Winter’s storms slowed sales, productivity

Snow or no snow, Crisfield”™s Prime Meat in Rye will be open.

“Bad weather is never good for business,” said Dan Johnston, a Crisfield”™s manager. “But we have to stay open. We sell perishables; we don”™t have a choice.”

An unusually high number of snowstorms blanketed Westchester and Fairfield counties this winter. Yet for each storm, Dan and his father, John, kept their store open. Like many business owners, the Johnstons say it”™s important to stay open. It”™s a commitment to their customers.

While it normally snows less than 30 inches a year, it”™s already snowed nearly 60 inches. And for each day schools closed and workers stayed home, businesses lost out. For many, sales are down and workers have fallen behind on their work.

Before any snowstorm, customers at Crisfield”™s stock up on pot roasts and ground beef. But the spike in foot traffic still isn”™t enough to make up for the loss of sales during each storm, John Johnston said. He estimates the store”™s revenue is down 15 percent this winter.

“For a mom and pop store like us, that”™s a lot,” he said.

“But what are we going to do?” he added with a smirk. “Go home and cry. There”™s nothing we can really do.”

To close or not to close

Nearly all of Crisfield”™s workers live nearby and don”™t mind coming in to work during inclement weather, the Johnstons said. During large storms, usually only those in management positions will come in, and it”™s not a hard decision to tell workers to stay home, they said. The store only staffs a handful of workers at a time.

But for larger companies, where dozens of employees commute several miles to work, the decision can be more complicated, said Mitch Tublin, an independent business consultant in Stamford, Conn.

Several liability and safety issues are at play when it starts to snow. Many parents can”™t leave their children at home, and if employees do go to work, there”™s the chance they”™ll be snowed in when they leave.

“Instead of monitoring The Weather Channel and thinking about how you”™re going to call it,” Tublin said, “tell employees, in advance that you”™re going to close and start thinking about how to help people be productive at home.”

A national speaker on productivity, Tublin said managers”™ time is better spent thinking of ways employees can work from home rather than on how bad the weather will be.

“At work there”™s constantly meetings and phone calls, and you can”™t ever just sit down and focus,” Tublin said. “It”™s almost a blessing if you”™re able to be at home and you don”™t have to do those other things. You can just focus on a project and knock it out in one day.”

Not every position lends to working from home, but there are creative ways to use workers”™ days out of the office, he said. Extra training and educational materials can be assigned as homework. Annual human resource paperwork can be done from home.

If in a sales position, workers can “go the extra mile” during a storm and call clients to offer help, Tublin said. Whether it”™s a last-minute delivery or an extra hand for shoveling, clients will look at sales reps differently after the storm, he said.

Staying productive at home

In a Business Journal survey of more than 50 workers in Fairfield and Westchester counties, nearly all respondents agreed they spent more days at home this winter than last. Where they differed, however, was by how many days and how productive they were while at home.

Nearly an even spread, about 23 percent of respondents said they stayed home one to two days; 35 percent stayed home three to four days; and 25 percent stayed home five to six days.

Johannes Banck, who owns his own IT support company in Westport, usually works from home, but said he spends a key portion of his time visiting clients and running errands. This winter he canceled plans to traveling on business for four days as clients took off work due to the weather.

Banck said he encourages his customers to take advantage of new technology to work from home. But most don”™t jump at the chance to use services like video chatting on Skype.

“The main reason is that smaller businesses haven”™t seen the monetary benefit that could be derived from those kinds of communication,” he said. “The status quo is always more comfortable. You need to find the reason for stepping out of the comfort zone.”

If more employers did take a proactive approach, however, perhaps more survey respondents would have reported higher productivity levels.

On a productivity scale from zero to five ”“ with zero equating to no work accomplished and five equating to more than normal accomplished ”“ survey responses from those working from home were again spread across the board.

About 51 percent of respondents rated their productivity between three and five, while 49 percent rated their productivity between zero and two. At best this means the latter group thinks it accomplished 40 percent of what it normally would.

Regardless of productivity, most agreed they should have stayed home those days. About two thirds said they should have stayed home at least one more day.

On the days respondents said they should have stayed home, several reported car accidents, long commutes, stress and additional headaches shoveling snow.

One Fairfield County resident who works in Westchester County said it took four hours to commute home when it normally takes 35 minutes. The type of worker who can accomplish more work at home, the respondent said those four hours at home would have likely produced two days worth of work.

Eugenia M. Vecchio, who owns her own law firm in Harrison, said she can”™t properly manage her staff from home but feels safety is important.

“My attorneys and paralegals are online for the office, but the productivity has fallen,” she said. She has personally worked from home about four and a half days and for good reason, she said. Earlier this winter she was in a car accident.

“On our way home, we hit a three-point buck deer on Route 35 going east,” Vecchio said. “Got bumped around and bruised but no broken bones, thank God.”