We know from working closely with our clients just how important it is to be able to react quickly to changing circumstances, and to be able to communicate what needs to happen both reliably and cost effectively.
So we have put together our top tips for preparing to deal with adverse weather conditions, starting with planning ahead.
It sounds simple, but make sure you have an adverse weather policy that describes clearly and in detail the various steps the company and employees should take in severe weather conditions.
If you don’t have such a policy, think back to how you coped last winter, how effective were you, what was the impact on your business and your employees, and what could you have done better. These are the building blocks for your new policy.
You need to have up to date contact details for employees, customers, suppliers and other important business contacts, and this information needs to be accessible in a crisis, from wherever you might be at the time. It’s a good idea to save these in multiple locations and/or in the cloud. And make sure you have multiple ways of contacting all these people; you need home and mobile phone numbers as well as email addresses. You’ll also need this for SMS texting.
Think about who should be responsible for communicating in a severe weather crisis, and clearly define that role, making sure those involved understand their responsibilities and are happy to fulfil them. And it’s a good idea to share the roles and responsibilities between a group of people to ensure absence cover for sickness or holidays.
Ideally, practice your plan before you have to implement it in a real situation, you can learn from any mistakes or gaps in the plan and refine to make sure it’s really effective.
And once you’ve had a chance to test your plan in a live situation, review again, amending to incorporate any changes that might be necessary – you never know when you might need to use it again.
If the forecast for this winter is accurate, you could be implementing the plan sooner rather than later.
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Tomorrow – snow chaos and your legal rights, and remote working.
