Feeling the Heat
It’s very hot at the moment, isn’t it? And it’s impacting many aspects of both home and working life.
For those of us working from home, it may well involve changing working hours so we aren’t sitting over a hot computer during the warmest hours. For those working in offices, especially non-airconditioned offices, it may also involve some changes to routine. Travelling at different times or agreeing on working patterns with colleagues so meetings can take place in cooler conditions.
Plan as Much as Possible
Part of what we do at Performance Plus is to help our clients with contingency planning. We do this by establishing policies and procedures to cope with unusual events (such as record high temperatures) and allow operations to continue without major interruption.
It’s obvious that you can’t plan for all potential events. By definition, unexpected events are unexpected! What you can do however is to plan for the obvious ones (fire, flood, power outage, etc.). React quickly to the unusual but pre-warned ones (storms, heatwaves, etc.). Learn from the truly unexpected ones (worldwide pandemics for example). And then make careful notes on what worked and what didn’t, so when the next event on a similar scale occurs, you are ready for it.
How We Help
The other element we help our clients with relates directly to their contingency planning and is regular testing of the plan. It’s all very well saying that operations can continue if, for example, all power to the office is lost. Unless you test out what actually happens if you deliberately turn off the office power (without pre-warning everyone) then you will never know. Given that you can pick the time to do the test so the potential impact is minimised, you will be assured (or not, as the case may be) that everyone will cope if “the real thing” happens.
Work with Us
If you would like to discuss contingency planning and how it can prepare your business to survive the majority of unusual events – and how it might form part of a formal business management system that can be certified to ISO Standards (for Quality, Environment, Data Security or Health & Safety) – then give us a call.
Contact us at sales@performanceplus.co.uk or telephone 01284 330400.