Beyond the obvious physical dangers of inclement weather
listed above, one that is often overlooked is lost workforce
productivity. As one of your leadership and management experts,
I want to talk about preventing lost productivity due to
weather—whether from ice or flood or hurricane.
As with any prevention of risk, the basic five steps are the
same: identify issues, analyze alternatives, select techniques,
implement them, and monitor results. First, identify the
processes and productivity that will be most affected by
weather-related issues. Also determine when weather events are
most likely to occur. In the north, winter ice and snow may
prevent employees from safely traveling to the office. In
Florida, or maybe Southern California or Texas, the time period
may translate to hurricane season. Flooding in the spring,
tornados during tornado season, etc. But don't forget to look
outside of these obvious times. Just ask our friends up in the
northeast after Superstorm Sandy blew through.
Consider Teleworking
A large majority of worldwide firms are allowing teleworking,
which can be a major advantage during crazy weather spells.
WorldatWork published its "Survey
on Workplace Flexibility 2013," which surveyed 566 of its
members. It revealed that 88 percent of companies are now
offering teleworking at some level. The Huffington Post reported the "Top
100 Companies Offering Remote Jobs in 2014" by Sara Sutton
Fell (January 13, 2014), doing a nice job visiting all the
reasons remote working is a good idea. IRMI has a well-defined
policy that we've had to put into action several times this
winter, with much success.
But, if you are a smaller company, it may seem daunting to
allow teleworking, remote work, or even flex time. The
Small Business Administration
(SBA) defines "small"
in most cases as 500 employees. That probably fits a high number
of insurance companies, but the average independent agency is
just nine folks. In construction, legal, and other related
industries, the story is the same; there are many more very
small firms than there are large ones. According to a
Monthly Labor Review white paper, "The
declining average size of establishments" by Eleanor J. Choi
and James R. Spletzer, published in March 2012, the average
establishment size in all categories "fell to 15.6 in March
2010, followed by a slight uptick to 15.7 in March 2011." That's
a long way from the 500 to qualify for an SBA loan.
Be Prepared
In analyzing where work processes could break down due to
weather, perhaps we need to consider this in reverse: What can
employees take home? How much work could be done from their
couch or home office if there is a storm on the way? Weather
patterns can be predicted down to the minute these days, and
they are right at least as often now as they are wrong. So, be
proactive, and develop a plan. Make the call in advance to have
workers take 2 or 3 days of work home when they leave if
weather-related disruptions are anticipated.
If you already have workers who are teleworking, even if it's
only once a week or 2 days a month, they will be comfortable
with the arrangement before the big crisis sends everyone home.
This is recommended, because teleworking is a new and different
routine from coming into the office, and the first few times an
employee works at home will certainly present challenges.
Technological setup takes a few tries to be consistent, and
folks learn that they need a different headset or a faster
Internet connection, etc. Perhaps you have employees try teleworking for a half day at a time at first until they have
the exact tools they need up and running. It's reasonable to
require that employees have their own equipment and Internet
connection setup if teleworking is optional. That will help
defer setup costs. You may decide to provide the equipment in
some cases where you will require them to log in from home in an
emergency. It's far better to work these details out early,
pre-disaster.
Technology has caught up to a point that we can all afford to do
this now—to some degree. Phones can be forwarded, and remote
access into employee computers is relatively simple. (However,
you do need a professional to help you guide that setup, so that
you are in compliance with various privacy and security
guidelines. That expense is often the reason smaller businesses
aren't quite in line with the trend.)
Test and Implement
Once you identify the areas where your business processes can
break down and determine what can be done at home and how, you
need to create a policy around it for implementation. How many
people can be away from the office at one time without crashing
your information technology infrastructure? What are the
critical positions that should have priority in access to your
remote systems? If there are limited phone lines, how is that
managed so the frontline folks have priority? Can the phones
simply be forwarded to the employee's cell number? (You'll need
to assess your device policy too; do you provide the cell phone,
or are you a bring-your-own device company?)
Test the plan during initial implementation. First, test in
small batches. Send a few people home; then send half. Once,
you'll want to send all but a skeleton crew home at noon on a
bright sunny day and have them log in or call in and see what
happens. Be sure your system can handle it and that the plan
holds up. Suck up the overtime, and do it on a Saturday if you
feel you can't afford to do it on a weekday. Determine the
impact. Then, of course, monitor the results.
Conclusion
In addition to weathering a crisis, you're likely to see several
positive outcomes from teleworking: increased personal
productivity, fewer requests for leave time, less gossip at the
water cooler, and reduced stress, among other things. Watch for
increased satisfaction from customers. If you don't see that, or
a decline in satisfaction results, you need to modify the
program swiftly.
Not only will you have the comfort of knowing your customers can
still reach you when they need you, no matter the circumstances,
but you'll be providing the kind of workplace flexibility that
younger workers are simply demanding. And, when properly
managed, teleworking has been shown to increase both
productivity and profitability. What's not to like about that?
Are you still holding out? Why?