{"id":952,"date":"2014-02-20T17:14:22","date_gmt":"2014-02-20T17:14:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/?p=952"},"modified":"2014-02-20T17:14:22","modified_gmt":"2014-02-20T17:14:22","slug":"dont-let-bad-weather-bring-your-small-business-productivity-to-a-halt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/dont-let-bad-weather-bring-your-small-business-productivity-to-a-halt\/","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t let bad weather bring your small business productivity to a halt"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.plantronics.com\/us\/cmpn\/big-trends\/big-trends.jsp\"><img class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-613\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/smb-tech-trends.jpg\" alt=\"smb-tech-trends\" width=\"201\" height=\"194\" \/><\/a>It\u2019s pretty common to talk about the weather these when the country is experiencing such extreme conditions. Since we have no control over Mother Nature, it makes good sense to take measures to ensure your small business productivity doesn\u2019t take a hit when it\u2019s either too cold or too stormy.<\/p>\n<p>For starters, in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.inc.com\/guides\/201101\/how-to-prepare-your-office-for-bad-weather.html\">\u201cHow to Prepare Your Office for Bad Weather<\/a>,\u201d Inc. suggests that you clarify in your employee handbook what you expect your team to do in the event of various weather conditions. Inc. advises that your small business inclement weather policy should make it clear who is responsible for announcing the office is shutting down and include other protocols for bad weather days, such as who lets customers know your business is closed.<\/p>\n<p>About pay for days the office is closed, that too should be spelled out clearly so there\u2019s no misunderstanding. Inc. points out that under federal law, an employer can make any rules they want for <a href=\"http:\/\/careerplanning.about.com\/od\/federallawsus\/g\/def_nonexempt.htm\">non-exempt employees<\/a>. Regarding <a href=\"http:\/\/careerplanning.about.com\/od\/federallawsus\/g\/def_exempt.htm\">exempt employees<\/a>, there are two rules and they are subject to state laws. One rule says that if exempt employees work any part of the day, they earn a full day\u2019s pay. Part two of the rule says that if you choose to close the office, the employee also must be paid. You\u2019ll probably want to check with your state labor department to see what requirements they have.<\/p>\n<p><!-- [if gte mso 9]&gt;--><\/p>\n<p><strong>Keep communication up when you\u2019re shut down<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Just because the office is closed, you don&#8217;t need to shut down operations. With today\u2019s technology, you and your team easily can communicate with each other and customers <a href=\"http:\/\/www.plantronics.com\/us\/cmpn\/big-trends\/big-trend-3-flexible-working.jsp\">remotely<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.plantronics.com\/us\/cmpn\/big-trends\/big-trend-1-cloud.jsp\">Cloud computing:<\/a><\/strong> By taking your company data to the cloud, it doesn\u2019t matter where you small business team is. You\u2019ll still be able to access information and collaborate to create new documents, plus you\u2019ll always have the latest versions right at your fingertips. Also moving your<a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/blog\/2014\/02\/13\/will-your-small-business-email-be-hosted-or-in-the-cloud-this-year\/\"> email from on premise to the cloud <\/a>means it always will be accessible.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.plantronics.com\/us\/cmpn\/big-trends\/big-trend-4-video-conferencing.jsp\">Video and web conferencing<\/a>: <\/strong>Even when days are bright and sunny, team members may be working remotely or <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/SMB_BigTrends_Video_Conf_WEB_Page_1.jpg\"><img class=\"size-medium wp-image-565 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/SMB_BigTrends_Video_Conf_WEB_Page_1-300x283.jpg\" alt=\"SMB_BigTrends_Video_Conf_WEB_Page_1\" width=\"300\" height=\"283\" \/><\/a>on travel. No longer does it mean that they can\u2019t meet face to face, however. With today\u2019s conferencing capabilities available for desktops and laptops, as well as tablets and smartphones, your team can get together on a video conference, and even include your customers, to brainstorm, resolve a problem or get a project update. Using web conferencing and screen sharing, your team can review and discuss documents together while they communicate via audio. You\u2019ll want to use <a href=\"http:\/\/www.plantronics.com\/us\/cmpn\/big-trends\/working-solutions.jsp\">headsets<\/a> for the best audio clarity whatever your conferencing needs.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.plantronics.com\/us\/cmpn\/big-trends\/big-trend-7-unified-communications.jsp\">Unified Communications:<\/a><\/strong> Today\u2019s unified communications (UC) systems make it convenient for your team to remain connected wherever they are. UC solutions integrate all your different modes of communication \u2013 phone, fax, instant messaging, text message, email as well as conferencing features &#8212; into one convenient interface. Your team won&#8217;t have to check separate interfaces to place a call, retrieve email or send an instant message. And with enhanced phone features like call forwarding, voice to text messaging and even <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/blog\/2012\/03\/27\/find-mefollow-me-calling-makes-you-easy-to-reach\/\">find me\/follow me,<\/a> which routes calls to different phones until the recipient picks up or the caller decides to leave a message, you\u2019ll never miss a customer call.<\/p>\n<p>Now you can \u2018let it snow&#8217; and know your business will continue running. You\u2019ll still have to dig out your car to get to the store, though.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s pretty common to talk about the weather these when [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[510],"tags":[587,957,569,929,592,452,637,1018,580,446,602,644],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/952"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/952\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}