Analysts at Gartner, Inc. indicate that could be a workplace reality in the next few months.  They say "… a true pandemic could cause absenteeism rates of up to 40% or higher which would cause severe operational disruptions.”

Not only are we coming into flu season but this year we anticipate the H1N1 pandemic.  Many contact centre managers worry about the impact of even a few flu cases on call centre operations, let alone a major employee absence event.   Risks areas for all contact centres are both internal and external:  spreading the disease throughout the organization and the ability of the call centre to provide timely customer service or to generate revenues. Younger populations seem to be especially vulnerable to H1N1, which increases potential exposure for most contact centres who use young adults as their primary employee base.

A recent Gartner, Inc. press release entitled "H1N1 Flu is a Reason to Act, Not Panic” recommends that businesses develop and implement pandemic response plans.”

Are you and your contact centre team ready? How would you respond to these questions?

• How prepared are we for a significant increase in absenteeism this flu season?
• Do we have a plan to minimize the impact of flu on the health and safety of our employees, and on our operations?
• What are our legal obligations to employees in the event of a pandemic?

Education is a critical first step in any well-developed plan.  We’ve brought together a group of knowledgeable experts in pandemic planning to support you in understanding how you can be best prepared to ride out this potential storm.

Our panel of experts includes:

• Jill Courtemanche, Emergency Preparedness Health Specialist -City of Ottawa - Jill’s primary responsibility is to work on preparedness for Ottawa Public Health, with specific focus on pandemic planning.
• Enterprise Risk Services, Deloitte & Touche – Deloitte’s experience with business continuity management makes them a natural choice when discussing the implications of any health crisis in the workplace.  Archived Presentation 
• Susanne Sviergula, Cavanagh Williams Conway Baxter – Suzanne practice focuses on employment law, professional liability and insurance law.  She brings a focus on corporate liability in situations such as pandemics.

Join us October 29th for this very timely and informative session.  We recommend that you register early for what is certain to be a very popular topic! 

Thank you to our sponsors

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