Whether it's a matter of restricting employee travel south of the border, temporarily adjusting rules for taking time off or shipping hand sanitizer to employees around the country, North Texas employers are taking precautions against swine flu.
They're also girding for weeks of uncertainty, as health authorities respond to the epidemic.
Most Dallas-Fort Worth businesses report minimal concrete effects so far. But there's still potential for widespread global infection, so local employers aim to find a path between panic and complacency.
"We don't think there's a huge danger to our employees and customers at this time," said Casey Priest, vice president of marketing and communications at The Container Store.
That said, the Coppell-based chain is shipping bottles of hand sanitizer to each of its 47 stores in 23 markets with instructions to place them in break rooms and bathrooms and at registers, where employees and customers handle money, Priest said.
"If customers ask, we want to be sure it's available for them, too," she said.
Hand sanitizer is catching on elsewhere as well.
Blockbuster is putting up posters in break rooms and conference rooms reminding employees of the importance of good hygiene and more frequent cleaning of doorknobs, railings and counters, said Randy Hargrove, spokesman for the Dallas-based movie rental chain.
"To date, we have had no reports of any employee health problems related to this, and it has not impacted our business or company operations," he said.
Reaching out to employees is critical at a time when reliable information can play an important role in slowing the spread of the flu and avoiding business disruptions.
"We're doing a number of things, starting with making certain our employees around the globe are educated and informed as to what it's all about, and what they can do to help protect themselves," said Dave Dickson, a spokesman for Kimberly-Clark Corp., the Irving-based consumer products giant.
Kimberly-Clark has put together a team of employees with medical, health care, human resources, risk management, legal and product-supply expertise to minimize disruptions to business operations from swine flu.
"Most people really need their paychecks," said Audrey Mross, a lawyer with Munck Carter LLP in Dallas. "If they really need their paycheck, they're going to be highly incentivized to come to work if they can possibly stand on their two feet."
As a result, some companies are relaxing their rules about when employees can take time off and still get paid. If an employee doesn't have any paid time off to tap into, it might be worth an employer's while to find a way to provide the time, Mross said.
Staff writers Victor Godinez and Karen Robinson-Jacobs contributed to this report.