Heat in the workplace is a major concern for many industries across the globe. For those performing physical labor and strenuous work, heat can be difficult to manage, and if proper safety measures are not in place, employees may face severe risks, such as deadly heat-related illnesses.

Managing Heat in the Workplace

There is a direct correlation between heat rise and worker performance. Studies have shown that the higher temperatures increase, the more productivity decreases. Therefore, for employers, heat presents several hurdles which can have a major impact on their bottom lines. These include managing temperatures to ensure safety for all workers.

If workers are constantly uncomfortable on the job, they are more likely to miss work, which can affect production and output.

If employees are continuously exposed to high heat conditions on the job, you can expect some workers to outright quit, as they will not be able to handle the stress of ongoing work in such a difficult environment.

For workers who stay on the job and continue to work in misery due to the heat, you can expect less than stellar results from them due to their unhappiness.

Another factor to consider is that as temperatures rise, mistakes are more likely to occur due to the stress of the environment.

Employee Attrition Due to Heat

Worker satisfaction and happiness directly affect the output from your employees. If they are comfortable, happy, feel acknowledged, and know they are valued for their work, they are more likely to put forth a great deal of effort into what they produce. However, if they are constantly working in hot, uncomfortable, unsafe conditions, they will probably be unhappy with their jobs.

This can have a direct impact on employee attrition, and it can be very costly for employers to deal with. According to data produced by OSHA and the U.S. Department of Labor, employee attrition rate doubles when workers are faced with constant hot conditions. This data shows that those who sweat more on the job also quit their jobs more often.

On the positive, managing heat is an actionable goal, and issues due to heat are 100% preventable in most cases. And, as an employer, you hold a duty to ensure your workers are safe, comfortable, and content when on the job.

Improving Employee Retention: Keep Your Employees Happy

Maintaining safe, comfortable conditions for workers is necessary, however, doing so can ensure you improve employee retention. To replace employees costs about 15–25% of their yearly salary; an expense most employers would prefer to avoid. Having a high turnover rate in any business can be costly because losing the investment of good workers means you have to endure the expense of finding the right replacements, rehiring, and training them. Your existing workers, who know how to keep the business running, are exceptionally valuable, and it should be a company goal to ensure they are comfortable and happy in their positions.

What You Can Do About it

For employers, it is extremely important to consider the importance of heat mitigation, especially if your business deals with excessive heat. Considering the many issues and hurdles heat can create in the workplace, especially the potential of losing valuable employees, providing measures to cool the temperatures is imperative.

There are many cooling systems on the market such as evaporative coolers, central air conditioning, portable air conditioners, misting fans, and high-powered fans, to name a few. These are often used by businesses to curb the heat or to maintain safe and comfortable temperatures, which enables workers to stay comfortable on the job.

Power Breezer: Keeping People Cool Where Nothing Else Can

Keep people cool with an atomized evaporative cooling system from Power Breezer! These industrial-strength commercial cooling fans offer the most advanced level of cooling available for work settings. Initially designed for Military use, they have become a very popular choice for on-demand, portable, energy-efficient cooling across the world. Entities such as PepsiCo, Amazon, FedEx, and FritoLay use these machines to keep their workers cool, in ways standard cooling options cannot.

Power Breezer offers mobile and mounted machines, and each is capable of producing powerful cooling in large spaces. They use only water to cool temperatures, and the method is so clean, these fans can be used to disinfect workspaces such as warehouses, classrooms, and corrections facilities.

When running your business, you know that heat is a very costly factor and it can impact your business in so many ways – particularly the aspects such as employee retention and attrition. If you are an employer or business owner, don’t let the heat drag you down. You know how important it is to protect your workers from heat so make sure you have a solid plan.