Employee Benefits poll: Seven in 10 (70%) Employee Benefits readers do not actively support employees in improving their sleep habits or getting a healthy night’s sleep.
A straw poll of www.employeebenefits.co.uk readers, which received 33 responses, also found that less than a third (30%) of organisations offer flexible working arrangements in order to aid employees with their sleep.
No respondents provide on-site napping facilities, sleep workshops and seminars, or give staff wearable trackers to monitor their sleeping routines.
These results contrast the approach taken by bed and mattress retailer Dreams. Its Sleep Better Programme, which launched in September 2019, provides managers with sleep health training and incorporates conversations about sleep into annual reviews.
Staff are also able to access a 24-hour sleep helpline, gain bespoke guidance through sleep surgery sessions with Dr Pixie McKenna, and utilise a physical sleep tracker, to better understand their sleep patterns and how they can be improved. The sleep tracker fits onto employees’ beds and connects to the Dreams Napp app.
Dreams is also building a sleep-supportive workplace culture, discouraging staff from working outside of their stated hours.
Corresponding research conducted by Dreams and Loughborough University, surveying 2,002 UK employees and 500 managers at organisations with 100 or more employees, confirms Employee Benefits’ poll findings, however.
More than three-fifths (63%) of employers state that sleep is the sole responsibility of the individual, while 39% think there is nothing they can do to help improve employees’ sleep health; only 3% of businesses have a sleep policy in place.
Despite this, a third (34%) of employees would value initiatives that reduce the impact of working life on their sleep, while 33% think they would show more loyalty to an organisation that took action to support sleep health.
Approximately two-fifths (39%) feel more productive and achieve more at work after a good night’s sleep and 44% state that being less tired would enable them to do their job better.
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