In this modern society, shift work is becoming increasingly popular as we are now living in a ‘24/7 society’. Businesses stay open around the clock, 7 days a week and people are also travelling across times zones to do business 24 hours a day. It is therefore necessary, for a 24/7 organisation to understand the impact of shift work and how to overcome any negative effects.

So why does shift work have negative effects?

An article in the BBC website outlines why shift work has so many negative effects (see link at end of document). Every human being has a cycle of response or internal body clock that covers a 24 hour period that determines our daily activities such as sleeping, alertness, eating and so on. Shift work can disrupt these natural bodily rhythms which can lead to problems such as lack of sleep and poor job performance.

In the BBC article, there are strategies and practical advice provided for shift workers to help reduce the impact of the negative effects of shift work such as techniques to promote sleep, diet, stimulants and sedatives, lifestyle and so on.

This article also contains information and advice for employers on good practice guidelines and improving the shift work environment based on HSE guidance such as information about rotation of shifts, speed of rotation, rest times and breaks and so on.

A further step that MindMill suggests is to complete our assessment called the Biological Adaptation to Night and Day Scenarios (BANDS). This is an assessment of biorhythms and body clock. These assessments are useful to identify what time of day an individual works best (morning/evening), whether they need routine in their job role or if they can be quite flexible, and it also assesses whether an individual is building up a large sleep debt on a regular occurrence. Once awareness of personal adaptation styles becomes apparent, occupational choices can be made with them in mind.  

The BANDS measure is unique amongst any suite/battery of tests in the occupational sphere in terms of according information about physical disposition and biorhythms of the individual.

We can use this assessment in combination with the MindMill personality and cognitive assessments to help identify various needs within an organization, including what time of day employees work best, which individuals are more suited to shift work and it can also be used to predict levels of absenteeism and ultimately find ways to reduce absenteeism.

If you would like to find out more about this contact us today.

To find out more information on shift work for both employees and employers follow the link below for the full BBC article.

source

http://www.bbc.co.uk/safety/default.aspxpage4773.shtml

by Arlene Mc Gurk