Pandemic Tabletop Exercise for Insurance Companies

This exercise is part of our catalog of tabletop exercises for insurance companies.

Scenario Overview

Participants are the management team for a fictional insurance company as media reports describe the growing impact of an influenza outbreak. Staff availability begins to drop rapidly due to illness, the need to care for sick family members, and growing concern about exposure. As staffing declines, normal operations begin to feel the strain.

The loss of personnel affects chain-of-command, claims processing, customer service operations, and internal coordination. As the situation worsens, leadership must manage ongoing operations while responding to employee concerns, maintaining service levels, and addressing the emotional and operational impact of fatalities, including the loss of a senior team member.

This exercise challenges insurance leaders to evaluate how well prepared they are for a prolonged workforce disruption and how they would continue to serve policyholders while staffing levels decline and uncertainty continues to grow.

Why This Scenario Matters for Insurance Companies

Insurance companies depend on people, systems, and coordination to maintain claims handling, customer communication, underwriting, and operational continuity. A pandemic can affect far more than attendance. It can disrupt leadership structure, service delivery, and the organization’s ability to meet policyholder expectations over an extended period.

This exercise helps leadership teams evaluate how they would respond when staffing declines steadily, operations are strained, and customers still depend on the organization for continuity, clarity, and timely service during a prolonged public health event.

Exercise Objectives

• Evaluate leadership decision-making during a prolonged workforce disruption.
• Discuss continuity of claims processing and customer service under reduced staffing levels.
• Review chain-of-command and succession planning during extended disruption.
• Assess internal and external communications during a worsening public health event.
• Identify priorities for maintaining essential business functions and customer support.
• Strengthen preparedness for extended operational disruption affecting staff and customers.

Typical Participants

• Executive leadership
• Operations and claims leadership
• Human resources
• Communications or public affairs staff
• Customer service leadership
• Compliance or regulatory personnel
• Business continuity or crisis management team members

Exercise Format

Conduct-It-Yourself Tabletop Exercises are structured, discussion-based simulations designed to help organizations test their response to disruptive events without the time and cost of a fully facilitated exercise. Participants are placed in the middle of a realistic scenario as it unfolds and must work through decisions, priorities, and consequences as a leadership team.

Each downloadable exercise package includes everything needed to conduct the session internally, including facilitator instructions, exercise overview materials, participant forms, a detailed scenario script, and a ready-to-run PowerPoint presentation that guides the scenario and discussion. The materials are designed so organizations can conduct the exercise as delivered or customize the storyline and supporting materials to reflect their own operations, business lines, and testing objectives.

Most exercises are designed to be conducted in approximately 2 to 4 hours. A typical agenda includes an exercise overview and scenario briefing, the facilitated disaster simulation discussion, group review and preparation for debriefing, and a structured post-exercise discussion to capture lessons learned and improvement opportunities.

Exercise Focus

• Preparedness
• Crisis Communications
• Business Resumption

Related Tabletop Exercise Scenarios

Organizations exploring this scenario may also find these exercises useful:

• Cyber Crime Tabletop Exercise for Insurance Companies
• Train Wreck Tabletop Exercise for Insurance Companies
• Gas Main Explosion Tabletop Exercise for Insurance Companies
• Shelter-in-Place Tabletop Exercise for Insurance Companies
• Workplace Hostage Tabletop Exercise for Insurance Companies
• Hurricane Tabletop Exercise for Insurance Companies
• Tornado Tabletop Exercise for Insurance Companies

Purchase & Download

This exercise is delivered as a downloadable package that includes facilitator instructions, scenario materials, and structured discussion prompts to guide the exercise.