SLEEPING IS THE NEWEST PERK
Money magazine did a reader survey exploring the topic of how important sleep is to workers and how employers are responding (“The Financial Side of Sleep” March 2016, p. 18). To the question how often have you called out sick purely because you were tired, here are the results:
- 27%—occasionally
- 19%—at least once a year
- 16%—once
- 38%—never
Almost half of the respondents are admitting to taking a “sick day” regularly purely because of being too tired. Companies are increasingly creating perks to counteract such challenges. Two key statistics are 30% of employers provide sleep-health coaching and 9% provide onsite nap facilities. Studies show (and most of us can attest from personal experience) that strategically placed short naps increase worker efficiency and effectiveness. This can translate to higher and better worker output even with fewer hours actually worked.
Granted, sleeping on the job is not always a feasible or convenient option for every worker. Nevertheless, it is heartening to see that more employers are choosing to engage the sleep-deprivation challenge by doing something for their employees instead of taking the more standard approach of pretending the problem does not exist. In these days of increasing competition for quality employees and increasing choosiness among prospective job candidates, every extra perk is worth the effort.
