Increasingly, there is a demand for people to work flexible or varied shift patterns beyond the so-called ‘standard work day’. While there have always been roles with a ‘night shift’ there is not always a clear cut shift swap from day to night. Whether ‘night work’ refers to shifts that start in the afternoon and stretch into the night, or entirely night shifts, to adapt to the 24 hour demands of our society; all work that spans into the night needs to be considered with care from a Safety, Health and Wellbeing standpoint. Anyone who is working some form of night shifts will have to be included in the standard Health and Safety concerns for your workplace, plus the additional requirements to maintain their physical and mental health when working within night-time hours. You must also consider whether working at night also includes Lone Working, which opens up further considerations.

By law, night shift hours are defined as the period between 11pm and 6am and an employee is considered to be working a ‘night shift’ if they regularly work at least 3 hours within this timeframe. 

At a glance, simple reporting, so you know who is at risk.

Firstly, how are you currently identifying your night workers? Could you pull up a list right now, on your phone, without asking anyone else to produce it for you?

If you can’t, how long would it take to find out? What are the risks in not knowing who your night workers are?

Removing  guesswork and reducing administration

The Inform People platform can make it extremely easy to formally record who is a ‘night worker’ and report on their role and location. It’s as simple as setting up a required question for every account on the system: ‘Will this employee work nights?’ to be answered by their manager either on account set up or within their first working day. 

It could be that the business that you run has ad-hoc optional night shifts that you also want to be prepared for – it is better to get everything set up in advance and have all bases covered in case certain roles need to work a night shift in future too. 

Or you can capture their night working status with their Job Title, if you have a differentiation in your Payroll setup such as General Assistant and General Assistant (Nights). 

Once this is completed and they are clearly identified as a Night Worker, this status can be used to trigger all other night work related health and safety and compliance actions – plus it can be reported on instantly from anywhere. 

So – now you know who is identified as a night worker, what else do you need to record, teach or share?

People are affected by working at night in a variety of ways as it can take its toll both physically and mentally, depending on the demands of the role and regularity that shifts take place within this window. Those who only sometimes work nights are likely to be less affected than those who are on a consistent night shift. 

To be prepared as an employer of night shift staff, you should have every employee starting a night shift complete a Night Worker Health Assessment – and should repeat this with some regularity to keep track of any developments. 

These health assessments can take the format of a Review – where questions are answered quickly by the employee – with the option to expand on their answers if additional information is required. Then Managers get to review their feedback and ensure that company protocols are being followed with regard to any issues that are raised. These questionnaires can be completed as frequently as your internal Health and Safety policies require and build up a long term record, stored against each of your people’s profiles. 

Is there information that is only pertinent to your night teams?

Policies are often signed off when your employees join the company, but when you write updates are you re-issuing them to be approved again? Are they incorporated into your company handbook? Does this mean that non-night workers have to reference content and policies that aren’t relevant to them?

By bringing your Health, Safety and Wellbeing policies online with Inform People you can filter who they are assigned to and make sure that any updates are clearly communicated. You can also set annual (or more frequent) refreshes for the information that needs to be regularly reviewed and kept front-of-mind to remain compliant. 

Delivering your company information with Memos, Surveys, Courses and Policies (MSCP) and the flexibility of Pathways will ensure that everyone is on the same page with their understanding of hours limits, breaks, health risks and avenues for support. Engagement and approval of these documents can be monitored centrally through built-in platform reporting and custom manual reporting provided by Inform People’s client managers. 

Miscellaneous information now has a place other than the back of a filing cabinet.

With scores of information that might be relevant to your night teams, some of which will be their emergency contact information or proof of certifications, you need a direct way of sharing it. These documents can be stored against their personal profile (or location files depending on relevance) for easy access by their management, whether they are also onsite or working remotely. 

Risk Assessments for Night Work workplaces

Due to the additional risks that come with working through the night, there are additional considerations about the working environments that need to be configured and checked. These can include the ergonomics of the workspace so that all risk of injury is reduced and comfort is promoted. Regular audits can be undertaken by responsible team members or managers to make sure that the adjustable lighting is up to standard etc. Audits can be automatically scheduled and set to your own rating system so that they match any previous procedures in place. They then generate an always available catalogue of every audit undertaken, who completed it, and the score achieved. Follow-on tasks can also be assigned so that those responsible for fixing anything are alerted through their own VPA. 

 

It’s possible to convert any regular checklists into the Audit format too, and they can be set to only be completed by Night Shift Workers, if that is part of their roles and responsibilities.

With the right tools, anything is possible

Ensuring that your night teams are safe, secure, respected and protected is the responsibility of every employee. Inform People can provide the technological backbone to ensuring that your Health and Safety procedures are accessible, easy to complete, and rigorous as knowing what is happening is essential to running a business that can be trusted by your employees and clientele alike. 

Interested in converting your current processes into the streamlined Inform People compliance and performance management platform? Get in touch with us via email, phone or by booking into our demonstration calendar.