Some recruiters are seeing a fillip to business as snow falls across the UK, as employers either attempt to re-deploy staff or turn to temporary workers.

But despite major delays, cancellations and disruption, infrastructure providers have not taken on extra staff – both Heathrow Airport and Network Rail tell Recruiter that they have not bought in any temporary staff to deal with the conditions and prevent disruption.

Today, Heathrow Airport is re-deploying around 200 head office staff into customer service roles within their terminals, and asked whether agency staff would be bought in to handle disruption in the terminals or on the ground, a spokesperson said “usually there wouldn’t be, no”.

A spokesman at Network Rail tells Recruiter: “We have contingency plans in place for a number of things – the railway requires that we have people on standby at all times, and a lot of that work is unknown.” In terms of its staffing, snow is “no different from anything else”, he added.

But no agency workers would be used. “It’s certainly challenging and there will be people rota-ed in on a very short notice but that is the nature of the railway,” the spokesperson concluded.

Additionally, Oxford City Council has not taken on extra staff to clear and grit roads. “It will be dealt with through existing staff,” a spokesperson tells Recruiter. The same is true at the London Borough of Sutton.

Pete Taylor, operations director for the industrial and driving divisions of temp agency Encore Personnel, says that a number of the firm’s industrial and driving & logistics clients have needed “extra staff to cover due to their own employees not being able to make it into work”.

Some extra demand from drivers has come because “the routes are taking longer to cover so need more vehicles on the roads to get through the workload”.

Taylor adds: “In previous years we have also had requests from clients in the worst affected areas asking for drivers to help out, being put up in local accommodation, to help get through the backlog of work.”

Sutton Coldfield supply teaching agency Aspire People had a total of 192 cover staff working in schools on Friday, despite hundreds of schools across the Midlands being closed due to poor weather. Director and owner Michaela Powell described the situation: "It has been manic since 6.30 this morning. Not only have we had to inform staff of school closures but re-direct them to schools that need cover.”

With offices in London and Bristol, executive assistant and secretarial recruiter Tiger Recruitment has not had demand from clients looking for temporary staff looking to cover for employees unable to get to work. Owner David Morel said that the bigger difficulty was their workers not being able to get into work, although he said clients “are being very understanding”.

Meanwhile, a phone call on Friday [18 January] from Recruiter asking for comment from Leeds firm The Gritting Company was turned down by a hurried-sounding employee, who said “it’s just too busy at the moment, I’m sorry”.

No such work for The Gritting Company at Griffin Park stadium in West London, home of Brentford Football Club. More than 150 fans – two of whom were from visiting team Tranmere – spent two hours clearing the pitch and stadium following an appeal on Twitter, allowing the game to go ahead. Those two travelling fans were rewarded with a 2-1 win.

• Let us know how the snow is affecting your business this week. Post your comments below or drop us an email.