Prepare for a Pandemic

Resources to help you get ready

A pandemic can strongly impact people's personal lives, communities, and workplaces. And with the World Health Organization (WHO) reporting that the number of human cases of pandemic (H1N1) 2009 is continuing to rise, it makes good business sense to prepare for the effects of a pandemic influenza.

During a pandemic, issues are likely to arise about knowing how to protect your employees from the effects of a major influenza outbreak, and how to keep your business operational due to higher rates of staff absenteeism, shortages of supplies, and fewer customers. Have a business continuity plan in place to help you prepare for the possible impacts.

CCOHS offers a range of tools and resources to help companies understand the risk and help minimize the impact of a pandemic, including a pair of courses: Pandemic Awareness (free) and Pandemic Planning.

Save 10% off the Pandemic Planning e-course. Quote Promo Code EPPLIA09 during online checkout. Offer expires October 16, 2009.

Additional resources from CCOHS include:

• Pandemic Planning website
• Prevent the Spread and Hand Washing posters
• FAQs on Pandemic Influenza
• Planning for Influenza Podcast
• Workplace Health and Wellness Guide

Free Webinar

Don't miss Jan Chappel's free webinar on Thursday, September 24, as she shares useful tools and information to help minimize the impact of a pandemic in the work environment, in Planning for the Pandemic.

Learn more and register for this webinar

Feel Great About Life

Take part in Healthy Workplace Month activities

Hey Canada, it's that time of year again to take action on improving the health of our minds, bodies and workplaces. During Healthy Workplace Month from October 5 to November 1, you're encouraged to participate in activities that make you feel great about life - at work, with family and friends, at play, and while giving back to the community.

To help get you started, visit the Healthy Workplace Month website for a list of suggested activities that you can do on your own or in groups, and come up with some ideas of your own. Plus, register your organization and keep track of the activities completed by your workplace. Your team could win!

Free Webinar from CCOHS

CCOHS is presenting a free webinar in celebration of Healthy Workplace Month. On Wednesday, October 14 join Krista Travers as she talks about the basics of social media tools (such as Twitter and Facebook) and how they can help you to promote workplace health and safety, in Promoting Health and Safety Through Social Media.

Learn more and register for this webinar

Leadership Matters

A Q&A with keynote speaker Jim Clemmer

"Shift happens," writes practical leadership strategist Jim Clemmer in the opening chapter of his new book Leading @ the Speed of Change. While it's fairly straightforward to lead an organization when things are smooth, it's during changing, turbulent periods when effective leadership is truly tested - and most needed.

Research shows that staff members involved in accidents or with higher levels of sickness have lower levels of job and organizational involvement and input. Strong leadership rippling throughout an organization leads to dramatically higher health, safety, and performance.

CCOHS had the opportunity to ask Jim for his insights into workplace leadership, health and safety.

What's the connection between an organization's leadership and their health and safety performance?

It's really a two-fold kind of connection. One prong is personal skill development so that leaders, supervisors, managers and executives become much stronger at leading their organization and dealing with issues that are barriers to a healthy and safe workplace. Courageous leadership is being able to stand up for safe production, and being able to balance this paradox of safety, doing things properly, and following effective processes with the mindset to just get things out of the door as fast as we can.

Deeply woven into personal development is the other prong - an organizational culture that sees, for example, that accidents happen, that zero workplace incidents is unachievable. We need to change this mindset. We need to develop a culture where a single accident or injury is unacceptable.

How does an organization begin to develop this kind of culture?

Many workplaces get trapped into a tactical view of health and safety, where they see training courses, posters, educational tidbits as what's necessary to keep health and safety front and centre. Typically when I speak to these groups, I link back to the quality movement in the 1980s when North American industries were being overtaken by the Japanese. They realized that a culture where quality is built into every aspect of the process was needed. Health and safety can't be a separate program on the side. It's part of a culture of change that begins with the executive team but is ingrained in everything an organization does.

How long does it take to develop a culture of leadership and vision?

Progress depends on the intensity of the effort. Is senior management actively involved and modeling the way? Leading by example is inspiring and effective. It also depends on the structure of the organization. If your organization is large and decentralized, it will take longer. But it can happen. I'm working with a company that has more than 20,000 employees and 25 worksites, and they've reduced their workplace incident rate by 75% over three years.

Can you still take an active role to effect change in health and safety even when you're not in a management or position of authority?

Definitely. Many people think of leadership as an appointed role. Leadership is an action not a position. It's a mindset regardless of your formal role in life. The scope of leadership might be determined by roles, but the actions of leadership are determined by approach.

Hear Jim's opening day keynote on leadership at CCOHS Forum III: Leading Workplace Change, taking place March 8 and 9, 2010 in the National Capital Region (Gatineau, QC).

Other Forum III sessions will focus on the topics of workplace violence, the internal responsibility system, participatory ergonomics, and training and knowledge transfer - from the perspectives of employers, employees, and labour. Whether you're new to the world of workplace health and safety or a seasoned safety professional, you will benefit from attending Forum III.

Visit the Forum III website for information on all the topics and speakers. Register now and save $100.

Get on Topic at CCOHS

Introducing a new way to easily find information

Finding information, products and services on workplace health and safety issues is easier than ever on the CCOHS website. The home page sports a fresh, organized look for fall, plus we've created new Key Topic pages that are one-stop shops for some of our most popular subjects.

On each of these Key Topic pages, you can read helpful articles, access free resources, and quickly view the available courses, publications, posters and other CCOHS products that can assist you with that particular subject. Look for special pages on Chemicals & Product Safety, Healthy Workplaces, Ergonomics, Legislation & Regulatory Compliance, and Occupations & Industries, with more to come.

A Note for Web Information Service Clients

Online access to your CCOHS databases continues to be available from the left-hand side bar of the home page under Web Info Service. You can either:

1. Click on the "Web Info Service" link to go directly to the main database search page, or
2. Click on the white arrow beside "Web Info Service" to expand the list and then select a specific database. You will then be taken to the search page for that database.

Contact Client Services if you have any questions about access to your online CCOHS databases.