It’s clearly counter-intuitive, but faced with falling temperatures and blanket snow we remain grimly determined to get to work. The price last winter was clear: long and fruitless journeys, increased expense (in the form of forced overnight stays) and lost productivity. It may have seemed like the easy option, but it would have been much better for people to have stayed put and, where possible, worked from home.
At the moment, the onus tends to be on the individual to take the decision; perhaps it is now time for companies and organisations to assume greater responsibility. If employees believe they can still travel safely, without disruption, and be more productive at work then perhaps that individual freedom should remain. But employers ought to be reviewing their policy – if they have one – on when staff should be advised to stay at home.
Once that decision has been taken, how is it best communicated? Phone calls are clearly impractical for more than a few employees and an email might not always be read before people leave home.
A Scottish company believes the answer lies in SMS texting: “[It] is increasingly being used by organisations throughout the world, particularly to communicate quickly with large audiences,” said Mark Hay, chief executive of mobile messaging provider HSL, based in Livingston. “Scottish companies could reduce lost productivity by instantly sending text messages to staff, advising them to work from home, rather than attempting the journey to work in dangerous weather conditions.”
Scottish business could risk losing more than £74m a day if it does not learn the lessons from last winter when heavy snow and ice brought the Central Belt to a virtual standstill. Last week, the Scottish Government launched a campaign encouraging families, businesses and communities across Scotland to prepare for winter. The campaign, in conjunction with the British Red Cross and a range of public, private and voluntary sector partners, includes a range of online resources and features integrated marketing activity across television, national and local press, news websites and social media, and will run until mid-November.
Scotland’s Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill, who has responsibility for resilience issues, said: “No one can say with any certainty what this winter might bring, but after the severe weather conditions we experienced in the past two years, we have worked with all our partners in the public, private and voluntary sectors to learn the lessons and improve and invest in our services so that we are in a position to hope for the best but prepare for the worst.”
“Scottish businesses need to follow the Government’s lead and prepare for another harsh winter,” said HSL’s Mark Hay. “Last year, one in five employees were unable to get to work as road and rail networks ground to a halt. As a result, productivity nose dived. If bad weather conditions or public transport make it difficult or dangerous for employees to get to work, employers need to communicate quickly with employees to ensure that they do not travel to work unnecessarily and work from home when possible.”
With 91 per cent of the UK population owning or using a mobile phone, text messaging is one of the most efficient ways of communicating urgent messages to large groups of employees simultaneously, said Hay. His company provides mass text messaging with coverage of more than 630 network operators worldwide. Their customers range from large household brands like DHL and BAA to small companies and the public sector. The service is also used to issue alerts to the Dartmoor Search and Rescue and tsunami warnings to a mining company in Indonesia.
