Is your organization prepared for severe weather and natural disasters? This year has brought record-breaking heat, catastrophic flooding, wildfires, severe storms, and other major events. Our thoughts are with those of you affected by Hurricane Helene.
When severe weather strikes, you may have very little time to act. Communication with employees won’t be timely and may not even be possible. Commuting to and from the worksite—and the worksite itself—might not be safe.
You need a plan. Your employees need to be trained to follow that plan—whether they work on-site, at home, or elsewhere.
Drafting a Plan
Start by identifying the potential risks inherent to your business and geography and how each disaster might cause disruptions to your business. These could include impassable roads, utility failures, unsafe working conditions, employee displacement, or physical destruction of your facilities. Explain applicable safety measures for each risk, and provide relevant information (maps, evacuation routes, safe zones, etc.). Try to build in reasonable contingencies for things like power failures, understanding that they may last for hours, days, or even weeks. The plan should also delineate roles and responsibilities so that employees know whom to contact for questions and further instructions.
Communication
Consider what alternative means of communication may be operable in these situations. In some cases, you might need to post information to a central location or system so that employees can connect when their service is restored. Some examples include:
- Web pages or voice recordings that can be updated by a key employee with access to phones or internet
- Software that automatically sends text messages, emails, or voice mails to your entire staff to notify them of updates
If none of those are feasible for your business, instruct employees ahead of time on what work and safety procedures they should follow when communication is limited or impossible.
Your communication with employees should also include their travel options if their work must be done on-site. Conditions will not be the same everywhere. Roads may be impassable. Power may be out on one side of the city but not the other.
Flexibility
Even if you have a no-call, no-show termination policy you usually follow, provide as much flexibility as you can during times of severe weather or natural disasters. Your attendance policy should allow for management discretion in emergencies so you have more leeway to make exceptions to your rules. When deciding how to respond to absences in the aftermath of a storm or during extreme weather conditions, consider employee morale and your reputation in the larger community.
Employees may be able to commute to work following severe weather, but may be hesitant due to safety concerns. In such cases, take an empathetic approach. Ask them if they feel safe traveling, listen to any concerns they have, and work with them to find a solution. That may mean allowing them to work from home or enabling them to take time off in accordance with your policy. It could also mean reevaluating your business hours during the crisis.
Closures and Pay
If you decide to close due to inclement weather, nonexempt employees only need to be paid for hours actually worked. That said, employers in these situations generally allow the use of vacation or paid time off (PTO) if nonexempt employees have it available.
Most exempt employees must be paid their regular salary when the company closes due to inclement weather. This holds true whether the office closure is for full or partial days, unless the employee does no work at all for an entire workweek. You can, however, require exempt employees to use accrued vacation or PTO during a closure if you have a policy stating that, or if doing so has been your practice in the past.
Additional Support
When weather becomes so severe that employees need to evacuate their homes, consider offering to cover hotel and travel costs. For example, a policy might state that any employee whose household is affected by a natural disaster that triggers an emergency declaration by local or state officials is eligible to receive a credit for up to a certain number of nights of lodging or a certain dollar amount. Lifting some of the financial burden can help them get where they need to go and stay safe. Crisis benefits are an investment in their safety and success.
After a severe weather incident or natural disaster, your employees may be looking for opportunities to help others in their community or elsewhere. Consider organizing a donation drive, sponsoring an event, or providing employees with PTO for volunteer work.
