Planning in a Pandemic

Aged care facilities and workers can be at a high risk in the event of a pandemic spreading.

Businesses must implement measures in response to pandemic events as they occur. Aon can help you assess the potential impact and help ensure you are prepared to manage the risks.

When an unpredicted and deadly disease spreads around the world, people and businesses rapidly realise the ramifications that occur when they are not prepared to protect themselves. With pandemics as large-scale and complex as COVID-19, it can be a monumental challenge, for aged care businesses in particular, to address every impact and plan for the future.

With the growing concerns of COVID-19, are you confident that your aged care facilities are prepared for pandemic risk? It is essential that aged care providers have a thorough business continuity plan that covers pandemic preparation.

Aon can assist your organisation with impact assessment (online) workshops where our key team members will discuss the possible COVID-19 impacts and risks to your business, and facilitate discussions around likely scenarios and actions. This will include the provision of impact assessment tools to support our clients continuing the assessment into an effective plan of action.

Aon can provide the following scope of services under our Pandemic Impact Assessment. The scope is subject to change, depending on the requirements of the individual business. An Aon representative will discuss the scope of services to include in your customised workshop, according to the desired outcome:

Review of current practices
Pandemic / Infectious disease guideline development
Business Impact Analysis (BIA)
Threat assessment
Critical incident / Crisis management training (Pandemic focus)
Business continuity simulation exercise & plan

Following the Pandemic Impact Assessment , Aon, in conjunction with RiskLogic, can then carry out recommendations made for your pandemic plan.

For more information on our tailored workshops and cost of assessment, please Contact Us.

Review of Current Practices
Upon discussion with Aon, we will identify criteria which may be based around key program considerations such as:
‒   Current business services
‒   Trigger and escalation points to guide decisions
‒   Current Business Continuity Plans
‒   Communication strategies during an incident
‒   Recovery strategies for maintaining critical functions during an outbreak
‒   Reference to external agencies / Organisations contact details and information sources

Pandemic / Infectious Disease Guideline Development
Aon will develop a Pandemic / Infectious Disease Response Guideline, which will include simple and easy to use documentation in the form of action plans covering infectious control considerations for all relevant disruption scenarios.

Plans will also closely align with existing crisis / critical incident management, business continuity, risk management, IT and operational measures to ensure an integrated outcome for each client. Some areas of assessment in preparing this guideline can include:
‒   Activation processes
‒   Linkage to organisational policies
‒   Roles and responsibilities of response team
‒   Linkage to Crisis / Incident Management Teams
‒   Stages of response in an outbreak
‒   Communication strategies
‒   Infection control procedures
‒   Personal hygiene and social distancing practices
‒   Fact Sheets for key pathogens

Business Impact Analysis
A clear understanding of your organisation’s key priorities and dependencies are essential to build effective and tailored recovery strategies. To achieve this, Aon will complete a Business Impact Analysis (BIA) for each department, this process can include the identification of:
‒   All mission-critical functions.
‒   Allowable outages and recovery timeframes for each critical function.
‒   Resource requirements and critical dependencies.

Several business areas of your organisation may be required for inclusion in the BIA.
Aon will provide an executive summary report of all BIA outcomes upon conclusion of the assessment. This report will be provided to each client for review prior to finalisation of outcomes.

The outputs from the BIA can be incorporated into a template that will be developed into a Critical Incident Management Plan.
Clients have a choice if they wish to proceed for additional services in implementing recommended plans by Aon.

Threat Assessment
As part of the BIA process, Aon will also facilitate a threat assessment for to assess relevant recovery vulnerabilities and plausible disruption scenarios that may impact critical business functions, as identified in the BIAs. This will include:
‒   Identification and categorisation of disruption related threats.
‒   Review of likely causes, existing controls and potential impacts.
‒   Prioritisation of all identified risks based on likelihood and impact ratings.
‒   Grouping and prioritisation of risks into key disruption scenarios.

Critical Incident / Crisis Management Training (Pandemic focus)
The duration of this service can take a few hours and will be conducted by the Aon Critical Incident / Crisis Management Team. The purpose of this stage is to provide the Primary Critical Incident / Crisis Management Team members training in their plans, and response protocols in a Crisis / Critical Incident situation including pandemic.

Key subject areas can include:
‒   Stages of a pandemic response.
‒   Risk identification and assessment.
‒   Crisis / Critical Incident Management Plans.
‒   Pandemic Guidelines.
‒   Situational awareness.
‒   Incident Leadership.
‒   Effective communication.
‒   Liaison with Stakeholders including the Emergency Services and other government groups
‒   Incident scenarios and practical applications.

Business Continuity Simulation Exercise & Plan
Please let us know if we can assist and we will make contact to develop a cost-effective solution tailored to your needs, whether with business continuity planning, resilience services or advice on risk mitigation strategies.
We will implement a structured process to develop and facilitate a scenario exercise program for Client Name as follows:

Exercise plan
Together, we can facilitate a planning (online) meeting to clarify the required scope of the scenario exercise, define exercise objectives and discuss key performance indicators. Following the planning meeting, Aon will develop a tailored exercise plan, outlining all required details for the exercise program, including:
•   Objectives
•   Methodology
•   Resource requirements
•   Timeframes and timescales
•   Communications
•   Performance criteria

Exercise establishment
Aon will establish and setup all requirements for the exercise program, including:
•   Creation of the exercise scenario/s.
•   Development of exercise run sheets with all exercise inputs and interactions.
•   Engagement of internal and external exercise participants.

Scenario development
We will create a suitable highly realistic scenario exercise aimed at achieving the agreed objectives. This is generally completed after the exercise planning and upon approval of the exercise plan. Scenarios could include:
•   Pandemic Outbreak
•   Cyber security
•   Privacy/data breach
•   Sever weather incident
•   Lone Wolf
•   Supply chain disruption

Run sheet development
Upon agreement to the main scenario, Aon will develop an exercise run sheet to identify and control information that will support the introduction and escalation of the scenario. Run sheet inputs may include phone calls, SMS, news briefings, recorded newsfeeds, emails, social media injects and human interactions.

Exercise facilitation
Aon will create a realistic scenario exercise, maximising participant engagement and providing a comprehensive, yet practical learning experience. Aon will utilise well established exercise resources in a controlled exercise environment.
On the day of the exercise, we will provide a lead facilitator to manage the program,

Exercise completion
On completion of the exercise program Aon will provide:
•   Facilitation of debriefs following the exercise.
•   An exercise report outlining key activities undertaken, performance against established criteria and identification of key deficiencies to be addressed.
•   Recommendations to further improve the program.
•   Follow up and implementation support as required.
•   Endorsement and compliance reports on successful completion.

For more information on the fees associated with our consultation services, please contact us directly.

Aon Webinar: COVID-19: An Enterprise Approach to Protecting People and Operations

RiskLogic Webinar on Pandemic Planning (COVID-19)

Business Continuity Management for Infectious Disease Threat

Business Planning Checklist: Infectious Disease Threat

Decision Making in Complex & Volatile Times: Key to Managing COVID-19

Planning in a Pandemic

Aged care facilities and workers can be at a high risk in the event of a pandemic spreading. Businesses must implement measures in response to pandemic events as they occur. Aon can help you assess the potential impact and help ensure you are prepared to manage the risks.

Aged care facilities and workers can be at a high risk in the event of a pandemic spreading.

Businesses must implement measures in response to pandemic events as they occur. Aon can help you assess the potential impact and help ensure you are prepared to manage the risks.