TGG has discussed the Avian Flu on several previous blogs. This is the third article in a series of ideas to consider when planning a Business Continuity Plan that includes the Avian Flu.
This article will address items to consider in Management, Medical and Cross Training sections with this article.
Management
- Determine a chain of command for the president/CEO if one is not in place.
- Determine a chain of command for the CFO, CIO, and other critical officers the bank has.
- Determine the fiduciary responsibility of the different officers if their superior is not available
- Consider additional personnel that could be asked to serve on the Board of Directors for either an interim basis or permanent basis.
- Determine if certain functions of the bank can be reduced or mothballed until the crisis has passed.
- Considerations may have to be given to changing the current employee hand book concerning leave of absence, illness, etc.
- Determine what branches could be consolidated for an interim period of time until additional staffing is available.
- Determine if transportation for employees would become an issue and what could be done about it.
- Determine if the Business Continuity Plan would have to be changed to adapt to the current circumstances.
- Set up a committee to investigate the different sections and determine a plan of action for items they determined were most critical to the bank.
- Items that the committee consider significant should be addressed in the Business Continuity Plan (disaster recovery plan) under a special section.
- Set a time frame to have different solutions agreed upon by management resolved and completed.
- Determine a chain of command for the president/CEO if one is not in place.
Medical
- Appoint several members of the staff to keep up with the latest means to protect the financial institution’s personnel from infection.
- Have the necessary swabs, latex gloves, masks in sufficient supply.
- Arrange with local hospital(s) to have inoculations brought to the bank for personnel if possible.
- Have cleaning crew versed in areas to keep clean with proper solutions.
- Consider implementing different filters for the banks aid conditioning and heating system.
- Set up procedures to have the employees wash their hands often to avoid contaminating each other and avoid contamination from the general public.
- Place hand disinfectant dispensers (waterless) in the lobby and in work areas for the public and bank personnel to use.
Cross Training
- Look at the different functions in the bank and consider where cross training can take place.
- The more technical positions like in Item processing and Core banking system, Networking and Main Frame need extra training. If the IT department is very small, an alternative backup may have to be looked at.
- Consider ether training bank personnel in the minimum required knowledge, outsourcing to an IT company or perhaps look to local college IT personnel.
- Training videos could be made for different positions that the steering committee determined were necessary.
- Look at the multiple functionality of different people and their ability to move to other positions.
- Build detailed procedures for each position to enable a new person to follow these instructions and accomplish the job.
- Determine alternates or backups for all positions.
- In-depth job descriptions for each position could be developed so Human Resources could target certain skills sets if needed.