Carol Cwiak, emergency management program lecturer, recently partnered with Grand Forks Public Health to create the “Quick Start Guide: Pandemic Planning for Businesses.” The guide was written to help businesses prepare for issues they may face with the H1N1 virus this fall.

The guide encourages businesses to focus on seven key areas in their planning efforts: identifying and detailing critical functions, identifying vulnerabilities and challenges, classifying employees, creating a communication protocol, cross-training employees, implementing healthy workplace policies and educating employees.

Cwiak has made presentations on this topic to state critical infrastructure, public health and private sector partners.