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Blog

Whatever the Weather: preparing for adverse weather conditions

February 28, 2020

Landscaping, at times, is reliant on the weather conditions. As a company, we are often asked what we have in place when it’s impossible to work on site due to poor or unsuitable weather conditions.

In the past, we created a formal agreement within our employment contracts and company handbook that if we encountered conditions when staff couldn’t work on site, or it was potentially dangerous, that we would make the call to lay them off. In the agreement, we guarantee to pay them an amount per day which must be no less than £29 per day legally, and this is the amount your employees can access as statutory lay-off pay, if you prefer to claim it back. The statutory amount is only accessible for any five days in a three-month period, and for part time workers it is worked out proportionally.

To qualify for statutory lay-off pay, the employee must have been employed continuously for one month, be available for work and not refuse any reasonable alternative work that you can provide.

Cars on road in snowy weather conditions

From the employee point of view, be conscious that they lose potential pay through no fault of their own, so an offer of weekend work in lieu for any that want to make up any losses could be an option for an employer.

We often keep some non-priority projects or tidying up, cleaning tools and maintaining equipment in our yard as something that can be done if we ever can’t work on site, although as we have grown the number of site staff, it’s not always feasible to find enough work for everyone at short notice. The feasibility of this very much depends on how many site staff you have. Now we have the Landscape Academy, our plan for any lay-off days is to bring the team in to focus on any required training, utilising the time to upskill, do team-building or problem solving. You can never have too much training!

Other companies I’ve spoken to in the past have different approaches, one being a claw back policy – staff are fully paid for any adverse weather days and the company agrees to claw back any associated cost if poor performance occurs over the course of the next few months. A good way to keep standards consistent, but needs careful planning and open monitoring.

Another approach is to factor in an amount of adverse weather days into your costings, so that when you work out a daily rate for your team, the down days are already potentially covered. If you’ve done your figures correctly and kept them well monitored, you should have the cash flow to pay the staff in full, although this will depend on how tight your cash flow is. Consider that the down days may well be all in the same month on consecutive days, so will have an effect on that month’s flow.

Whatever you decide to do, make sure you have any wording approved by a HR consultant to ensure you are adhering to current legislation and, more importantly, have communicated your policy to your employees.

Month

    November

    • Urban Director talks work and personal life in Pro Landscaper Magazine

    August

    • Penthouse Roof Terrace – Liverpool
    • Covid-19 announcement

    July

    • Benefits of Commercial Landscaping: Draw in customers and boost sales
    • 6 Reasons To Install A Fire Pit In Your Garden

    May

    • The Renson Canopy Range
    • Why You Should Have An Outdoor Kitchen
    • Kamado Joe Ceramic Grills offer

    April

    • Urban Landscapes continue to follow government guidelines

    March

    • Urban Landscapes Covid-19 Update
    • Urban Landscapes Coronavirus Policy

    February

    • Whatever the Weather: preparing for adverse weather conditions
    • Learning to adapt
    • Attracting more valuable projects
    • The First Steps to Employing Staff
    • Don’t Forget the Plants: Soft Landscaping Design
    • Being Tech Savvy For Your Business
    • The Health Benefits of Outdoor Spaces
    • Let’s Hear it From Holly and Mark Youde
    • Our exciting partnership with London Stone
    • Growing Ranks

    June

    • Make The Right Choice: The Do’s and Dont’s of Recruitment
    • All For Show: Why Industry Shows are Good for Your Business
    • Entering Awards: The Pros and Cons of Taking Part in Industry Awards
    • When Opportunity Knocks
    • Growing Pains and Gains: Growing Your Own Business

    September

    • For Better Or Worse: Being in Business With the Other Half
    • We’re Pro Landscaper Business Award winners!

    January

    • How to create cosy outdoor living spaces for all year round
    • Basic gardening tools everybody should have
    • Planning a Dementia Friendly Garden
    • Marshalls Register Award for Best Driveway Transformation over 70m
    • A Week in the Life of a Cheshire Landscaping Company

    October

    • 42 Under 42
    • 2018 BALI Awards
    • Modern day love of Fire Pits
    • MUD SLINGING AT WORK
    • THE BENEFITS OF RECRUITING AN APPRENTICE
    • WE MUST BE MAD …!
    • WE ARE PROUD TO BE A MEMBER OF THE LANDSCAPING INSTITUTE
    • IS THERE A HOSEPIPE BAN?
    • AWARDS UPDATE JULY 2018
    • Award Winning Landscape Design
    • Commerical Landscaping, Wilmslow
    • Pro Landscaper Business Awards

    December

    • Festive Wishes
    • APL Awards
    • Commercial Landscaping, South Manchester
    • Landscaping Services, Cheshire
    • Fire Magic Outdoor Kitchen, Cheshire
    • Outdoor Living Area, Cheshire
    • Commercial Landscape Contractors, South Manchester
    • The Silver Lining
    • Flower Power
    • Compact & Bijou Outdoor Cooking
    • Outdoor Living on the Wirral
    • RHS Tatton – Show Garden
    • An unexpected guest
    • Exclusive Event 30th March 2017
    • Outdoor Living Area, South Manchester
    • Blistering Ovens
    • Pullover Power
    • Shropshire Lad
    • DoubleTree by Hilton, Chester
    • Teaching an old dog new tricks!
    • APL Membership

Categories

  • Urban Landscapes News
    • Awards
    • Charity Work
    • Commercial
    • Events
    • Large Projects
    • Pro Landscaper Articles
    • Products
    • Small Projects

Our Work

  • 01
  • 02
  • 03
  • 04
  • 05
  • 06

Heathlands Care Home

Directly with the client, we constructed and installed a beach themed garden, suitable for Dementia patients

Penthouse Roof Terrace – Liverpool

Roof terrace with garden studio and different areas to enjoy, including a seaside themed area

Contemporary Garden Chester

A cool contemporary project on a new build property in Chester.

Contemporary Courtyard Chester

In this small courtyard development in Hoole, we created a cool split level space for the client who wanted a modern feel.

Urban Landscapes HQ

Urban RHS Tatton

Our Work

Commercial
Heathlands Care Home

Heathlands Care Home

Directly with the client, we constructed and installed a beach themed garden, suitable for Dementia patients

Read More
Large Project
Penthouse Roof Terrace – Liverpool

Penthouse Roof Terrace – Liverpool

Roof terrace with garden studio and different areas to enjoy, including a seaside themed area

Read More
Medium Project
Contemporary Garden Chester

Contemporary Garden Chester

A cool contemporary project on a new build property in Chester.

Read More
Small Project
Contemporary Courtyard Chester

Contemporary Courtyard Chester

In this small courtyard development in Hoole, we created a cool split level space for the client who wanted a modern feel.

Read More
Outdoor Kitchens
Urban Landscapes HQ

Urban Landscapes HQ

Read More
Outdoor Living
Urban RHS Tatton

Urban RHS Tatton

Read More
 
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