Julia Weeks
If you live in an area that typically receives inclement weather warnings during the winter months, it is important that you have a plan for your business. This plan should ensure the safety of your employees, while also ensuring that business is still conducted.
Inclement Weather Policy
First, before you respond to any inclement weather, you should check your company’s inclement weather policy. As Employers’ Lawyers Blog mentions, most companies will have policies regarding how their business operates during inclement weather, who is the decision maker when it comes to closing the business during this time, and who must report to work.
Before you decide what to do with your department, you should first check your company’s policies.
Plan in Advance
Typically, we know ahead of time when inclement weather may be coming our way.
In the past, when I knew bad weather was a possibility, I would encourage my team to plan in advance. Before leaving work for the day, we would all take any notes or work home with us, in case we were unable to drive into the office the following day. This allowed us to be able to attend to the “must do” items even if we were not in the office.
This was not always an easy task and it required some planning time before leaving, but it was well worth it when really bad weather hit, preventing us from going to the office the next day.
Stay Flexible
Remember that not all of your employees may live close by. Just because you are able to drive into work doesn’t mean that an employee who lives 20 miles down the road will be able to make it in. Some roads outside of town are not always cleared and may be icy.
Stay flexible with your employees and understand if they are unable to make it into the office. You never want to endanger your employees’ lives by pressuring them to drive into the office on dangerous roads.
In the past, I would leave it up to my team member’s judgment. If I had a team member who thought it was unsafe to come into the office, I was in agreement. However, I did expect that each team member handle any “must do” items for the day, regardless of their location. If a team member was unable to complete a “must do” item from their home, they were to reach out to me for assistance immediately.
How do you prepare for inclement weather? Please leave your suggestions in the comments below.
Image: trendobjects/BigStock.com
Guest Post
Josh Tolan
