Bad weather isn’t just inconvenient, it can be dangerous too. Floods, hurricanes, blizzards, tornados, extreme heat - just to name a few - can disrupt your business. When an inclement weather event happens, it is important you communicate quickly with your employees so they know what they are expected to do.
It may be that you expect them to carry on as usual, or that you want them to shelter in place, go home early, or work from home for a few days. You should have these scenarios clearly set out in your inclement weather policy. And a great part of that preparedness is your emergency communication.
In addition to keeping your employees safe, emergency communications during inclement weather can help to ensure business continuity.
Tips for writing inclement weather notices
Being prepared in advance will save valuable time during an actual emergency situation.
You should have pre-prepared templates written and ready to go in the event of an actual inclement weather event. All you need to do is fill in the relevant facts once they are known.
Your ‘due to inclement weather’ notice or email should:
- Be short and simple
- Be written in plain language
- Give precise details of what the situation is
- Give instructions that you need your employees to follow
- Provide contact details if relevant
The bottom line is that if there is an emergency, employees shouldn’t have to waste time trying to decipher vague or complicated messages.
Depending on your location in the world, you should have templates ready to go for the most common weather scenarios that you are faced with in your geographic location: for example, hurricanes and floods but not blizzards or vice versa.
To help you get started, we’ve created some inclement weather message samples to send to employees. Download them right now:
How to send inclement weather messages to your employees
Because of the unpredictable nature of inclement weather, it’s very easy to be caught off guard. Inclement weather doesn’t limit itself to business hours on weekdays.
However you choose to communicate with employees about inclement weather, you should take into account that they aren’t necessarily going to be sitting at their desks looking for an inclement weather email when you need to get their attention.
Effective inclement weather messaging channels are needed in order to ensure your employees know what steps to take no matter where they are.
Inclement weather messaging can be sent in the following ways:
- Via pop-up notifications to attract the attention of employees sitting at their computer desktops, no matter what software they are using.
- Via push notifications on apps so that you can reach employees who aren’t in the office - for example, working from home or on a weekend or after hours so they know what arrangements are in place, as well as reaching your employees who may be outdoors or on the road.
- Via lock screen alerts with instructions and advice on what to do, for example, a map showing emergency exits.
- Via scrolling desktop tickers - a way to keep people informed as an inclement weather event is approaching, with headlines and links to further information.
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