Look at the view from my back window – which despite being very beautiful is also very inconvenient. Thankfully I have a Land Rover so can get around reasonably well but every morning this week I have watched my neighbours struggle to get out of the street, a lot give up and just come back to their homes to make the phone call to their bosses to say they can’t get in today. I am in the very lucky position that all I need to work is a laptop, broadband connection and my mouse (I get too frustrated using the laptop mouse and have been known to stop using my laptop in a strop because of it)
So in honour of the recent weather I thought I would revisit a blog I wrote back in May which spoke about the weather last year and how it cost businesses 124 million working hours. Reports this week are suggesting that they current deep freeze is going to cost the county £1.6 billion per day.
This is set to be one of the coldest winters on records and the snow looks as if it is settling in for the duration so if you have a business that allows a portion of your employees to work from home temporarily then it is certainly worth considering buying them a laptop and setting them up with a VPN connection from home – reasonably cheap and very to achieve.
Blog from Wed 26th May 2010
‘If you’re not there for your customers come rain or shine one of your competitors will find a way to do it for you. Given the really bad weather at the start of the year more and more small business are starting to look now into options which allow their staff to work from home so they are not caught out again next year.
In the UK 124million hours of work were lost due to the heavy snowfall in January. This was not only due to employees being unable to actually get to their work premises but also down to employees having to stay at home because the schools and nurseries were closed and there was no one to look after their kids.
It has been reported only 11% of the people that were unable to get into work had the option to work from home – myself being one of them give me my laptop, broadband and a VPN connection and I am ready to go. How many of your staff can say the same?
There are a number of technologies which can help keep your business running and ensure that you can access your business server wherever you are - which in the current climate is more important than ever for SME’s
Don’t be caught off guard again this coming winter – SME owners should be thinking now about how you can facilitate your employees to work at home in case the big freeze hits again!’
I predicted this back in May – now if only I could get the lottery numbers right!