What Could Be The Biggest Snow Storm Ever vs. Employee Scheduling
This week a 100 million plus Americans from North Texas to Chicago to Detroit and through- out the Midwest, New York and all the way to Maine will either be under a blanket of ice or 20 plus inches of snow. Not many employees will be working, and absenteeism at the workplace will be a employee schedulers nightmare. In the Southeastern US, thunder storms, tornadoes and heavy rain are forecast.
The Chicago Tribune is comparing this storm with “the 1967 snow storm the benchmark for all major snowstorms.”This monster snow storm will affect over ½ of the US economy. The Weather Channe Meteorologist Mike Bettes reported: “This may be the biggest snow storm Chicago has ever seen.”
Just about the entire workforce affected by the storm will be basically working from home with laptops and a phone, and the remainder of employees who can’t make it in, their work schedules will basically come to a complete halt. At least Chicago has over 400 trucks with snowplows that are attempting to keep the streets clean. The city’s biggest concern will be worker safety, and Absence360’s worker safety module automatically alerts managers when employees fail to check in.
Productivity will slow to stand still for over 1/3 of the United States. How will these businesses alert employees of business closures? Will they, use twitter, facebook, email, SMS messaging or call them using voice. Absenteeism will be at an all time high, and employees on the bubble will likely be terminated for not showing up for work. Before any storm or major event happens, Human Resources should have absence tracking procedures in place using our Workforce Management software to have qualified employees available to work.
The next big question is who gets paid and who does not get paid. For example when Atlanta got snow and Ice two weeks ago, a dentist I know was shut down for a week, the dentist had no revenue, but he still had employees salaries to pay, rent and on going expenses. The question is does the business owner pay the employees when it is very clear the business has no revenue for the week it was shut down? Again HR should set the standards.
Then you have the healthcare, hospital, security, hotel and law enforcement workers who are usually required to stay at work until the storm passes. The right, qualified people have to work, and they are usually paid overtime or double time. Who benefits from having these employees working? Another question is who works during the storm? These questions are addressed when using Absence360’s employee scheduling software as a service ( SaaS ).
Then you have the government questions: how are the bills paid for the city, county and state? Cities like New York City have already gone through their entire winter weather clean up budget in the first 5 days of 2011. The streets still need to be clean, services still need to be restored and provided. It is hard to comprehend at a time like this, but over scheduling the truck drivers and workers removing snow will cause stress and fatigue. Our solution makes sure managers follow fatigue policies and mandatory rest rules.
FEMA is even giving warnings to citizens as to how serious the storm is and that precautions should be taken. According to all, this will be a storm for the history books.
Comment on how the storm is affecting you and your company or your city? How overtime and all missed shifts / time off is being tracked ? Let us know how Absence360 can help you and your business succeed in these extraordinary times?
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