London, 24 November 2005 – Businesses around the world see an influenza pandemic as a very real threat to their futures yet they are doing little to prepare for it, according to a new survey released today by Aon Limited, a leading risk management, insurance broking and human capital consultancy.
The survey, which follows the recent launch of Aon’s White Paper (Pandemic Influenza: Managing the Risks of an Invisible Threat), shows that more than eight in 10 (85.5%) respondents view a possible influenza pandemic as a threat to their business, but fewer than six in 10 (57%) have put measures in place to protect themselves against such a risk.
Employee absence appears to be of greatest concern with over three quarters (77%) of those surveyed ranking this as a significant risk. The Government has predicted that in the case of an influenza pandemic up to 25 % of the workforce could be absent for between five and eight days over a three month period. Business interruption is also proving to be a major worry for 62% of survey respondents.
Of those companies that do have measures in place to mitigate the impact of an influenza pandemic, the favoured form of protection is through a business continuity plan with 52.5% of respondents having such plans in place. However, the survey reveals that 61% of those with such plans have not factored them into their overall risk management strategy, with a further 69% having never tested the effectiveness or suitability of such plans to deal with the risks facing their businesses.
Although the outbreak of SARS in 2003 resulted in a significant loss of demand and a severe impact on the economies of East and South East Asia, the majority of respondents to Aon’s survey (85%) stated that they had not made any major changes to their business continuity plans following the incident.
“Businesses are clearly concerned about the outbreak of an influenza pandemic caused by ‘bird flu’, yet there still seems to be a significant ostrich tendency when it comes to doing anything about it”, explains Hugh Leighton, risk consultant at Aon Limited. “Our recent White Paper highlighted the risks that companies face and the steps they can take to mitigate that risk.”
Leighton adds: “A staggering six in 10 companies with a business continuity plan in place have never tested them in action and many firms have not even gone so far as to draft such a plan in the first place. For many companies around the world SARS, like Y2K, was the dog that did not bark and many believe that ‘bird flu’ will be a repeat of those experiences. Yet SARS caused a significant impact to business in Asia and the lessons of that effect have not been learnt.
“Business continuity plans must be robust, tried and tested. We cannot encourage companies enough to ensure that this is the case and that they are fully prepared to deal effectively with the human issues related to a potential flu pandemic.”
Please see below the full results of Aon’s pandemic survey as well as results broken down by location of operations and turnover.
About Aon
Aon Corporation (www.aon.com ) is a leading provider of risk management services, insurance and reinsurance brokerage, human capital and management consulting, and specialty insurance underwriting. The company employs approximately 53,000 professionals in its 600 offices in more than 120 countries. Backed by broad resources, industry knowledge and technical expertise, Aon professionals help a wide range of clients develop effective risk management and workforce productivity solutions.
This press release contains certain statements relating to future results, which are forward-looking statements as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from either historical or anticipated results, depending on a variety of factors. Potential factors that could impact results include the general economic conditions in different countries around the world, fluctuations in global equity and fixed income markets, exchange rates, rating agency actions, pension funding, ultimate paid claims may be different from actuarial estimates and actuarial estimates may change over time, changes in commercial property and casualty markets and commercial premium rates, the competitive environment, the actual costs of resolution of contingent liabilities and other loss contingencies, the heightened level of potential errors and omissions liability arising from placements of complex policies and sophisticated reinsurance arrangements in an insurance market in which insurer reserves are under pressure, and the timing and resolution of related insurance and reinsurance issues relating to the events of September 11, 2001. Further information concerning the Company and its business, including factors that potentially could materially affect the Company's financial results, are contained in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
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