I have heard managers and owners of numerous companies mention how valuable their employees are. Often staff is put on the same level of value as customers; but, is it true or just lip service? Days like today (here in Kansas City) is an opportunity for employers to either put up or shut up!
If you have paid attention the weather channel (or for some of you just looked outside) we are having a winter weather fiasco! In other places of the world this type of snow fall would not effect business like it does here in Kansas City; however, we lack the man power and snow removal materials to make this day "normal". Most major roads, as well as almost all of the side streets are under 6-12 inches of snow with a thin layer of ice underneath. There are power outages throughout the area because of tree branches and power lines falling down.
On February 26, 2013 Kansas City got hit by the second winter storm in as many weeks.
Weather like this leads to the roads seeing far less traffic then normal. The people who are out on the roads might even be considered careless. Many of these poor people who braved the road ended up in a ditch or worse.
The company that I own and manage has over 50 people currently employed. Of those 50 people a little over half of the personnel is field employees with a company vehicle, the rest of the employees work in the office. A couple years ago out office personnel would not be able to get anything done outside of the office. We were looking to buy out another company over 300 miles away and decided to start moving some of the office jobs to remote servers. We put together a number of steps that I will talk about in a later article but these steps allowed for remote work. In situations like today we are able to tell our staff to stay at home and work and still be proficient with our office closed. Our field staff is recommended to take the day off unless of extenuating circumstances.
I know your thinking that nothing I have said up to this point is out of the normal in today's business environment. The difference between our company and others is we REALLY mean it!
A good friend of mine has a company who took all the same steps to make their employee's more mobile as my company. Their people can work from home and be just as efficient as my staff.
The owner of the company that my friend works for left home today an hour early and traveled to the office. He then sent out an email from the office letting everyone know that he beat the storm and the streets were not nearly as bad as they look. I would like to point out here I don't want to over look the responsibility we have to our employees to keeping ourselves safe. I am not saying the manger was incorrect in his actions, but if he had gotten stranded what effect would that have on his company?
As you might have guessed, the result of this action was swift and predictable. This owners staff started to make their way to the office to demonstrate to everyone their dedication. Four stranded vehicles, two accidents and one staff injury later, the same owner sent out an email explaining he is closing the office and everyone should stay home.
The reason I explain this story is a no obvious: Do you really care about your employees or are profits more important? If you care about your people then let them stay at home and use the tools you provided them to work remotely. If you don't care then don't invest your money on systems you will never use.
I truly feel my people are more important than any customer. I would not want my customers to risk anything on a day like this, so why would I ever put a more important asset at risk? I am encouraging my people to stay home and remain safe rather than risk it.
If you have paid attention the weather channel (or for some of you just looked outside) we are having a winter weather fiasco! In other places of the world this type of snow fall would not effect business like it does here in Kansas City; however, we lack the man power and snow removal materials to make this day "normal". Most major roads, as well as almost all of the side streets are under 6-12 inches of snow with a thin layer of ice underneath. There are power outages throughout the area because of tree branches and power lines falling down.
On February 26, 2013 Kansas City got hit by the second winter storm in as many weeks.
Weather like this leads to the roads seeing far less traffic then normal. The people who are out on the roads might even be considered careless. Many of these poor people who braved the road ended up in a ditch or worse.
The company that I own and manage has over 50 people currently employed. Of those 50 people a little over half of the personnel is field employees with a company vehicle, the rest of the employees work in the office. A couple years ago out office personnel would not be able to get anything done outside of the office. We were looking to buy out another company over 300 miles away and decided to start moving some of the office jobs to remote servers. We put together a number of steps that I will talk about in a later article but these steps allowed for remote work. In situations like today we are able to tell our staff to stay at home and work and still be proficient with our office closed. Our field staff is recommended to take the day off unless of extenuating circumstances.
I know your thinking that nothing I have said up to this point is out of the normal in today's business environment. The difference between our company and others is we REALLY mean it!
A good friend of mine has a company who took all the same steps to make their employee's more mobile as my company. Their people can work from home and be just as efficient as my staff.
The owner of the company that my friend works for left home today an hour early and traveled to the office. He then sent out an email from the office letting everyone know that he beat the storm and the streets were not nearly as bad as they look. I would like to point out here I don't want to over look the responsibility we have to our employees to keeping ourselves safe. I am not saying the manger was incorrect in his actions, but if he had gotten stranded what effect would that have on his company?
As you might have guessed, the result of this action was swift and predictable. This owners staff started to make their way to the office to demonstrate to everyone their dedication. Four stranded vehicles, two accidents and one staff injury later, the same owner sent out an email explaining he is closing the office and everyone should stay home.
The reason I explain this story is a no obvious: Do you really care about your employees or are profits more important? If you care about your people then let them stay at home and use the tools you provided them to work remotely. If you don't care then don't invest your money on systems you will never use.
I truly feel my people are more important than any customer. I would not want my customers to risk anything on a day like this, so why would I ever put a more important asset at risk? I am encouraging my people to stay home and remain safe rather than risk it.
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