Welcome to Weatherzine

Across that Silver Lining

Across that Silver Lining

There’s no doubt that every business’ success lies in every individual employee’s efficiency and productivity. The ability to fully maximize the working hours given in a day has always been one of the major basis for measuring one’s productivity. According to various surveys, there are a number of factors that can have a negative effect on an employee’s productivity.

Major determinants such as attitude, leadership, questions about health benefits, availability of necessary tools for the job and job security have an ineffable consequence on an employee’s work performance. These factors, however, are much easier to cope with since they are all controllable. One factor that is greatly underestimated and has been generally accepted as a lost cause because of its often wayward behavior, is the weather.

How can one manage the weather? The answer is, we cannot. The best one can do is listen to weather reports and hope for the best. But how exactly does weather affect a business’s bottom line? How can sun and rain (and sometimes, snow) be related to business economics?

Production Delays

Production Delays

Production delays. Delayed material and finished good shipments due to nonmoving traffic, closed roads, tardy or stranded employees and innumerable detours are typically bad for business. For most businesses, a wet weather is generally accepted as slow business. Aside from the usual nuances of rainy or snowy season, some work are just not meant to be done in the cold. For example, building or painting a structure, outdoor retailing, etc. Delays in production ultimately lead to loss in sales or the time needed to finish and polish a project benefiting your business.

Expect the demands for a commodity to be greatly affected by weather. It’s simple, really. If it’s raining then sales for umbrella will go up. If it’s hot then cold bottled water would be selling like hotcakes. Most consumers are driven by the current weather condition – and it’s not for short-term either. Calamities like the recent superstorm Sandy had greatly influenced the demand for portable generators, not only for those who were devastated by Sandy but also as a preventive measure by those who had seen the extent of the damage a storm can incur in a place (visit lebrooks for more information on how these events transpired). Furthermore, some products tend to change prices with weather as can be observed with oil prices, which tend to increase every cold season.

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What Qualifies as Good Weather?

What Qualifies as Good Weather?

So what weather can be categorized as “good” weather for businesses? Surely those in Colorado aren’t strangers to weather related issues.

Basically, this will depend on the very nature and location of your business. As explained, wet and hot weather can both spell bad for businesses depending on the circumstances and employee behavior. In some places, like Canada, intense heat is the saving grace for most retail businesses since this drive consumers to seek the comforts of an air-conditioned place and stay there for long periods of time. Other places like Scotland who had its recent fair share of wet days, business has been slow for manufacturers of food and drinks mainly due to lack of recreational activities such as outings and picnics.

In summary, it is better to invest on studies that show how a change in weather correlates and directly affects your business. There is a general trend in season for every business in terms of productivity and sales. Rain might be great for mulch, but it can hamper your business. having knowledge on how the weather can put a damper in your business gives you an edge and thus, gives you an unusual amount of leverage to change or adjust what you can in order for it to have a minimal effect on your bottom line or sales. In fact, installment loan lenders report higher sales during bad weather weeks, probably due to weather-related difficulties.

In effect, you must create your own little sunshine. One that makes your investment grow regardless of where the wind will blow next – literally.

How Weather Affects Mood

How Weather Affects Mood

Every businessman should concern himself with the weather and its possible adverse effects on its employees like:

Possible mood swings. According to a survey conducted by the Associated Press, four out of ten Americans feel depressed whenever the rainy season is approaching, causing companies to seek out services like LTC Tree to improve the health of their employment force. This may be connected to certain scientific studies that states low barometric pressure directly affects mood, making a person sad for no apparent reason.

According to eliteemail.com, a change in season often triggers an illness called Seasonal Affective Disorder wherein an individual afflicted with this condition suffers depression whenever there is a lack of sunlight, which in turn lowers down that person’s productivity. Too much sunlight on the other hand, makes your employee compare himself to a caged animal in hibernation just longing to get out and be free. Seasonal Absence Syndrome is seen as common whenever there are a couple of ‘nice days’ like Spring Break.

Employees cannot help but daydream of the outdoors, hence productivity decreases. To ward off any mood swings due to change of weather, most businesses invest in specific tools in order to manually adjust the working environment. While some companies (e.g. web24.com.au) paint their office in bright colors in order to give an effect of sunshine even in the stormiest weather, others turn to their thermostats to control environmental temperature and try to take their employees’ minds on the weather outside.

Weather and Employee Absenteeism

Weather and Employee Absenteeism

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As said earlier, a company’s overall performance lies solely on its employees’ total output. And since every individual reacts differently to any type of weather, it is pretty hard to convince an employer that weather can have a great effect on his business. Aside from the nuisance a bad weather brings, with its virtually impassable roads and zero road visibility, certain surveys show that nearly ten percent of respondents feel that their productivity tends to decrease with the cold weather.

Furthermore, wholesale companies’ employee absenteeism is seen as the common trend whenever the weather turns for the worse. But this does not mean that warm weather is good for businesses either. Some scientific studies show that the better the weather, the more distracted the employees are – specifically when thoughts of beach, sand and other leisure activities are lingering in the air.

A smart entrepreneur should know that aside from affecting an employee’s work attitude and their business’s production processes, a change in weather conditions can also greatly influence the business’s total output or sales.