There is a problem twice a year that could be worse for your employees than their 6-month performance reviews—and has them in physical danger!
With workstations in cube farms often out of view of an outside window, you know that proper lighting is essential to productivity and wellness. However, what your employees go through when Daylight Savings Time starts puts them in physical danger.
Studies show that traffic accidents rise sharply, as do workplace accidents and suicides, at the beginning of the time change. Most alarming is that incidents of heart attacks rise as much as 10 percent.
Watch out HR! The change in light patterns in the morning and at dusk can throw off biorhythms much like going from the first to second shift. Employees have problems sleeping and then waking up in the dark to go to work. They arrive groggy and lethargic and not as aware of potential accidents, so there are more visits to the emergency room.
While you think the extra daylight after work would increase employees’ outdoor exercise, it also increases aches, pains, and sprains from workers using muscles that were dormant all winter.
And get ready for those employee phone calls, HR! Financial markets often decline in the first week of Daylight Savings Time, affecting employee 401(k)s and other retirement vehicles.
Perhaps the worst part is that just when your employees get through the Daylight Savings Time adjustment period, you have to face March Madness!
One more reason just to keep DST year-round.