By Caren Baginski
Although temperatures are slowly rising across the nation this week, most of the United States is still in for a cold and snowy winter, according to noted groundhog Punxsutawney Phil. As children, we couldn't wait for a snow day. As working adults, sometimes it's preferable to keep the business open during inclement weather. The reason? Money.
Medical group organizations feel the ripple effect from bad weather: patients cancel appointments and employees are tardy due to school closings and child care arrangements. If you're the one who makes the open/close call, how do you decide which is more cost-efficient and safe? And most important, how do you pay your employees in the event you close?
That's the topic of the day on the
Human Resources Network here in the Member Community. Participants cited several policies:
- Pay the employees for the time the office was closed.
- Require exempt employees to use their vacation time when the office closes – or if the office is open, but they are unable to commute and cannot work remotely.
- Allow hourly employees to take vacation time or go unpaid.
The second policy is universally unpopular with exempt employees, but it creates an incentive to keep the office open even when the roads are bad. Of course, it begs the question of which is more important: employee safety or financial productivity? Answers can be as unpredictable as the weather, resulting in an HR nightmare policy that's based on the individual.
What do you think is fair? Share your policies for inclement weather closings here, or join the conversation in the Human Resources Network. Then blame the bad weather on the groundhog.
Caren Baginski is MGMA's web content writer/editor and thinks Phil's shadow should have hid from him today.
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