First published on Thursday, June 25, 2020
Last updated on Tuesday, December 2, 2025
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Several studies have found that shift work and working at night can be damaging to your workers’ health.
The Working Time Regulations 1998 (WTR) should be the legal starting point when shift planning. The Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 specifies that employers must not put their workers at risk from working too many hours. The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 (MHSWR) also lays down measures to protect your staff.
What are the risks of shift work?
A research briefing POSTnote from the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology, among many other studies found that shift working can have harmful effects.
Some shift work risks include:
Biological effects:
Stomach problems including pain, indigestion, and ulcers
Heart issues such as coronary heart disease and hypertension
Reproductive complications for females who work shifts
Existing illnesses like diabetes and epilepsy get worse
Increased likelihood of cancer
Psychosocial effects:
Disturbed sleep which increases the risk of mistakes and accidents
Dependence on sleeping pills or stimulants
Heightened stress
Personal effects:
Challenging family life
Isolation because of missing out on social functions
Poor sleep and shift patterns at work
According to numerous reports, much of the physical and mental effects of shift work are caused by ‘the duration, quality and timing of sleep’ had by shift workers.
As shift workers often lost sleep due to the types of shift patterns they work they are more likely to experience the risks of fatigue.
Many of these studies highlight the importance of our natural circadian rhythms.
This internal rhythm influences a person’s internal 24-hour clock, regulating hormones important for quality sleep, rest and recovery.
But when sleep is disturbed due to shift work patterns like long days, early mornings and night work, the circadian rhythm is impacted, and hormones are disrupted. These hormones have an incredible influence over the health and wellbeing of an individual. Lower melatonin for example, can cause further hormonal issues such as spiking in cortisol causing feelings of stress, affecting growth hormones and even appetite.
How to assess the risks
It’s difficult to properly assess the risks of irregular work schedules without taking a hard look at your shift planning. You must ensure that employee schedules comply with all the legislation that safeguards shift workers.
You have an obligation under the MHSWR to not only assess risks but to make reasonably practical efforts to remove or manage those risks. A vital aspect of controlling shift work risks is to make sure you plan your work rota calendar to take account of how many hours your staff work and how these hours are allocated.
If you’d like to know more about work risk management, read The Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE) publication — ‘Successful Health and Safety Management’. You can use this approach as guidance to minimise threats when arranging shift schedules.
To assess shift work risks, you should:
Collect and evaluate information about your shift work practices.
Decide what risks are present.
Find out who may be at risk from shift work e.g. pregnant women, young people and staff with pre-existing health problems.
Review the risk assessment at regular intervals.
Risk assessments don’t have to be complicated. With health and safety software, BrightSafe, you can manage, protect and prevent workplace risks and hazards with over 600+ risk assessment templates.
Industries where shift work has the greatest impact on health
While the biological, psychosocial and personal effects of shit work can impact anyone, rates of workers experiencing these are more common in some industries.
Shift work risks in the healthcare industry
According to a report by the NHS Staff Council, uncovering the health, safety and wellbeing of shift workers in healthcare environments, dis-organised and poorly managed shift work in the NHS and healthcare industry can impact workers.
The report states in its introduction paragraph:
“…poorly designed shift patterns, aligned with poor sleep patterns and environmental factors can have a detrimental impact on employee health and patient outcomes. Poorly managed shift patterns can, for example, increase sickness absence rates, presenteeism, increased at work errors and patient safety incidents, and associated costs (Health and Safety Executive 2009).”.
In the healthcare sector, in particular, certain preventative measures should be in place. Not only to support staff on long hours, working a range of shit patterns, but also to ensure the protection and care of patients.
Risks to construction workers
According to the data from several sources including the construction Industry Helpline, poor sleep quality due to irregular shift patterns and long working hours causes the construction industry to have some the highest rates of psychosocial health problems in the UK. This includes fatigue and burnout.
In fact, around 80% of construction workers report not getting enough sleep and around 44% spend 2-3 hours per day just commuting. Combine this with early mornings and long work weeks and the shift work of the construction industry quickly becomes a risk.
when handling moving vehicle, lifting heavy goods and working at height fatigue and lack of concentration can quickly result in serious accidents, injuries and even fatalities.
How to reduce the risks of shift work for employees
With guidance from the Health and Safety Executive, the following tips allow for a safe approach to shift work:
Enhance your approach to employee scheduling
A key solution to minimise the risks that shift workers face is to design an effective employee schedule.
Excessive shift work and failure to provide enough rest breaks and rest days result in a higher chance of human error.
Use the HSE’s fatigue and risk index calculator to find out whether your shift schedule will cause fatigue. This tool helps you recognise the shifts that could result in exhaustion and injury.
Listen to the needs of your staff
The Safety Representatives and Safety Committees Regulations 1977 and the Health and Safety (Consultation with Employees) Regulations 1996 stipulate that you must consult with your workers about anything to do with health and safety. You should listen and consider the views of your staff before making changes to shift work.
Here are a few recommendations when designing employee schedules to reduce shift work risks:
Alternate shifts every two to three days
Try to stay away from shifts that start before 7am
Avoid scheduling shifts for longer than 12 hours
Schedule regular break times
Encourage staff to tell their GP that they’re doing shift work
Rota planning is an important part of managing shift work risks. You can avoid employee shift fatigue when managing staff rotas, by taking into consideration health and safety, your legal duties, business needs, and feedback from your staff.
