Last week I attended the National Safety Council’s (NSC) Workplace Fatigue Conference in Seattle. It was a wonderful opportunity to get away from the piles of snow in Ottawa and explore the NSC’s fatigue resources. For a while now, I have been cautiously suggesting that the NSC’s Fatigue Cost Calculator might provide you with a bit of an idea of the drain fatigue might be inflicting upon your organization.
I can now remove the caution. One of the sessions I attended was facilitated by a true FSR (Famous Sleep Researcher) and one of the giants upon whose shoulders I stand, Dr. Charles Czeisler. Dr. Czeisler discussed how the Fatigue Cost Calculator was created using the findings of 55 peer-reviewed studies[1] and he stood behind the algorithm. If he stands behind it, so do I. I suggest trying out the calculator, I bet you will be surprised by how much fatigue is costing your organization every year. For example, would you have guessed that a transportation company with 1,000 employees is losing $1,784,354 every year due to fatigue? Would you also have guessed that engaging only 30% of your workforce in a sleep health program would return $510,306 back to your bottom line?
Building a business case for dealing with fatigue? Use the Fatigue Cost Calculator figures as a compelling argument for change.
Dr. Czeisler was only one of the FSR’s supporting the NSC’s fatigue management initiatives and attending the conference. Dr. Mark Rosekind, Dr. Hans Van Dongen and Dr. Lawrence Epstein, three more FSR’s that I “grew up” reading, were also present and supporting the NSC’s initiatives.
When you visit the NSC’s Fatigue Cost Calculator, be sure to take advantage of their numerous other resources like their fatigue survey reports and tool kit complete with downloadable infographics available here: https://www.nsc.org/work-safety/safety-topics/fatigue.
Acknowledgements:
The NSC’s contribution to fatigue management is commendable and provides a respectable resource thanks to the support of their Past President and CEO of NSC (2014 – 2019) Deborah Hersman (also the Past Chairman and Board Member of the National Transportation Safety Board (2004 – 2014)) AND Emily Whitcomb, Senior Program Manager for the NSC fatigue initiative and her team.
Thank you Emily and team for your tireless efforts in managing this project
Footnote
[1] For a white paper discussion of the calculator’s development and all 55 references behind the cost calculator see: Weaver, M., Quan, S., Barger, L., O’Brien, C., Czeisler, C., & Whitcomb, E. (2017). Calculating the Cost of Poor Sleep: Methodology. National Safety Council: Itasca, IL , https://www.nsc.org/getmedia/d81fefc0-70ff-443e-a3f4-19c44fada20b/fatigue-methodology.pdf