After halts to travel for so long, the travel industry has welcomed a return to normality, but with train strikes scheduled and flight cancellations becoming a regular issue, it’s causing chaos for businesses, as employees are struggling, or unable, to get into work.

In this blog, we’ll look at what can be done to prevent travel disruption from having a major impact on your business.

Strikes

Although massively inconvenient for many, train companies have given advance notice of scheduled rail strikes, so businesses have a chance to put a contingency plan in place to mitigate disruption.

Switching to working from home on affected days, instead of attempting the journey to work, is the most obvious choice and something that has become much more routine as a result of the pandemic.

But if working from home isn’t an option, employees can look into other routes, or modes of transport, and discuss any issues with their employer. Businesses then have a chance to respond by rearranging working patterns to avoid the risk of last minute absences on strike day.

How to manage working from home

If your staff are struggling to get into work due to travel disruption, LeavePlanner can make managing working from home schedules simple, as administrators can specify employee working hours, working patterns and rotas.

Cancellations

Unexpected flight cancellations and staff not being able to return home when they were meant to, will undoubtedly cause problems, unless they had booked extra annual leave at the end of their trip.

Working from home (or ‘hotel’ in this case!) would only be practical if employees have access to the right equipment and facilities. Unless it’s a business trip, it’s unlikely they’ve tried to squeeze their laptop into their hand luggage.

Employers may need to arrange last minute cover for the unexpected absence, to minimise disruption to their business.

On the flip side, if a cancelled flight means the employee is unable to go on holiday, they may wish to cancel their annual leave entitlement at short notice and rearrange their holiday for another time. Employers should be prepared to be flexible, where possible, to maintain good working relationships with their staff.

How to manage staff absences

If your staff are experiencing strikes or cancellations and are unable to work, LeavePlanner can help manage shift timetables to get cover staff.

With LeavePlanner, it’s easy to maintain the correct staffing levels, by managing holiday and staff absences. It’s also straightforward to manage any last minute cancellations or changes to holiday requests.

To arrange your 30-day free trial of our absence management software, call Steve on 01252 636 070 or email support@leaveplanner.com.