Chris Clark

JERSEY businesses are being urged to take the threat of swine flu more seriously.

The potential impact could be significant if large numbers of employees are absent from work through illness. And the risk of infection could be greater if employees travel regularly to the UK or further afield.

Chris Clark, a director of C5 Alliance, which carries out IT consultancy work, said that although some firms were taking the risk seriously – even stocking up on Tamiflu for their staff – others were taking a ‘lackadaisical approach’ even though they had a business continuity plan.

Mr Clark said that financial services firms registered with the Jersey Financial Services Commission were required to ensure that ‘adequate’ business resumption, disaster recovery and continuity arrangements were in place and tested at appropriate intervals.

‘They have ticked all the right boxes from the regulatory point of view and a lot have invested in business continuity suites. But if staff are ill with swine flu there is little point in providing these facilities,’ he said.

A more sensible approach, he said, would be to make provision for staff to work from home if necessary – known as ‘remote working – so that they were more flexible if an office was out of action for any length of time.