How to avoid an energy blackout causing a productivity blackout

The deepening energy crisis has already led to widespread alarm – from the global economic markets to personal finance, an energy sector showing little sign of reduced volatility represents a growing cause for concern.

But there’s another dimension to the stranglehold that Russia’s war in Ukraine has placed on Western gas supplies – the unwelcome prospect of energy rationing through planned rolling power outages through the winter.

At the time of writing, these blackouts are still deemed to be unlikely – but even the suggestion of enforced outages should have businesses rushing to review their business continuity plans.

The received wisdom is that if they are implemented, the blackouts are likely to run between 4pm and 7pm.

On the surface of things, this might seem manageable – perhaps an hour to an hour and a half of the working day affected. Perhaps able to be managed through broader and staggered hours with some workers logging on or arriving at the office from 6am.

But the impact on productivity of even this less Draconian arrangement will have significant productivity and profit consequences for most business – and we haven’t even begun to consider the global nature of 21st Century commerce and industry which doesn’t defer to British working hours.

People Management consulted employment attorneys and HR professionals after the announcement to learn what firms should know and how they can get ready.

So, what can businesses do to be ready if the worst happens?

Plan, plan and plan again

Planning is crucial, especially in a commercial environment in which more people than ever before already work from home – meaning they don’t benefit from the infrastructure resilience that protect many business premises.

Homeworkers will be at the mercy of broadband fragility in a country that’s a long way from 100% fibre optic connectivity. Businesses will need to agree contingencies with their teams to ensure that even in the event of interruptions in internet connectivity they will still be able to be productive.

This may mean asking people to come back to the office for a temporary period – and this is also fraught with problems that will be contractual as well as logistical.

Your HR team can help here, reviewing existing arrangements and advising you on how to achieve the level of worker flexibility you may need to command in order to keep your business operating as close to normally as is possible.

You’ll also need to plan for what happens if blackouts become unplanned, or if communication channels notifying businesses of an outage fail.

Good employers will start informing their workforce as early as possible about the potential effects of blackouts on their operations and workspaces, as well as the support or measures they will take to accommodate them as a result.

It’s also worth considering tasking your HR team with drawing up emergency management procedures so as to be ready for unforeseen circumstances and prevent panic.

You may be able to place employees on short-time working and/or decrease pay to time-worked only, depending on individual contracts – but clearly the negative consequences of this on long-term goodwill need to be carefully considered.

Put employee safety first

Contrary to common thinking, businesses are not legally obliged to maintain the workplace at a specific temperature. Government advice is that most workplaces should be a minimum of 16 degrees Celsius, but it’s exactly that – advice.

However, it’s in your interests as an employer to ensure your teams are working in acceptable temperatures.

Your HR team or consultant can help you to draw up a risk assessment of potential health and safety issues in the workplace so that you have considered contingencies should the time come that they are needed.

Having an efficient emergency plan says much about how you value your employees, so putting their health and safety at the heart of your planning is a smart move.

Identify adaptable solutions

There are many steps HR departments can take to help people should blackouts occur. The use of network-enabled devices such as tablets and mobile phones may allow people to stay online, just as keeping devices fully charged during working hours means they will still have some degree of functionality even without mains power.

It is clearly unreasonable to expect to be operating on a business-as-usual basis in a climate of power cuts, so businesses need to consider both technological and practical solutions – for example, purchasing generators to provide power.

Keep an eye on your employees’ wellbeing

As always, communication is always king in a crisis. Ensuring your channels of communication are two-way will help to avoid problems, especially when it comes to employee wellbeing.

Being alert to the domestic impact of loss of power and heat will help your HR teams to put context into working behaviours and ensure business policies to deal with the crisis are proportionate and empathetic.

In the event of a blackout, many people will be affected by isolation, particularly those who have limited opportunities for social connection and those who are furloughed

This could be a good time to encourage employees to use up vacation time. And if a business finds itself with no option but to close temporarily, there may not be a legal right for it to send employees home without pay.

Unless you have made contractual provisions with individuals, you’ll need to factor in the cost of layoffs, short-term employment, or zero-hour contracts.

If you’d like to know more about how Constantia Consulting can help you to manage your people and your business through the winter, please get in touch – we’d love to talk to you.