Fighting Fatigue
The cost of occupational fatigue and a wellness benefit solution.
- By Janelle Kinnaird
- Jul 14, 2023
Over two-thirds of your employees feel tired during the workday, according to a workplace fatigue survey report by the National Safety Council1. Ok, so they’re tired. What exactly does that mean? How does fatigue hurt you and your company? And how can you improve employee energy?
Tired at Work
According to the NSC, fatigue is described as “the feelings of tiredness, sleepiness, reduced energy and increased effort needed to perform tasks at a desired level.” When tired, your employees don’t think as clearly, don’t make informed decisions easily or quickly, get distracted and lose focus more, slow down and are less productive.
Fatigue is a cognitive impairment affecting how we think as well as our attention level, memory, concentration, impulse control and more. Ninety-seven percent of respondents reported
decreased cognitive performance while at work — 97 percent!
Of course, this leads to performance impairment as tired workers are 6 percent less productive. And it’s dangerous as 16 percent reported at least one safety incident due to fatigue and 13 percent of workplace injuries can be attributed to fatigue.
Lost Cost
Fatigue in the workplace costs U.S. companies $136 billion each year in health-related lost productivity2. Eighty-four percent or $114.24 billion was due to presenteeism — reduced performance level while at work. So while the cost of absenteeism, depression and anxiety from fatigue is significant, the bulk of the cost is from cognitive impairment (remember that 97 percent you just read).
Fatigued workers lose an average 2.3 hours of productive time a week more than non-fatigued workers. In fact, one single employee experiencing daily fatigue can cost an employer $3,500 a year in lost productivity, absenteeism, and increased healthcare costs1. For a company that employs 1,000 workers, that adds up to $3.5 million for every year that it is not managed or reduced.
Why So Tired?
Studies and surveys report a few factors that lead to fatigue. The most recent NSC report1 looked at nine risk factors that contribute, such as working night shifts, long shifts, overtime and mentally demanding jobs. While optimizing shift scheduling to allow for sufficient time off between shift changes can help, companies are not in control of what their workers do off the clock to make sure they get needed sleep.