How can you help your employees adjust to the end of Daylight Saving Time?

As the days get shorter and the country prepares for winter, the end of Daylight Saving can bring an assortment of challenges that you might not have considered. Not only can it disrupt our daily routine, but it can also have an impact on our health.

In this article, we’re exploring what challenges your employees may face at this time of the year and how you can help them to adjust.

How can the end of daylight saving time impact employees?

1. Disrupted sleep: When the clocks go back, our bodies need time to adapt to the new schedule. As we gain an hour at 2am on Sunday 29^th October, some may find they naturally wake up earlier than usual due to the additional time whilst sleeping.
2. Reduced productivity: An unsettled sleeping pattern can take a few days or weeks to return to normal, and this could have an impact on the employee’s energy and focus during work. In turn, the end of daylight saving time could result in reduced productivity.
3. Increased stress: For those living to a tight schedule, a change in the norm can increase stress and have a negative impact on mental health. The evenings getting darker sooner could also be stressful if it impacts people’s evening routines.
4. Health concerns: The end of daylight saving time marks the onset of the winter months, which brings with it a rise in illnesses like the common cold and the flu. This can have an impact on your employees’ ability to come into the office or complete their work.

How can leaders help their employees to adjust to the end of daylight saving time?

By recognising the challenges your employees might be facing, you can plan simple steps to support them.

1. Flexible working: By offering your employees flexible working options, they’ll be able to adjust on their own terms. Perhaps an employee would feel safer leaving the office before it gets dark and completing their hours from home, or it could be that someone would benefit from starting later in the morning to avoid an early alarm clock to help reset their disrupted sleep.
2. Proactive adjustment: Being proactive could help your employees adapt more easily to the end of daylight savings, such as make small adjustments to their sleeping patterns during the week running up to the clocks change.
3. Wellness programs: It’s important to offer resources and activities that help your employees manage their physical and mental health all year-round, but it could be helpful to focus an initiative on how to cope with the challenges that arise at this time of year.
4. Communication and support: Through clear and regular communication, you can let your employees know that you recognise the challenges they may be facing and that you are there to support them.

Perhaps you’re thinking that the end of daylight savings isn’t a big deal and can’t bring so many challenges… well, let’s take a look at some statistics:

• Losing an hour of daylight after setting the clocks back is attributed to an 11% increase in depression cases after the time change.
• Research shows an increase in car accidents following the end of daylight savings, as drivers work to adapt to the change in driving conditions.
• Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), known as the winter blues, affects around 2 million people in the UK.
• Average Vitamin D levels in the UK are reported to drop by over 15% during the period after the clocks change through to the end of January.

So with all that said, is your firm doing what it can to support your employees as we approach the end of daylight saving time?

Here at Public Practice Recruitment Ltd, we work with forward-thinking firms that champion employee wellness throughout the year and it’s encouraging to see how teams can come together to support one another as seasonal challenges impact us all.

We not only match talented candidates with ambitious firms, but we also work closely with firms that might need a steer in the right direction when it comes to creating a modern working environment for its staff. Would an expert sounding board for your recruitment and retention goals benefit you? We’re always here to help, to don’t hesitate to contact the team today.