While overseeing the health of shift workers and those working in
remote locations can present an organizational challenge,
attention to detail can keep these employees in the loop.
Along drive along an empty highway, two evening sales calls, an early night at “Motel Nowhere,” then back on the road at five in the morning. Time for a healthy meal and some exercise? Maybe some other day.
When employees work outside the standard organizational grid (on a shift schedule, at a remote location, on the road or at home), they face unique health challenges. By the same token, parent companies may find it more difficult to keep such workers abreast of company health offerings. Communication, access and monitoring barriers may all conspire to keep off-grid workers out of the organizational health loop.
Ten per cent of Canadian employees do all or some of their work at home and our country’s sprawling distances keep many workers on the road for long stretches of time. Close to three out of every ten Canadians work on a shift, defined as “a period of work performed outside of what is considered normal working hours.” Rotational shifts, in which individual employees work different blocks of time on different days, compound the challenge of keeping shift workers healthy and well rested.
Impact on health
There’s no way around it: shift work puts a strain on both body and mind. The risk of obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes and cardiovascular disease is higher in shift workers, a phenomenon some researchers attribute to the hormonal and metabolic disruptions that occur when sleep/wake and fasting/feeding cycles are at odds with the natural human biological clock. Evening shifts have been linked with psychological distress, and one study found the risk of breast cancer increased by 60% in women working the night shift, possibly because of impaired production of the hormone melatonin (that regulates estrogen and acts as an antioxidant).
“Some people tolerate shift work well, but many have trouble falling and staying asleep, others have digestive problems and still others get more frequent and long-lasting colds and flus,” says Brenda De Jong, a senior organizational health consultant with Hewitt Associates.
Shift work can also wreak havoc with nutrition, says De Jong, who encountered many shift workers in her former career as an occupational health nurse. “When you’re on a different schedule from most of the world, it’s tempting to eat on the fly rather than prepare and eat balanced meals,” she explains. “I’ve experienced this myself.”
Remote workers face their own set of problems. Kirsten Watson, a subway superintendent at the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC), counts smoking, poor diet and prolonged sitting as three of the top health issues among the TTC’s 5,000 vehicle operators. “They can smoke more freely than in-house employees because they have fewer people watching them,” notes Watson. And as a male-dominated group, “they’re not lining up to see their doctors.”
For people who work at home, the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety has flagged workstation design and social isolation as potential health concerns.
Organizational challenges
Communicating with a scattered workforce presents a real challenge to the TTC, Watson concedes. “Many of our employees don’t have a company e-mail address or even computer access at work, which makes it harder to distribute health materials or information about new initiatives,” she says. “We put up posters, hold drop-in sessions and do home mailings, but it’s labour-intensive and we can’t be sure we’re reaching everyone.” Ensuring off-grid workers have access to healthy products and services such as nutritious foods or a fitness room poses an equal challenge to many employers.
Off-grid workers can also slip under the monitoring radar, says Dr. Ray Baker, medical director of HealthQuest, a Richmond, B.C.-based company that helps organizations and individuals solve difficult health problems. “The most sensitive indicator of ‘invisible disabilities’ like depression or fibromyalgia is a change in attendance,” he says. “That’s why we recommend a fairly formal attendance management program to our clients. It protects both the employer and the employee.” With the remote workforce, “it’s easy to lose that tracking mechanism.”
By the same token, “addictions are harder to track when you’re not physically connected to an employee,” says
Dr. Baker. Individuals with full-blown or emerging addictions may seek remote or shift work to elude detection, he says, while people mandated to take drug tests may attempt to “hide” by working off the grid. “Addictions are obviously easier to feed when unobserved.”
Safety on the run An employer’s responsibility to provide safe working conditions extends to off-site workers, who often work alone or interact directly with clients. The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety recommends the following measures to enhance the safety of off-site workers: |
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| Brief workshops or simple tipsheets can raise travelling workers’ awareness of healthy living on the move. |
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The flex factor
A little flexibility can go a long way in helping off-grid employees feel included. GSK offers its two-day Energy for Performance (E4P) workshop at different times for its shift workers, “and we’re considering breaking it up into shorter segments to make it even more accessible,” says Fallon. Coast Mountain takes a similar approach. “We try to schedule our health clinics at times when we can reach the most people, which could be 4 a.m.,” says Lopez. What’s more, “all our depots have gym facilities, so with an employee card you can get in 24/7.”
On-site sleeping rooms can make life a lot easier for split-shift workers, says De Jong, noting that “Europe is way ahead of us in this regard. Not only do they have nap rooms, but they try to schedule shifts in a logical progression that meshes better with circadian rhythms.” De Jong also recommends scheduling the most demanding work earlier on in the night shift rather than during the 4-6 a.m. lull, when blood sugar, body temperature and energy drop.
Popular with all employees, flexible fitness subsidies get an especially vigorous nod from off-grid workers. “We have a $1,000 annual fitness subsidy for all our employees,” says Karen Wensley, director of human resources at Ernst & Young. “People can use the subsidy to do the activities of their choice—from indoor rock climbing to snowboarding—or even to buy home equipment, which is especially handy for telecommuters.”
Keeping the subsidized cafeteria open from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. puts good nutrition within reach of many employees with non-standard hours, says Fallon. A further bonus for the time-crunched: GSK’s Five O’Clock Solution program lets employees order meals in the morning and pick them up in the evening, whether they work on-site or not. ” We have beautiful salads with chicken or fish and little desserts on the side.”
All told, Fallon says GSK’s off-grid workers avail themselves of the company’s health offerings as much as the nine-to-fivers. “If you make it easily accessible,” she says, “they will come.”
Choosing is healthy While research leaves no doubt about the health risks of shift and remote work, working off the grid may also enhance health—especially if there’s some choice involved. Janet Crowe, health services director at TELUS, whose Workstyles program gives employees more choices about when and where they work, has found that “on average, our home-based employees take fewer sick days.” “Having control over your working environment tends to lower the type of stress that can lead to physical and mental decline,” notes Healthquest Medical Director Dr. Ray Baker. For home workers, the time saved on commuting can be used to work out, he adds. “Now that I work from my home, I have time for three workouts per week—something I could never manage before.” |
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© Copyright 2009 Rogers Publishing Ltd. This article first appeared in the October 2009 edition of WORKING WELL magazine.