Last year’s white Christmas became a white November, December, January and February, with blizzards, slush, treacherous driving conditions, sub-zero temperatures for days, with icy roads and pavements and shortages of grit across the country.
People stayed home, some trapped by the snow, the lucky ones just advised by police not to venture out. Crucially, businesses across the UK suffered as many employees were unable to get to work; those that made it struggled to meet customer demand with a skeleton staff, those stuck at home were unable to work because companies simply didn’t have an adverse weather plan in place.
The impact on business was significant – the extreme conditions and bad weather cost the UK economy an estimated £1.2bn per day last winter. More than a third of the UK’s small businesses had to close, 74% of UK workers were affected, and a staggering 6.4 million people were unable to get to work in the snow.
Unfortunately, the forecast for this year is pretty much the same. And we can expect it sooner rather than later.
The Met Office is predicting the weather to become increasingly unsettled from Sunday 23 October and indeed some areas of Scotland have already seen some snow.
But businesses and employees don’t have to endure a repeat of last year, it is possible to minimise the impact and plan for the challenges that extreme weather brings.
Next week is Get Ready for Winter Week, and we’ll be bringing you a series of blogs with advice on how best to prepare your business so that you can continue working, keeping your employees both well informed and safe.
