A Snow Day could prove gloomy for Brits

The freezing weather conditions and snow have forced many Brits to stay at home, with road and school closures preventing them from working.  With the bad weather set to continue for another three weeks, insurer RSA predicts that a day of severe snow could cost Britain's economy as much as £690million as businesses lose out to the weather.

During the snowstorm in February 2009, experts predicted that 20% of the UK's workforce, 6.4 million people, failed to turn up to work.  The current bad weather is worse, meaning the UK's economic output will be hit to the tune of at least £14billion over the next three weeks.  Not only will business productivity fall, but local vendors will also suffer reduced turnover and may even be forced to close for the day due to the lack of trade and staff.

In February last year, the snow led to the cancellation of bus services throughout the UK and many schools were closed.

Marc Charlton, Media Relations Manager at RSA, said, "In weather conditions such as these, especially with the worry about the lack of grit in some areas, it's imperative that businesses take extra precautions to help them continue trading. For those who work in offices, ensuring employees can log in to office systems from home will save businesses a lot of aggravation and lost revenue when staff are snowed in.  It also means people won't feel they need to battle on dangerous roads to make it into the office. This is the third consecutive year we've seen snow like this - businesses must equip themselves to operate safely in conditions that keep their staff out of the office."

To reduce the impact on businesses of days of snow, RSA recommends that the following steps are taken immediately:

Review your Business Continuity Plan; think about how you'll best be able to service your customers, suppliers and key stakeholders if your business is disrupted.

Give early warnings of any problems to your customers and suppliers

List (in a safe place) the telephone numbers of the people you may need to contact, e.g. insurance company, emergency plumber/electrician.

Encourage staff to plan alternative routes to work in the event that their usual route is disrupted.

Speak to your IT department to enable more of your staff to be able to work from home

Priority areas should be salted and gritted in advance. Arrangement should be made for access routes to be inspected regularly. Temporary signs denoting safe routes may be necessary.

All staff should be reminded of the need to wear appropriate footwear when coming to work in severe weather conditions.

For more information on RSA's business or commercial property policies visit rsaconnect.rsagroup.co.uk/portal/UKHome.asp or speak to your local broker.