How To Prepare Your Business for Extreme Weather
An insurance company in Tornado Alley, a mom-and-pop shop on the East Coast, and a Minnesota construction company don’t have much in common. However, they all need to cope with mother nature and how it can impact employees and business.
Whatever the weather looks like in your region, it’s crucial to know how to prepare your business for extreme weather.
Put Safety Plans in Place
The best offense is a good defense, as the saying goes. And the ideal way to go on the offensive against poor weather is to have a defense plan in place that you have communicated to all your employees. Your plan should include:
Protocols for how managers will communicate updates to employees
Procedures to follow when evacuation is necessary
A way to quickly figure out who is in the building
Utilizing a cellular weather station to provide updated information on weather patterns
Assigned roles, such as taking attendance or grabbing vital materials
Designated shelter in nearby locations
Management should have training sessions for emergency weather at least annually, especially at the start of seasons associated with severe weather.
Identify Risk Factors
It’s difficult to prepare against risks when you aren’t aware of them. Part of your planning process should be identifying specific areas of your business that may become particularly threatened in an extreme weather scenario.
For instance, say your construction company is in a flooding-prone area. Make yourself aware of the locations of electric panels that can cause electrocution and how water can cause water contamination in your equipment’s hydraulic fluid. Also, communicate these risk factors in training sessions.
Have an Additional Power Source
Power outages can cause a host of problems for companies during extreme weather. In the case of blizzards, it can cut off valuable heat and leave warehouses full of dangerous equipment in the dark. Investing in a backup generator is one way to prepare your business for extreme weather scenarios like this. Do your research into the best commercial generators on the market and choose the right one for your business.
Have Data Backups
Extreme weather can also do irreparable harm to the business itself. Damaged or destroyed computers can lose valuable data and contacts that may set your business back.
Naturally, employee safety is the top priority, and in the case of an emergency evacuation, you should place people above computers. But if you have all files backed up to an external source, you can ensure that your files won’t become lost even when the weather takes a turn for the worse.