Improving Health, Safety, and Profits in Extended Hours Operations (Shiftwork)

Abstract

Circadian Technologies, Inc. (CIRCADIAN) is an international consulting firm that for over 20 yr has helped employees better cope with shiftwork, while ensuring their employers reduce costs and maximize profits. This paper describes two of the methods employed to reduce accidents, absenteeism, and turnover, while improving morale and productivity in extended hour operations (shiftwork). Shiftworkers rarely receive on-the-job training to help them cope better with the rigors of working nights, evenings, and early mornings. A pre-and post-training study by CIRCADIAN demonstrated improvements in health and fatigue indices, and an increase in daytime sleep length. Companies who provide shiftwork lifestyle training also have lower rates of absenteeism and turnover compared to companies that do not provide training. The second intervention described in this paper is a novel method of shift scheduling. There are thousands of potential schedules, so how does a company choose the best schedule for their facility? The answer lies in allowing employees to be involved in the process of selection. This results in a workforce that experiences less fatigue, turnover and absenteeism, and higher morale.

Sleep Patterns, Work, and Strain among Young Students in Hospitality and Tourism

“…Increased working hours for the entire week were associated with increased strain for the best friend, whereas prolonged working hours during the weekend were correlated with more strain for family life and peers 7,17,18) . These results suggest a differentiated impact of work schedules on social life with a variety of social responsibilities and commitments being affected.…”

“…About 41% of shift workers found it difficult to fulfil domestic responsibilities in terms of finding a satisfying work and family balance 17) . Social measures such as personal disruption to the partner (e.g., difficulties to cope with marital/partner problems; difficulties to cope with daily family hassles; separation; divorce) rather than biological measures (i.e., blood pressure; heart rate) were the greatest predictors of the shift workers' personal disruption and well-being [18][19][20] .…”

“…Finally, despite the close association between sleep disorders and psychiatric conditions such as anxiety and depression, these factors have not been systematically measured in research into sleep disturbances and working conditions. Scientific research into the relationship between sleep and work has been conducted with representative populations 12) in a variety of occupational areas including white collar workers 2,3,5,9,10,24) , care workers 25) , and workers in heavy industry 17,26) . However, such scientific efforts have generally failed to focus on one of the largest employment sectors providing 24/7 service -that of hospitality and tourism.…”

“…(3) We assumed that subjectively judged sleep quality and mood would better predict affective states such as depressive symptoms and anxiety than the mere amount of sleeping and working hours 2) . (4) We hypothesized that prolonged working hours and weekend work would be correlated with increased strain upon social life 7,8,17,18) . (5) We predicted that strain at work would be negatively associated with sleep quality 11,12) and favourable sleep-related personality traits.…”

Changing the Waveform of Circadian Rhythms: Considerations for Shift-Work

“…An estimated 17–60% of Americans work outside the regular daytime shift (Rosekind, 2005; McMenamin, 2007), resulting in annual costs exceeding $200 billion (Kerin and Aguirre, 2005). This estimate includes two cost categories: first, due to the mismatch between work schedule and alertness, night work carries an increased incidence of injuries, accidents, and errors compared to day work (Mitler et al, 1988; Folkard and Tucker, 2003); second, due to the physiological consequences of dysrhythmia, including mistimed sleep and/or light exposure, shift-work results in serious deficits in health (Costa, 1996) including increased cancer risk (Hansen, 2001; Costa et al, 2010).…”