Looking After Our Colleagues During the Heatwave

The sun is great, but don’t forget about any of your hardworking colleagues and teams who are working outdoors during the heatwave. While this lovely weather is more than welcome, the most important this is that we keep each other safe and well. In many offices, we may have the luxury of air conditioning. However, our valued team members who are working hard in an outdoors environment don’t have the option to control their temperature.

“Therefore, it is vitally important that their work is managed appropriately.”

Working outdoors can have a huge impact on our health, and also on our effectiveness at work. Here are some of the adjustments we can make to keep our people safe and to help them do their best work:

  • reschedule work to cooler times of the day
  • provide more frequent breaks, ideally in the shade
  • provide free, cold drinking water, people need to be hydrated
  • Make sure everyone has sun cream
  • introduce shading in areas where individuals are working
  • encourage the removal of personal protective equipment when resting (where allowed) to help encourage heat loss
  • remind your teams about recognising the early symptoms of heat stress

Working in the sun can be really good for us, but can also be very harmful when not done safely. It can cause skin damage including sunburn, blistering and skin ageing and in the long term can lead to an increased risk of skin cancer.

“We are all at risk when working outside if not done safely, so while the heatwave continues, and in the future, let’s all do our bit to keep each other safe.”

In order to boost morale and show your teams how much you value and appreciate them, a delivery of free ice-creams is sure to be a winner!

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At Apex HR, we believe in challenging the status quo when it comes to people at work. Outdated HR thinking and methods just won’t cut it in a rapidly changing and dynamic world. It is time for a new approach.