Overexerting employees can lead to serious consequences. Studies show it can be the number-one contributor to workplace injuries, as tired workers become more prone to accidents.
Beyond the safety implications, pushing your employees past their endurance is just bad business. The increased stress and fatigue cuts into productivity, making your team less efficient. Meanwhile, it contributes to high turnover rates and low morale.
As such, you should take the necessary steps to avoid overexerting employees. Here are a few precautions you can take to keep your workers fresh for the long haul:
Provide Proper Safety Equipment
Having the right equipment helps take the strain off of employees’ bodies. Gloves and back braces can help avoid repetitive strain. Meanwhile, you should provide carts and other transportation devices for heavy loads.
A few dollars spent on simple equipment can save a major injury later on.
Well-Designed Workspaces
Workers get tired more quickly when they are making unnecessary movements. This added strain can lead to overexertion and contributes to repetitive-stress injuries. By providing a well-considered work area, you can cut down on both consequences.
Build workspaces with people in mind. Design them so workers don’t need to bend or reach unnecessarily. These ergonomic work environments prevent unnecessary exertion. As a bonus, they can also contribute to increased productivity by making processes more efficient.
Frequent Breaks
It’s easy to get blinded by near-term productivity. When your team is in the zone, you’re tempted to keep pushing, in order to get every bit of output you can.
However, this is short-sighted. Pushing too hard in the moment can lead to a big productivity drop off later on, as workers get tired, or, in a worst-case scenario, suffer an injury.
By providing adequate rest, you keep your workers from getting too fatigued. It might seem like you are giving something up in the near term, but long-term output will be higher.
Cultivate a Culture of Open Communication
Your employees represent the best source of information about their well-being. However, if they are afraid to speak up, you won’t receive the feedback you need to keep them safe and efficient.
Make sure your workers feel comfortable coming to you with their work-related problems. Instead of pushing them toward ever-increasing effort, encourage them to provide you with honest assessments of their working conditions. That way, you’ll know if you are driving towards overexerting employees.
You want to build a team that will deliver consistent productivity over the long haul. To do this, you need competent, trustworthy workers who can become your partners in cultivating your business. Working with a top-flight recruiting partner, like Qualified Staffing, makes finding these team members easy.
Contact Qualified Staffing today to learn more.