But it doesn’t have to be like that.
With the Met Office forecasting a similarly difficult winter, it’s important to start planning now; companies that plan for adverse weather conditions, communicate well – and in a timely fashion - with their employees, and put plans in place to allow staff to work from home can minimise the potential impact on their business.
Did you know, it’s a fact that home workers are often more efficient than office-based workers? And in a crisis situation an employee working from home is certainly more efficient than an employee stuck in a snowbound traffic jam for most of the morning, unable to fulfil their customer commitments, who then spends the rest of the day discussing their nightmare journey and planning an early finish to get home before the weather deteriorates even further.
Employers have a legal duty of care to ensure their employees are not placed at unnecessary risk while working, and when police and weather forecasters warn people not to travel, employers should be making sure their employees know they have permission to stay at home, and are properly equipped to do their job from there.
You should be aware of how the law affects you and your employees in a situation where the weather conditions are severe and it’s deemed dangerous to travel by experts. Read up on guidance on employment policies to make sure you know what’s reasonable to expect of your staff and what’s not. And make sure your own policies reflect both the law, and your own values about care of your employees. A good policy should cover issues including entitlement to time off, entitlement to paid or unpaid leave, working from home and flexible working hours to avoid dangerous or rush hour traffic and travel.
And bearing in mind the fact about home workers and efficiency, you should also be thinking about technology outside the office, equipment, communications and remote connectivity that will make it possible for employees to work from home. It’s a good idea to ensure staff have laptops and internet connections at home (where necessary) and that they have the passwords – and of course, the knowledge – to safely and securely access servers at work.
Finally, don’t forget to keep in touch. Just because you’ve advised employees to stay at home doesn’t mean your job’s done. Communicating with staff throughout the course of the bad weather not only shows you care, but ensures everyone feels involved and part of the team. SMS text messages allow you to personalise messages to individual staff or send an immediate message to all staff at the same time. You can keep them updated on the weather situation or communicate about individual work requirements.
Remember, text messaging has the highest open and read rates over email and other forms of communication. A recent study found that text messaging opening rates were above 92% - and of these messages, 65% were read within five minutes and 85% within an hour.
And it’s cheap too – for just a few pence each, it’s possible to send bulk texts to your employees and keep your business alive and thriving whatever the weather.
Tomorrow – how to incorporate SMS text messaging as part of your crisis communications
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