Night shift employees are a rare breed, and you cannot treat them the same way you treat your regular day workers. They need treating with extra care, and they need to be kept, above all else, happy and healthy. Anything less and they will not perform the way you need them to when it comes to the tasks that you set them throughout the night. More importantly, anything less, and their health and wellbeing could very well be affected.
To keep your night shift employees happy and healthy, you’re going to have to embrace a number of the following tactics:
Give them free rein to keep themselves entertained… within reason
Keeping your night shift employees happy and willing to work for you at a time when not a lot of other people will is all about keeping their morale high. To do this, you have to loosen the reins a bit, and you have to give them free rein to keep themselves entertained. It could mean allowing them to access adult gaming sites, such as Unibet, from time to time throughout their shift, or it could mean allowing them to access their social media sites as the night drags on. Whatever you feel comfortable allowing them to do, by doing so, you will keep their spirits up as the lonely hours of the night set in. Just don’t give them free rein to do something that will distract them from their task in hand!
Advise them to be wise with the caffeine they consume
As the night draws on and the morning creeps in, your employee will begin to crave anything that’ll keep them awake. More often than not, this will see them turning to caffeine, be it in the form of coffee or whatever else is available. You should advise them to be wise with the caffeine that they consume, however, because consuming too much at one time will cause insomnia. Your employee having insomnia might sound like a good thing because it’ll keep them awake and able to work, but what happens when they do eventually go home? If they home and can’t sleep, and they’ve then got another night shift looming that very evening, he or she will put themselves in real danger of burning out eventually. So, for the sake of your employee’s health, advise them to have a cup of coffee to maintain alertness, but not to overdo it.
Avoid rotating their shifts
To get the very best out of your night shift employees, you have to make them feel comfortable in their role. To infuse this feeling within them, they need stability in regards to their working hours, and they need to have the ability to prepare for their shifts in advance. This is because they need to have their circadian clock in order if they are going to be happy to do the work you ask of them and healthy enough to do it over a prolonged period. So, be careful with how you plan their rota. More importantly, don’t ever think about adjusting an employee’s schedule from night shift back to day shift without giving them notice well in advance!
