The entire continental United States is in the middle of an early cold snap. In 32 years, I have never seen a Pensacola November as cold as this one. And, so today I ordered chicken soup for lunch.
Last winter was tough on most of us. And, Americans ordered soup. In fact, in February 2014, Campbell Soup reported a 71 percent increase in their quarterly profit. Overall, American soup sales rose 5 percent during that fiscal quarter. Soup is one of our cold weather strategies.
How do cold temperatures impact your business or organization?
I found an interesting report from Cornell University that addressed an area that we ought to consider: the thermostat in the work space. The Cornell researchers found that when the temperature was low (68 degrees), employees doing keyboard entries made 44% more errors and were less productive than when the work space temperature was warm (77 degrees). Their results were true when the weather was cold and the heating was kept low and when the weather was warm and the air conditioning was set at the 68 degree level.
After reading their report, I thought about the number of times I have seen office workers sitting near (or in some cases, on) individual space heaters. Those space heaters are operating summer and winter, daily increasing power costs.
And, space heaters bring significant risk. The National Fire Protection Association reported that “heating equipment was involved in an estimated 53,600 reported U.S. home structure fires, with associated losses of 400 civilian deaths, 1,520 civilian injuries, and $893 million in direct property damage. These fires accounted for 14% of all reported home fires.” (2012 statistics)
So, during cold weather, is it more cost effective for you to turn up the heat or to take the hit in power costs, accuracy and productivity?
Let’s talk about it over a cup of soup!
Do not take advantage of a hired worker who is poor and needy. (Deuteronomy 24:14)
Dr. Carla Jill Stein 