Companies can survive the massive disruption of a pandemic—but only if they take steps now to inoculate against the threat of contagious misinformation and fatal chain-of-command breakdowns.

That warning comes from one of Canada’s most experienced disaster managers, who says even where a company has developed an emergency plan, few employees know about it, fewer are familiar with it, and nobody has tested it.

“The most comprehensive plan isn’t worth the paper it’s written on if no one has read it,” says Steve Armstrong, who worked on incident command protocols during his decades with the Canadian military, and subsequently managed disaster responses for the Canadian Red Cross. Now the principal of Paratus Group, a disaster management consultancy, he advises organizations on creating and exercising emergency plans.

“It’s common to draft a plan and then put it on a shelf in somebody’s office. Some organizations might put it on their Intranet. But there’s no incentive to read it, so nobody does—until a crisis starts.” At that stage, he says, it’s too late to comprehend the plan or troubleshoot its flaws. Worse—and this he knows from military maneuvers—the chances of people misreading and misinterpreting grow as the stress ratchets up.

As in everything from marketing to marriage, successful disaster management depends on regular, consistent communication before a crisis brews.

If talking about the pandemic possibility in advance of its arrival feels like fear mongering, it’s not. “The media already has that covered. People are hearing about this; it’s on their minds. Leaders have to face up to the tough questions, and address them to get them off the table,” Armstrong advises.

The alternative, he notes, is uncertainty, false expectations and mistrust that can undermine employee commitment to business continuity.

“For example, everybody is wondering what the sick leave and family leave policies will be in a pandemic. Who can stay home? Who gets paid?” It’s imperative to create policies that are concise, fair and realistic, and then let staff know what they are. “People may not like the answers, but at least they have the right information.”

Make sure that your messaging is clear, and that it takes into account any unspoken assumptions about your workplace culture. It does no good to tell employees to keep flu germs at home if everyone believes they’re expected to drag themselves in until they’re dead. Given predictions of absentee rates that could top 30 per cent in a pandemic, Armstrong says it has never been more important to ensure every employee understands the disaster plan, and knows what’s expected of them.

“People don’t realize what 30 per cent means. It’s huge, and it won’t affect an organization evenly.” Instead, entire divisions could fall ill—and so could the leadership.

Worse, the first person to succumb could be the one in charge of the disaster plan.

But just giving everyone a copy of the plan isn’t going to work, he insists. Planning has to be done with everyone, at every level, in a meaningful way so that it’s relevant and it sticks.