Codestone

Category: Workforce mobility

Millions of pounds may have been saved by organisations that had solid remote access and flexible working policies and infrastructure in place during the recent wintry weather conditions.

This is the suggestion of real estate specialist CB Richard Ellis, which noted that while a number of firms have some sort of contingency plan, most are unprepared for large-scale transportation disruptions.

Head of workplace strategy for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at the company Ben Munn said that the cold snap put enterprises to the test over their fall-back functions.

He remarked: "Many businesses faced significant impacts to productivity, forcing them to seriously consider their disaster recovery procedures and contingency plans in the case of future disturbances to normal business operations."

According to Mr Munn, a well-integrated remote access strategy for such occurrences can boost staff motivation, better utilise office space and maintain performance levels.

The importance of workforce mobility was recently highlighted by Forum of Private Business research manager Tom Parry, who said losing personnel even for a day because of poor weather can have a huge impact on an organisation’s processes.