The first Sleep and Recovery toolkit for employers, to help their employees get a better night’s sleep and boost productivity, has been launched by Business in the Community (BITC).
Sleep deprivation is a growing public health issue, with one in three people in the UK affected by insomnia. Living in a 24/7 “always on” society, as well as the impacts of physical and mental health issues and the stresses of modern life, means many people’s sleep is more disrupted than a few decades ago. A lack of sleep is increasingly being linked to high blood pressure, heart disease and diabetes, and raises the risk of accident and injury.
But sleep is not just critical to health, it essential for maintaining cognitive skills such as communicating well, remembering key information, and being creative and flexible in thought. This is important for employers, especially as sleep deprivation results in 200,000 working days lost every year, costing the UK economy £30 billion.
From an employer’s perspective, the benefits of a healthy workforce are clear. Healthy staff are more productive, take less time off sick and don’t need to retire early. According to BITC, by using this toolkit employers can begin reversing the national decline in sleep.
It highlights both the business and moral case for adequate, good quality sleep and recovery. It includes a checklist of actions for employers to take, under the broad themes of being prepared, encouraging good sleep and recovery, and providing knowledge and training.
Creating an understanding environment, where employees can be open with their managers about any sleep-related issues that are hampering them at work, is central to the toolkit.
Dr Justin Varney, national lead for adult health and wellbeing at Public Health England, said: “This toolkit contains lots of simple steps for employers of all sizes and sectors to take in supporting better sleep for staff and reducing or preventing work being the cause of sleep deprivation. It’s designed to support leaders, practitioners and line managers to create a workplace culture in which employees understand the need for sleep and recovery, as one strand of an integrated approach to maximising employee health and wellbeing.”
There are minimum legal requirements and obligations on employers – they have a legal duty to manage risks from fatigue and sleep deprivation, irrespective of any individual’s willingness to work extra hours or preference for certain shift patterns. Compliance with the Working Time Regulations alone is not enough to manage the risks of fatigue.
Business in the Community wellbeing director Louise Aston added: “It is critical for organisations to understand the impact of sleep and recovery for the health and wellbeing of employees, and the implications for productivity. Sleep is still a largely neglected taboo topic for employers fearing they are crossing the line between work and peoples’ personal lives by even talking about it with employees. Gone are the days when it was in fashion to survive with five or six hours sleep. This toolkit is a great resource for employers to help people start talking about this issue.”
