Are My Employees Fatigued? Fatigue Explained and Simple Ways to Prevent it

worker-fatigue

Worker fatigue is a serious issue that can reduce an employee’s ability to perform daily tasks safely and effectively. In particular, business owners and managers with a mobile workforce and shift rostering may be subject to increased risk of fatigue in their workers, perhaps without even realising it.

We’ve put together some ways you can help prevent and combat worker fatigue in your workplace. But first, let's define what fatigue actually is.

What is fatigue?

Fatigue is more than just being tired or experiencing sleepiness. Fatigue is more of a constant and consistent state of exhaustion either physical, mental, or both – and may have many contributing factors, including lifestyle factor, emotional concerns, medical reasons or work stress.

Fatigue in the workplace is not only a serious condition – it is also common, with around 1.5 million Australians see their doctor about fatigue¹. The effects of fatigue can impact a worker’s:

Ability to focus on tasks
Ability to make decisions
Ability to think strategically
Communication skills
Ability to handle workplace stress

Worker fatigue can significantly increase the risk of a compliance breach or increase risk of a workplace accident.

Are your workers fatigued?

Looking at the factors that can directly contribute to work stress is a good place to start. Certain work demands, when left unregulated, can greatly increase risk of worker fatigue. These include:

Physical or mental exertion of the tasks at hand
Night shift
Lack of recovery between shifts
Too many hours worked in a period of time
Travel and commuting
Severe or harsh weather that is cold and wet, or extreme heat

Then, there are the visible signs, which may include:

chronic tiredness that is not improved by sleep
reduced hand-eye coordination or slow reflexes, and impaired vision
short term memory problems and an inability to concentrate
moodiness and irritability
frequent sickness or impaired immune system
lack of motivation

Managing fatigue in your workplace

If you have a mobile workforce and don't see your workers on a daily or even weekly basis, it can be difficult to monitor the health of your employees and assess fatigue correctly. Here are some recommendations to ensure the health, safety and happiness of your workers when it comes to managing fatigue.

Create a fatigue management policy

Create a fatigue risk management policy that identifies potential risks for fatigue in your workplace and how to prevent them. Ensure your workers and crew leaders comply accordingly and take the appropriate responsibilities to also manage their own fatigue. Including 'I have read and understood {your company's} Fatigue Management Policy' as a checkbox in your SWMS is a good way to ensure all workers understand this policy.

Reduce commute time

Often workers will need to work extended hours or in another location. One way of reducing fatigue for workers in remote locations is to provide appropriate accommodation and LAFHA allowances. For daily commutes, another way to mitigate the risks associated with a long commute time is with a scheduling tool such as Alloc8, which lets you sort your available workers by who lives closest to the job, reducing travel time and also your own costs associated with travel allowances.

Educate workers on fatigue

Regularly highlight the importance of fatigue management to workers and ensure they are up to date on your fatigue management policy. Provide your workers with content about the important of taking breaks and looking after their health both during and outside of work, such as these great resources from WorkSafe Victora. Make fatigue awareness prominent in your workplace and encourage workers to look out for signs of fatigue in the people they with.

Provide a break area

Where possible, provide a sheltered break or rest area for your workers. An allocated break area will also encourage workers to take their breaks. Stay compliant and ensure your workers are taking their whole break with digital timesheets that are signed by both your team leader and client on a job.

Safeguard your scheduling

Ensure you allow enough time between shifts for your workers to recover, and get across how many hours your employees have worked in a daily or weekly period with Alloc8. When you schedule a worker, you will be instantly notified if you are breaching the hours or work or minimum break time set out in the NES, specific award or EBA. These notifications can also be customised to lock you out entirely from scheduling a worker if you are breaching these rules.

To learn more about how you can use workforce scheduling software to prevent fatigue, book a demo with us today.

References

Topics: health and safety