Weather Disruption Is Now a Workforce Issue. Here’s How HR Leaders Can Build Resilience

New research from Upwork’s Future Workforce Index shows nearly half of knowledge workers missed work because of a weather event in 2024, costing companies billions. It’s time for HR to lead a new model of climate-adaptive workforce planning.

In early 2024, wildfires ravaged parts of Los Angeles, halting operations for many businesses. While the focus was understandably on safety and recovery, another important question emerged for business leaders: How do we ensure continuity when climate-related disruptions become the norm?

New data from Upwork’s Future Workforce Index, a survey of 3,000 knowledge workers and 500+ U.S. executives, found that 45% of professionals had to miss work due to a weather event in the last 12 months. Five percent of workers, particularly those concentrated in the southeast region that may remember the devastation left behind by hurricanes Helene and Milton last fall, have had to miss a week or more.

That’s not a blip—it’s a signal. Weather-related disruption is no longer rare; it’s a recurring operational risk. Yet fewer than 1 in 3 companies have any formal strategy to address it.

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 Knowledge Work Is Not Immune

Extreme weather is often associated with its impact on physical infrastructure or frontline labor. But our data shows that knowledge workers are also feeling the effects. They may not be on factory floors or construction sites, but they are equally vulnerable to outages, evacuations, and service disruptions.

In a work landscape already defined by uncertainty, these climate-related disruptions compound the risks to talent engagement, wellbeing, and productivity.

The Hidden Cost of Disruption

Despite growing awareness, most organizations lack a formal playbook for climate-induced work disruption. Few account for weather risks in their annual operating plans. Even fewer build distributed teams with the intent to diversify geographic risk.

Previous research has explored the cost of weather events to businesses, with the impact of supply chain disruptions and infrastructure damage adding up quickly. But there is clearly a productivity cost as well. Even just the 5% of workers experiencing prolonged weather-related absences are costing organizations 1.4 to 1.6 billion dollars per impacted day– resulting in up to 8 billion dollars of lost productivity for each week of missed work.¹ And this does not even begin to factor in additional costs associated with worker stress and other mental health effects that natural disasters can cause. And yet still, fewer than 1 in 3 (31%) U.S. companies have implemented a clear strategy for addressing weather-related disruption to work.

Strategies for Climate-Resilient Work Models

Leading organizations are moving beyond emergency response. They are embedding resilience into their workforce planning by:

• Scenario modeling and proactive planning: accounting for days of potential missed work due to natural disasters to ensure business continuity in annual operating plans. For instance, if a portion of a company’s workforce is located in the hurricane belt, there are days when their lives and work are likely disrupted. While companies cannot control hurricanes, they can plan for them.
• Geographic distribution of teams: maintaining a distributed team across geography so that critical work can continue even if one region is impacted.
• Human-first contingency plans: establishing clear lines of communication for affected employees, so they receive the information and support they need.
• Flexible work infrastructure: investing in robust remote systems and cross-functional teams to pivot quickly, and connect people with resources.
• Community engagement: participating in programs that support local recovery efforts and promote long-term resilience.

Ideally, these are not standalone practices, but extensions of their existing cultures and operations. For instance, companies with supportive cultures at the outset can extend those cultures into their natural disaster response efforts. Companies with operating models that are built with agility in mind so that people, teams and workflows can easily pivot in the face of adversity can extend that agility to include how they respond to work disruption due to weather events. But even companies that are not operating from these starting points are affected by this issue, and they’re going to need to act.

Why the Right Talent Matters

 As the Future Workforce Index reveals, resilience today requires more than backup servers and business continuity plans. HR leaders need to think holistically about talent—how to support workers during crisis, and how to recruit the experts who can help build adaptive systems before the next disaster hits.

To build real resilience, businesses must combine environmental and operational intelligence with workforce psychology. That means hiring not just “green” talent, but professionals who understand how people work best under pressure and how systems adapt during disruption.

These capabilities are already in high demand across roles in sustainability, emergency response, business continuity, and organizational development. The organizations that embed this expertise today will be far better equipped to navigate what’s ahead.

 The Bottom Line

With nearly 1 in 2 knowledge workers impacted by weather-related absences, business leaders can no longer treat climate events as isolated incidents. This is a recurring operational risk that demands a permanent place on the executive agenda.

Resilience must become a core competency. That means building flexibility into infrastructure, agility into processes, and empathy into culture. The companies that act now won’t just reduce risk, they’ll gain a competitive edge in the future of work.

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About the Authors

This guest article was co-authored by Dr. Teng Liu , Research Manager and Economist of Upwork  and Dr. Gabby Burlacu , Senior Research Manager of Upwork.