Avian Flu | National Restaurant Association

What Restaurants Can Do

Maintain a healthy work environment. Ensure adequate air circulation, and post tips on how to stop the spread of germs. Promote hand and respiratory hygiene for your employees, and ensure easy availability of alcohol-based hand sanitizers (not just in the places already required by law).
Be informed about government and industry pandemic preparedness activities and plans. Utilize information provided to you by industry resources, be familiar with your state and local pandemic plans and maintain contact with the appropriate officials. Monitor news and developments coming from the federal government on pandemic preparedness such as pandemicflu.gov and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's avian flu center.
Communicate openly and proactively with your employees. Educate your workforce about the threat of pandemic flu, what you are doing to prepare the business, and what they should do to protect themselves and their families. Evaluate your sick leave and family leave policies now and communicate what you will expect during a pandemic. Update your employee contact system (whether it’s a phone tree, e-mail or other system) and be sure to have a plan in place to reach employees quickly whether they’re at home or traveling.
Develop an internal pandemic planning task force. This task force should include a representative from each key functional area of your business. They should review this government-supplied business checklist.
Identify your company’s essential functions and the necessary employees to perform them. Depending on the nature of your business, take into account the likely shifts in demand for your products during a pandemic.
Determine what outside activities are critical to your business and evaluate what your business can do to maintain normal functioning. For instance, when there are interruptions in the supply chain or transportation systems, how will that affect your business? Be sure to consider what reserve supplies might be necessary to stockpile (e.g., cleaning supplies, gloves or other protective equipment, “to-go” containers, etc.) as well as possible interruptions of essential government services, such as water or power, which might force restaurant closure.
Build in training redundancy to prepare for inevitable absenteeism. During a pandemic, not just sick employees will stay home -- others might need to care for the sick or for children if schools close. Others stay home for fear of contracting the flu. Experts expect absentee rates of 25 percent to 30 percent.
Establish and maintain an open dialogue with the local communities where you operate. Determine which officials will be making decisions about food services, transportation and other essential services on a local level, and maintain an up-to-date contact list. Form a plan on how you can best use your resources to help the community in the event of a pandemic.
Consider ways to minimize loss of revenue during times of “social distancing.” This might include menu modifications to respond to customer concerns or item shortages; increasing takeout availability and promotion; and delivery offerings, if possible. Consider how your methods would work with the infrastructure needed for processing remote ordering.
Try to allow for employees to work remotely when possible. While this is not possible for most restaurant workers, evaluate and establish policies and tools in advance that will allow employees with administrative or financial work responsibilities to do so from home. Be sure to consider the hardware needed and the possible stresses for your existing computer network.

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