Preventing Worksite Fatigue

According to a recent survey by the National Safety Council, 32% of reported injuries and near-misses are due to fatigued employees.

If your employees are working 12-hour shifts, seven days a week strongly contribute to incidents and fatigue. Another culprit is assigning workers to the night shift indefinitely and not giving workers adequate number of hours off between shifts. Rotating shifts is a best practice that entails scheduling a worker for the night shift for two weeks and then giving them time off and then scheduling for day shifts for two weeks.  

Employers could also implement the 12-hour rule: making sure employees have 12 hours off between shifts.

Controlling the boredom factor is another best practice. For those employees with monotonous work tasks, consider rotating the tasks that are being performed.  By doing this you cut down on the chances of fatigue.

Look at your worksite practices and see if you can implement changes to cut down on worksite fatigue that leads to injuries and near-miss accidents.

Source:  Business Insurance