For major incidents such as a flu pandemic the

• For major incidents, such as a flu pandemic, the government will
activate special plans. The Australian Health Management Plan
for Pandemic Influenza is available at .
• The National Action Plan for Human Influenza Pandemic sets out
responsibilities, lines of authority and cooperative arrangements between
Commonwealth, State, Territory and local governments.
The National Action Plan for Human Influenza Pandemic is available at
pmc.gov.au/publications/pandemic/.
The Australian Government has also produced a business continuity
guide to assist planning and preparedness by business in the event
of an influenza pandemic. The guide is available at
.

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Secure your business
• Determine which machinery, equipment, cabinets or safes may need
to be secured.
• Identify people to lock doors and secure your premises.
• Ensure that responsible staff have the right keys, passwords
or combinations.
• Decide whether a special security plan is needed for your
computer systems.
Consider developing a specific security plan
• How would you protect your information, your premises and your staff?
• Work out how you would deal with a threat to your business, such as a
bomb threat.
• Regularly practise and refine your security plan.
Insurance
• Speak with your insurance company and make sure you are
properly insured.
Understand your business, the risks it
faces and the things that need to be done
to manage an incident and move forward.

Communication plan
• Work out how you will communicate with emergency services, your
employees, customers and suppliers in the event of an incident.
Make checklists
• Checklists can help to ensure that your plan gets put into practice.
• Set out what needs to be done, by whom and when. Identify backups
for key jobs in case someone is away.
• It can be a good idea to set out what needs to be done immediately
and what needs to be done in the following 24 or 48 hours.
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Develop a
continuity plan
Once the immediate threat has passed, your profitability and the survival of your
business depends on getting things back to normal as soon as possible.
Your business continuity plan follows on from your emergency plan. Its purpose is to
identify what needs to be done to bounce back quickly.
In the case of an influenza pandemic, you may need to consider business continuity
over a period of two to three months, with possible staff absences of up to
50 per cent during that period.
Identify how your business operates
What things are essential to your business functioning properly?
Ask questions like:
• Who are my key people?
• What things must be done for my business to operate?
• Are there computer systems, documents or records that I could not
do without?