Harsh winter weather can disrupt a business in a number of ways, particularly when roads are covered in snow and ice and transport becomes a mess. Suppliers may not be able to get supplies through to clients, businesses may not be able to make deliveries and employees will have difficulty getting to work due to dangerous road conditions. This can have a huge impact on a company’s revenues, especially if the bad weather continues for any length of time.
Taking action before the winter arrives, and considering the following points, will help to prevent any major losses to your company:
How will the weather affect your workforce?
Make sure you know what is expected of you as an employer if your workforce is struggling to get in as a result of bad weather. There are many issues to consider for the welfare of employees, like what is reasonable to expect during adverse conditions, what to do if the heating fails during winter and other problems that could have a legal impact on the company. Discuss options with employees ahead of time, so that they know what is expected of them. Consider allowing staff to take annual leave for a day or work flexible hours, so that they are able to travel without unreasonable delays.
Plan ahead for emergencies
Spend some time planning for emergency situations, like a power failure or flooding due to harsh winter weather. Do you have a backup system if the power fails? Or could you be at risk of losing valuable data? Consider moving to the cloud so that you will be able to continue working without interruption and risk of losing information.
Make sure staff make contingency plans in case of an emergency. If employees can’t get home due to bad weather, is there anyone to look after the children, or feed the dog, for example? Set up a central helpline that your workforce can contact to see if the business premises will be open on a day when there’s bad weather.
Outsource to professionals
Management accountants will be able to help you put together every financial aspect of a business contingency plan. If you want to make sure that your business can continue to operate as long as possible without adverse effects, consult an expert.
Have you been affected by the bad weather this year? If so, please let us know about it.