corona
Tüv Nord advises appointing special “pandemic managers”
A person holds the plastic strip with the negative test result in their hand during a corona test. Photo: Soeren Stache / dpa-Zentralbild / dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
Experts fear that Omikron will cause many workers to be absent at the same time. The Tüv Nord gives companies tips on how to prepare.
In order to avoid major staff shortages during the expected Omikron wave, Tüv Nord advises companies from various industries to appoint their own “pandemic managers” in good time.
This could help to alleviate disruptions in important processes caused by many missing employees in the event of illness, isolation or quarantine. One urgently recommends preparing for such a scenario, it said on Thursday from the testing company in Hanover in view of the impending economic consequences. The number of infections with the highly infectious variant of the coronavirus is currently increasing rapidly.
Prepare for failures
“A pandemic manager has to work out plans, training projects and exercises and constantly check whether the theoretical concepts are correct in practice,” explained Hans-Walter Borries, Vice President of the Federal Association for the Protection of Critical Infrastructures (BSKI). But even companies that do not belong to the core area of particularly security or supply-relevant sectors such as health, energy, education, transport or nutrition should not take the latest virus mutation lightly. At Tüv Nord, the internal training academy also deals with the topic.
On the one hand, the experts warned that separate “pandemic managers” should not be overwhelmed with additional tasks. On the other hand, it could be negligent not to create this function at all. “Especially in companies that have so far managed to get through the pandemic with the help of improvisation, the fatal view could exist that you can just go on like this,” said Academy speaker Olaf Jastrob. Predictions of serious consequences are often not taken seriously.