It’s not just the cost of extra coffee that can hurt a business’ bottom line when employees are sleep-deprived.
A GCC Insights study released December 17, which looked at more than 285,000 employees across 1,200 organizations, found that more than 20% of employees are sleep-deprived.
Poor sleep can lead to impaired memory, increased safety risks, attention lapses and poor decision-making. The report quotes a study published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine that found a sleep-deprived employee can cost a company more than US$3,000 per employee annually.
These costs are specifically related to low productivity and don’t include the costs of absenteeism.
The report stated that there are a number of ways to make promoting healthy sleep a part of a company’s culture. Encouraging physical activity and improved nutrition can be combined with training in sleep optimization – that includes instructing employees on how to determine whether they are sleep-deprived – can all help. Also, it could be beneficial to encourage employees to be less digitally connected in the evenings.
“The architecture of any initiative developed to address a lack of adequate sleep amongst an employee population will have considerably more efficacy and economy, if it is designed within a framework that allows for an holistic approach that addresses exercise and nutrition along with more immediately recognizable factors,” the study states.
