There are inherent necessities and business advantages to running an operation 24 hours, 7 days a week. However, there are also significant downsides and hidden costs of shift worker fatigue that often go unnoticed. 

Do you know how much your bottom line is impacted by the lost productivity and cost inefficiencies of running a 24-hour operation?

CIRCADIAN® estimates the hidden cost of shift worker fatigue is about $15,000 per year per shift worker.

Are you running a plant with 100 shift workers? That means your operation is paying a $1.5 million “shift work fatigue tax” every year. 

Even as staggering as this estimate may seem, it does not represent all excess costs of shift worker fatigue. For example, this figure excludes the costs of legal judgments, accident and injury settlements, or the costs of defending them.  In addition, it does not include brand value depreciation costs associated with negative events that hit newsfeeds.

The 6 Contributors to the $15,000 Shift Worker Fatigue Cost

Relying on its proprietary data, independent research, and a review of third-party research studies, CIRCADIAN® estimates that the incremental cost related to shift-work fatigue to employers  comes from 

by five key cost components: 

1 - Lost Productivity ($5,732 in excess cost per employee per year):  

Did you know human performance and relative productivity decrease by 5%-15% at night?

2 - Absenteeism ($3,641 in excess cost per employee per year): 

Shift workers are more than twice as likely to be absent from work than daytime employees. 

4 - Turnover ($2,825 in excess cost per employee per year):

Turnover rates are three times higher at shiftwork operations than at day-only operations.

5 - Health Care ($2,046 in excess cost per employee per year): 

Shift workers are at a greater risk for sleep apnea, heart disease, mental health disorders, and obesity than daytime workers.

6 - Accidents & Workers Compensation ($613 in excess cost per employee per year): 

Shift workers account for 20% more insurance claims and related other costs than their daytime counterparts.

Stop Paying the $15,000 Annual Shift Worker Fatigue Tax!

Shift worker fatigue, once an unrecognized cost, is now an opportunity.  Once a company identifies and benchmarks the excess costs associated with shiftwork, a great opportunity for savings presents itself. Customized countermeasures can be put in place through fatigue management policies and procedures. Making strategic decisions and adjustments to your company’s programs and policies will help drive down shiftwork-related costs and at the same time, they will enhance the safety, health, and productivity of your workforce. 

If you have any questions on how to drive down the excess costs of shift-work at your operation, we’d be happy to help.  

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