via blogs and on line chats?

4. Have you set up extranets or other online solutions with your key clients and your key partners so that you can continue doing business?

5. Have you equipped all your managers with smart phones?

6. Do you have the means to send urgent messages to all managers? (text messages, twitter channel, …)

7. Are your critical HR processes on line so that staff can carry out their basic administrative needs without coming in to the office?

Very important checklist:

8. Do staff have access to real-time chat tools for their daily communication needs?

9 Are you preparing training materials in the form of podcasts and videocasts so that new employees can get up to speed fast?

10. Have you started communicating with staff about the possibility of having to work from home or work in circumstances where our normal communication around the coffee machine may not longer be the norm for a while?

4 Responses to “Intranet Checklist for the Flu Pandemic”

  1. Stephan Schillerwein Says:
    July 23rd, 2009 at 5:31 pm

    It is a sad irony, but I think this checklist is the best demonstration I’ve ever come across of why an intranet is indeed business critical.
    If an organisation really takes this threat seriously, it should consider conducting emergency test days with all offices being closed so that people can get used to this way of working without being subject to the stress of a real emergency situation.

  2. Jane McConnell Says:
    July 23rd, 2009 at 6:09 pm

    That is an excellent idea.
    Have any of you considered this for your organization?

  3. Mark Morrell Says:
    August 5th, 2009 at 2:16 pm

    Jane,
    Yet again you’ve come up with something very useful for intranet managers. :-)
    I’ve posted http://markmorrell.wordpress.com/2009/08/05/swine-flu-advice-on-bts-intranet/ some examples of how BT has implemented your checklist on our intranet to help anyone see how it could be done.
    Keep away from swine flu.
    Mark

  4. Jane McConnell Says:
    August 6th, 2009 at 5:04 pm

    It’s nice to know I do useful things, Mark!
    I looked at your presentation. Very well done.
    I really liked Stephan’s idea that organizations should have a “work at home” drill (see first comment on this post).
    I wonder what proportion of organizations are really getting ready?

Comments are now closed