From The Ergoweb® Learning Center

Ergonomics Boosts Summer’s Productivity Lulls

Are warm weather and sunny skies finding office workers searching for excuses to get outside more often during the day? If so, they’re not alone. A new study by British staffing firm Huntress recently found that nearly two-thirds of respondents plan to spend as much of the day as practical outside, taking breaks, lunches and even leaving earlier to enjoy the summer sun.

The Huntress survey reaffirms what other past surveys have also shown: that pleasant weather coupled with dreams of vacation time can negatively impact worker productivity. In the Huntress survey alone, 68 percent of polled workers admitted that they spent a portion of the day dreaming about impending vacations and another quarter said they noticed their own productivity drop in the summer.

But a little time off from work has proven to be a good thing by reducing worker stress and burnout and giving an employee some much needed rest and recovery time. So how can the workplace adapt to summer? According to a recent article in Britain’s Online Recruitment magazine, many employers turn to temporary help to combat the lost productivity of vacationing workers, but employing ergonomics principals in scheduling, say Julia Vassie, Commercial Director of Huntress, can help, too. Vassie advises that creating work schedules that fit the worker’s summer frame of mind, for example, allowing for flexible work hours that let workers start and finish the day earlier, can mean that workers log their full eight-hour day at the office and still have time to play outside after work.

Sources: Online Recruitment (onrec.com)