Keep an eye on employees during the summer to ensure they are focused and stay safe, says Safewise consultant Kaye Byrne.

Even though Christmas is over, the days are still long and hot. Many of us have taken holidays, and others will soon follow suit. We’re more at ease, enjoying our outdoor life and catching up with loved ones. What might go wrong? Let’s discuss ‘holiday brain’.

Our thoughts may be more focused on our holiday than work right before and after returning to the office. This diversion could prove to be extremely harmful. When coupled with the summer heat, we may become distracted and dehydrated, which could cause us to make bad choices that could have detrimental or even fatal consequences.

Here are a few actions you can take to combat this:

•  Make sure employees consume a lot of water and other hydrating beverages. Supplying workers not on the main site with enough water might be necessary.
• Keep water in the refrigerator or provide a water cooler. Think about freezing some of it if you are working off-site.
• Make certain that workers who are outside take frequent breaks in shaded, cool spots.
• Have a brief catch-up at the start of the day and a safety start-up at the start of the new work year. This will allow you to talk with your employees and help them stay focused.
• Throughout the day, keep an eye on employees and their work; you don’t have to micromanage them. (Do they operate the way you would? Anticipate, adhering to safety regulations?)
• Be ready to halt operations and send employees home to recuperate. It could save someone’s life. Because there will be less work to redo, productivity will also increase.

As a health and safety consultant, I tend to help a number of clients with significant incidents during these hot and dry summer days. Previous incidents saw employees express that they were “feeling the heat” and wished they were still on holiday or contemplating their next beach weekend. One incident involved an employee falling asleep while operating a truck due to heat exhaustion. Unfortunately, that was a fatal accident.

It takes a long time for everyone involved to recover from a serious incident, especially the harmed party or parties and their relatives. Everyone needs to come together and work side by side to ensure a safe and healthy year ahead.