Tackling Workers’ Fatigue in Construction Industry

Managers who drive regularly are at serious risk of driver fatigue. In one worker group it was assessed that two thirds of managers who drove in excess of 2.5 hours a day had felt drowsy whilst driving at least a few times a month. 33% of that group had had a near miss due to fatigue.

Managers cannot be expected to function at optimal levels on the back of poor quality and short sleep. We expect managers to make important decisions in fast-moving situations. The accuracy of decisions will decline as fatigue increases. In the best-case scenario this adds time and cost to a project. It’s easy to imagine a host of worst-case scenarios.

The construction industry has done some great work trying to tackle mental health. But if your staff are fatigued they are more prone to poor mental health and the risk of burnout increases.

Fatigue causes

There is no silver bullet. You need a methodical approach. This should start with a baseline assessment to understand the extent, impact and causes of tiredness and fatigue. From there you can amend policies, run education programmes, train key managers and look at other possible interventions.

In the organisation where we saw a risk of driver fatigue the site manager immediately introduced a policy for managers with long commutes whereby the company would pay for up to two nights of accommodation in a local hotel if that employee felt it would help them obtain better quality rest.

Running educational sessions for construction workers and managers is a great way to raise awareness and give staff the knowledge they need to make informed decisions around sleep and find better diagnosis and treatment pathways to address serious sleep issues. This is commonly done in conjunction with existing services such as occupational health and employee assistance programmes.

We’ve even seen initiatives such as banning energy drinks from canteens and providing decaf tea and coffee options in kitchenettes. There are free tools which can help identify shifts where the risk of fatigue increases. They are not perfect but are helpful and widely used.

Changing the industry culture is going to take some time but if we want better decisions, fewer errors, better physical and mental health as well as reduced burnout then it’s a path worth heading down.