Industry figures
The HSE identifies shift work, night work, early starts, long shifts, insufficient breaks and inadequate recovery as recognised fatigue risk factors. https://www.hse.gov.uk/humanfactors/topics/fatigue.htm
Fatigue affects alertness, decision-making, memory and reaction time, increasing the likelihood of human error.https://www.orr.gov.uk
Fatigue is a significant contributor to process safety and operational risk in high-hazard industries. Particularly relevant for electricity, gas, water and infrastructure operators. https://www.energyinst.org
1.7 million workers suffered work-related ill health in Great Britain in 2023/24, with stress, depression and anxiety accounting for around 776,000 cases. https://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/causdis/
Evidence or risk
Shift work, night work, early starts, long shifts, insufficient breaks and inadequate recovery increase fatigue risk.
Fatigue affects alertness, judgement, memory, reaction time and decision-making.
Fatigue contributes to process safety and operational risk in high-hazard industries.
Work-related ill health, stress and poor mental health create significant absence and productivity costs.
How our service addresses it
We review rotas, on-call arrangements, call-out frequency, overtime, shift length, rest periods and recovery opportunities to identify where fatigue is being built into the system.
We examine the tasks people perform when tired, including driving, fault diagnosis, isolation work, emergency response and safety-critical decisions. We then help the organisation introduce controls where the consequences of error are highest.
We assess fatigue as part of the wider operational system, including staffing, workload, handovers, supervision, communication, escalation processes and safety culture.
We use employee insight, focus groups, interviews and fatigue-risk data to identify the work-design pressures contributing to exhaustion, stress and poor recovery.
Business value
Safer rotas, fewer fatigue hotspots, better workforce planning and reduced reliance on informal workarounds.
Reduced likelihood of mistakes, incidents, near misses, poor decisions and rework.
Stronger operational resilience, better risk control and greater assurance for senior leaders.
Earlier intervention, reduced absence risk, improved retention and a more sustainable employee experience.
Our services address risks by moving organisations from “we know fatigue is a problem” to “we know where it is being created, who is most exposed, and what needs to change.”
What this looks like
Five-stage process:
1. Identify the hidden risks
We gather evidence through rota and shift-pattern reviews, call-out and overtime analysis, focus groups and interviews, fatigue surveys, incident, absence and turnover data, and observation of operational work.
This helps reveal the gap between the rota as designed and the job as actually experienced.
2. Find where fatigue is most likely to cause harm
Not every worker creates the same level of organisational risk. We help leaders identify where fatigue coincides with driving, lone working, emergency response, high-consequence decisions, technical fault finding, safety-critical tasks, night-time call-outs and extended or disrupted working hours.
This allows the organisation to prioritise its highest-risk areas.
3. Diagnose the organisational causes
We examine the system creating the fatigue. That may include poorly designed standby rotas, repeated overnight call-outs, inadequate recovery before the next shift, staffing shortages, excessive overtime, long travel times, weak handovers, unclear escalation arrangements and a culture that rewards pushing through tiredness.
4. Redesign the work
We help the organisation develop practical controls, such as safer rota principles, minimum recovery arrangements, post-call-out rest procedures, clear escalation thresholds, better overtime monitoring, fatigue reporting processes, journey-risk controls, improved handovers, manager guidance and fatigue-risk training for leaders and workers
5. Measure whether it is working
We can help the organisation track indicators such as call-outs per worker, consecutive disrupted nights, overtime levels, rest-period breaches, fatigue-related near misses, sickness absence, turnover, employee-reported fatigue and confidence in raising fatigue concerns.
Your people may be managing the call-outs. Our role is to help you understand whether the system around them is still safe and sustainable.