Protecting Your Employees from Swine Flu

It seems that there is one thing that is spreading faster than the disease itself and that is misinformation about Swine Flu. It won't be long now before we will be coming up on almost a year since it introduced itself and people are still debating what to actually call it. H1N1? Swine Flu? Hey! Who cares?

What is needed are real facts that won't be corrected a month of two from now. Solid facts that an employer can use to implement a program to protect employees, customers and clients. For instance research scientists are still unsure how it's even spread and are still debating whether or not the virus is contained in human feces.

So understand one thing and that is that as much as he would like you to believe that he has this thing fully under control, Uncle Sam is not going to come riding in to the rescue just in the nick of time. Also understand that the double-speak that the government has been issuing regarding vaccine supply, is their way of saying that there isn't going to be enough to go around.

So like it or not the Swine Flu is coming to your neck of the woods and you are going to have employees working for you that either willingly or unwillingly, haven't been vaccinated. You are going to have people who work for you contracting the swine Flu but how you deal with it will determine if your business suffers financially or not.

You basically have two areas to cover and these are the psychological effects of the disease and the physical effects. The psychological effects will keep employees home if they are worried about contracting it at work and physically catching the disease will also obviously keep workers home as well.

Fact: The Swine Flu can be detected in its most early stages by checking a person for a body temperature increase.

Fact: Disinfectants and anti-bacterial wipes are the best front line defense tools in a work area.

Fact: Good quality tight fitting face masks are also highly effective - particularly if they have been treated with disinfectant.

Even so, none of these preventative measures will work unless you the employer or supervisor makes sure that they are used in a concerted effort. That is that all employees accept and take part in a prevention program. Here's a surprise for you. You may have more than one worker who may for his or her own misguided reasons refuse to participate.

“God will take care of them” “Hey I don't get sick” “I’m a tough guy and this stuff is for sissies” “Its a government conspiracy” Get ready because you will be dealing with at least one of them and these are just a few of the reasons that you will hear as to why they are throwing caution to the wind.