Shift worker health and wellbeing
Deliver tailored shift work health and wellbeing support initiatives and programmes
Sophisticated and scalable solutions from shift work health and wellbeing experts
Support shift worker health and wellbeing
Increase labour productivity
Manage shift work risk and compliance
Our experience
Shift worker health and wellbeing is a pressing issue
Shift work is widely known to be hard on the body, the mind and your personal life.
Whilst the science is not settled, a strong association between shift work and a wide variety of health and wellbeing issues has been established.
This growing evidence is leading to increased awareness and scrutiny of how employers are supporting shift worker health and wellbeing.
Failure to act appropriately can lead not just to increased health risks, but also decreased productivity and recruitment and retention challenges.
The scale of the issue makes it likely that shift worker health and wellbeing support will be a focus of future legislative change and potential litigation.
Whilst the market is saturated with ‘wellness’ support, much if it is passive and not tailored to the specific fundamental pressures faced by shift workers.
Likewise, many approaches provide ‘one off’ bursts of activity rather than embedded and sustained programmes of relevant and meaningful support.
optashift helps organisations design and implement a suite of strategic, operational, practical and technical solutions around key components of wellbeing like shift patterns, sleep, nutrition, mental health, physical health and relationships.
Interested in supporting shift worker health and wellbeing?
Schedule a free 30-minute session with one of our shift work health and wellbeing experts who’ll give you valuable feedback and tips.
Shift worker health and wellbeing support delivers huge benefits
Work with our experts to create shift worker health and wellbeing support initiatives and programmes that deliver wide ranging benefits.
Support shift worker health and wellbeing
Our shift work health and wellbeing experts will collaborate with you and your employees to find solutions that support individuals’ health, minimises fatigue, reduces absence improves work-life balance and increases job satisfaction.
In addition to long-term risk mitigation, our shift worker health and wellbeing support underpins safety initiatives and in many cases delivers a significant reduction in sickness absence.
Increase labour productivity
A healthy, motivated and engaged workforce is vital to improve organisational productivity. Likewise shift patterns that fail to align labour supply and demand typically lead to higher overtime and short notice requests for cover.
Working longer hours and disrupting work-life balance can impact shift worker fatigue and morale, which in turn impacts performance.
When deployed alongside optimised shift patterns, our support for shift worker health and wellbeing can help contribute to significant and sustained improvements in productivity.
Manage shift work risk and compliance
There’s a huge body of scientific research indicating that shift work may be a contributing factor in a wide range of health and social issues from cancer, heart disease and dementia to obesity, musculoskeletal conditions, suicide and relationship breakdown.
Prevention is therefore key. This requires employers to take proactive measures and a precautionary approach to remain ahead of legislation.
Our shift worker health and wellbeing support helps you adhere to best practice and remain 100% compliant with legislation.
Looking to support shift worker health and wellbeing whilst improving productivity and managing shift work risk?
Schedule a free 30-minute session with one of our shift work health and wellbeing experts.
Shift worker health & wellbeing support services
optashift is home to the largest collective of shift work health and wellbeing experts in the UK, providing a range of technology-enabled professional services.
For over 30 years our team has been delivering scalable support programmes that are tailored to specific ways of working, workforce demographics and to complement existing HR and occupational health approaches.
We are a purpose-led business that’s solely focused on providing services that improve every aspect of shift work for the benefit of organisations and their shift workers.
Our shift work health and wellbeing experts will help assess your current situation and work out what shift patterns, policies, processes, systems, initiatives and programmes will support shift worker health and wellbeing in your organisation.
You’ll benefit from following optashift’s proven ACE Framework. This unified, data-led and collaborative methodology delivers assessment, transformation and continuous improvement across all aspects of shift work, including shift worker health and wellbeing support.
Analyse
Our shift work health and wellbeing experts will use data and advanced analytics to appraise your current ways of working to identify risk, inform your approach and measure the impact of support on shift worker health and wellbeing.
Create
Develop initiatives and continuous programmes incorporating a wide range of solutions spanning everything from shift patterns, fatigue risk management and human factors to sleep, nutrition mental health, relationships and exercise.
Engage
We help build stakeholder participation in shift worker health and wellbeing solutions through co-design, structured learning resources, training, environmental nudges, interventions and specialist 1-2-1 support for at-risk individuals.
Shift worker health and wellbeing software
Our shift work health and wellbeing experts deploy a range of technology to complement their specialist understanding and operational experience.
These tools provide you with enhanced visibility, efficiency and assurance…but without the need for software contracts, systems integration, configuration and user support.
Use of this software is embedded in our professional services, so you won’t face additional licence, rental or subscription costs to deliver your shift worker health and wellbeing support.
View
This data analytics tool quickly surfaces key insights to identify risk, inform shift work health and wellbeing solutions and measure their impact. The tool includes a Fatigue Risk Index Calculator that can assess the influence of shift patterns and working conditions.
Plan
This software enables the rapid design and comparison of optimised, compliant and wellbeing-supporting shift patterns. It assesses multiple parameters including performance, fatigue risk, wellbeing impact, contractual and legislative compliance.
Hub
This engagement platform helps our experts gather key insights efficiently and securely to inform shift worker health and wellbeing programmes. It also provides a two-way channel to enable the timely delivery of personalised guidance and support.
Want to know more and see these tools in action?
Schedule a session to see how our software could help you with shift worker health and wellbeing support.
Shift worker health and wellbeing experts
Without a dedicated, persistent focus, shift worker health and wellbeing conditions can deteriorate and create significant challenges.
We fully appreciate this is a complex and sensitive area, where necessary change is often slowed by lack of specific focus, evidence, specialist expertise and resistance to change.
The shift work health and wellbeing experts at optashift are some of the most experienced and respected in the UK.
They span a wide set of disciplines including fatigue, Human Factors, HR legal, sleep, nutrition, mental health, workplace design and many other relevant fields.
We work with agility and in partnership with customers, ensuring our support reflects your precise needs…whilst focusing on delivering measurable impact and forging productive stakeholder relationships.
Our experience
Want to speak to an expert about shift worker health and wellbeing support?
Schedule a free 30-minute session with one of our consultants.
FAQ
Q: What is shift worker health and wellbeing?
A: Shift worker health and wellbeing refers to the physical, mental and social health of employees working outside the ‘traditional’ or ‘standard’ nine to five, 5 days a week model (e.g. night shifts, shift rotations, early starts and late finishes).
Organisations need to recognise that the hours (and often roles) of shift workers mean they face unique pressures on sleep, nutrition, fatigue, family life and mental health. This requires tailored support beyond generic ‘wellness’ programmes and wellbeing apps.
Q: How does shift work affect health and life outside work?
A: Shift work can disrupt circadian rhythms, sleep quality, nutrition patterns, mental health and family or social relationships.
Over time the cumulative effects from shift patterns and rotations, hours worked, rest time, environment and the nature of the work undertaken can lead to fatigue and health issues.
Q: Why is shift work health and wellbeing important for employers?
A: There’s growing evidence that shift work is associated with a wide range of health and social issues (e.g. cancer, heart disease, dementia, obesity, suicide and relationship breakdown).
Establishing a precautionary approach and putting in place proactive shift worker health and wellbeing support reduces risk, improves productivity and helps with recruitment and retention.
Q: What outcomes can we expect from supporting shift worker health and wellbeing?
A: In some environments our customers have seen significant reductions in sickness absence and productivity gains, alongside stronger safety performance and employer brand benefits that help them compete in tight labour markets.
Q: Could failing to support shift worker health and wellbeing create legal risks?
A: Yes. The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 means employers are obliged to assess the risks to employees from work activities and make a commitment to introduce measures that are reasonably practicable to remove or control these risks.
Some legal professionals are also drawing parallels between shift work health and wellbeing issues with ‘greenwashing’. They believe organisations which don’t manage foreseeable risks or that promote unsubstantiated ESG claims could face regulatory action or civil litigation in the future.
Q: What is ‘wellbeing washing’ and how does it relate to shift work?
A: ‘Wellbeing washing’ is when organisations promote their health and wellbeing credentials publicly, but fail to back them up with adequate support for employees.
As awareness of shift work health and wellbeing grows, stakeholders and regulators are likely to closely scrutinise gaps between ESG claims and the lived experience of shift workers.
This means it’s vital to deliver specific, tailored and sustained support for shift worker health and wellbeing.
Q: How do you measure the impact of shift work health and wellbeing initiatives?
A: optashift uses our shift | View analytics system to capture, track and evaluate interventions across physical and mental health, sleep, nutrition and a range of other variables.
These data insights support the design of effective initiatives and programmes, employee engagement, continuous improvement, evaluation and ESG reporting.
Q: Does shift worker health and wellbeing support replace HR or occupational health?
A: No. optashift’s programmes complement existing HR and occupational health approaches.
We blend specialist expertise in multiple shift work health and wellbeing disciplines with data analytics, fatigue risk management, shift pattern design and operational understanding to accelerate progress and de-risk delivery.
Book a session with a shift work expert
When it comes to shift worker health and wellbeing, sometimes it’s easier just to ask an expert.
We offer a free, confidential and informal 30-minute consultation call with one the experts at optashift who has decades’ of experience in shift worker health and wellbeing support.
They will use a checklist to provide a quick remote appraisal your situation.
You will then receive a tailored and prioritised summary of recommendations within 24 hours of the call.
Use this form to secure a free shift worker health and wellbeing session with one of our experts.