The Forum of Private Businesses has warned today that if provisions for home working are not put in place, businesses could lose around £230m a day, based on one employee per company not working (taking into consideration daily GDP figures, anticipated AA breakdown levels, average salaries and data reflecting anticipated falls in retail levels).
But how do those businesses lose money over a lack of one day’s work? Well according to the FPB’s recent ‘cost of compliance’ survey, small business employers in the UK spend a total of £391 million per year on absence control and management – more than on any other aspect of employment law.
Losing key staff whose job responsibilities include getting debtors to pay on time, getting contracts signed and simply fielding sales enquiries can all lead to lost revenue or delayed revenue growth. As one very famous company said ‘every little counts’ and that is certainly the case for many smaller enterprises in the UK.
The trouble is for many businesses it is often hard to visualise how one day’s lack of work could have such a determental effect on the bottom line. But when you consider the unpredictibility of the UK’s weather coupled with the threat of absences due to flu, other illnesses,or childcare issues the number of days lost, and therefore lost revenue per employee per year can add up. The technology to facilitate flexible working has been around for years, and as more businesses find themselves caught out this winter it may be the turning point in many managers’ minds to actually implement a flexible working policy.
Tags: business home working lose £, business lose bad weather, lose £230m day bad weather
