Survey of Emergency Evacuations and Company Responses to the Threat of an Avian Influenza Outbreak

Covering corporate preparedness for employee evacuation and business travel in the event of a disease outbreak, such as avian influenza.

In the last two weeks of November 2005, ORC Worldwide surveyed what measures companies are taking for emergency evacuations and changes to business travel in light of possible Avian Influenza outbreak. A total of 195 companies from around the world responded to our survey.

Summary of Findings

The majority of participants are still in a “wait and see” mode, and will react to the avian influenza when a travel advisory is issued by either the WHO, CDC, SOS or their government agencies.

Only 8.2 percent of respondents indicated they have taken action to curtail business travel to the affected areas, most notably by labeling travel as business essential only, and by issuing travel warnings to employees. While not banning business travel, some companies have offered to vaccinate employees going into the affected areas, and have increased the use of conference calls.

Just over a quarter of participants have taken additional steps to track business travel into the avian influenza zones. Such steps include daily or weekly travel logs, tracking of flight itineraries, travel consultations with medical department, and mandatory reporting of staff travel plans.

Fifty-two percent of participants have provided additional briefings to business travelers in the form of alerts issued by medical departments, and established guidelines and presentations, information fact sheets, Web site links, employee wellness briefings, on-site clinicians, and postings on corporate intranet sites.

Additional actions in specific locations have not been taken in the majority of participating companies. The location where the most action has been taken is China, as reported by 26.6 percent of respondents.

Participants have a variety of procedures in place to determine when to evacuate an assignee and his or her family, as listed within the question-by-question results section of the report.

If an evacuation is implemented, the majority of companies will continue some allowances while others, such as the cost-of-living allowance or location-specific allowances may be suspended. Most participants will look at this on a case-by-case basis as it is dependent on variables such as length of the evacuation, the location, and the nature of the assignment.

Participants will in the majority, cover expenses such as airfare, accommodation, meals and transportation for both the assignee and their family in the event of an evacuation. Other types of expenses covered include all expenses, phone calls, medical assistance, and clothing and personal items. In some cases, participants will provide the assignee with a per diem for the duration that they are evacuated.

In 35.4 percent of participants, assignees will be evacuated to the home country, and in 28.2 percent to the nearest “safe” country. Other responses included that this was handled on a case-by-case basis or determined based on the business needs of the company, the skills of the assignee, and on the expected duration of the evacuation.

If a company makes the decision not to evacuate but the assignee requests to leave, participants indicated they would allow the assignee to leave, some paying all expenses, while others paying none. In other companies, however, this could be deemed as a request for a transfer, repatriation, or termination of an assignment. Some companies would offer the opportunity for an early home leave trip or grant additional home leave visits.

Close to 40 percent of respondents have either a formal or informal evacuation plan in place in the case of an emergency, and 26.9 percent will handle on a case-by-case basis. Fifteen percent of participants are currently developing an evacuation program, while 18.7 percent do not have any type of program.

Government Web sites (91.1%), security and safety advisors (78.5%), and local offices in affected areas (70.2%) were the most popular selections by participants on where medical advice is obtained. Assignees themselves were also consulted for medical information in 35.1 percent of participating companies. Just over 55 percent also consulted news/media/Internet outlets, while other responses included medical consultants, internal medical personnel, and other companies in the affected areas.

In most companies, it is the human resources department, the health and safety department or the security department that is responsible for obtaining such medical advice. In many cases, these departments will work together to handle the situation.

Such information is communicated to employees in a variety of ways, the most common of which are e-mail, corporate intranets, phone calls, department meetings, security managers, and the human resources department.

Additional detailed findings are available in the full report, a free download.

Free Download

ORC is providing this survey's findings free of charge. Click here to download the PDF, which includes the summary, list of participants, detailed responses, and additional resources.

For More Info

Contact Samantha Blackhurst at 212-719-3400.