Recent data from CV-Library found that a staggering 76.5% of marketing professionals admit that having a bad night’s sleep negatively impacts their working day. Worse still, 43.8% claim that they feel exhausted on a daily basis. This is bad news, not only for employers, but also their staff.
Three quarters (75%) of marketers cite workplace stress as a key cause of their disrupted sleep. We often forget how important sleep is for our wellbeing. And it’s clear that fatigue can negatively impact marketing professionals and their ability to do their job. In fact, 41.2% said tiredness affects their ability to make important decisions and a further 35.3% struggle to finish tasks on time. Here are my tips for combatting the problem:
Top tips for employees
· Be careful with caffeine: A really simple step you can take is to make sure you’re not drinking caffeinated drinks too regularly or too late in the day. It can be tricky when you hit that afternoon slump. But, try to power through and you’ll feel the benefits at bedtime.
· Go to bed earlier: OK, this sounds obvious, but this includes watching TV or reading from your bed. Winding down that bit earlier will help you to achieve those all-important eight hours.
· Get the balance right: Adopting a good work-life balance is vital. Sometimes overtime is necessary, but this should not be a regular occurrence. Only work extra hours when it’s absolutely necessary. It’s important that you’re taking care of your own wellbeing too.
· Switch off: Another way of encouraging a good work-life balance is by ensuring that you don’t take work home with you. Most of us have access to shared work areas or emails from our phones or laptops. Avoid taking work calls or answering emails outside of work hours.
Top tips for employers
· Recognise the signs: It’s important that you can recognise when your staff are becoming overworked. Keep an eye out for repeat offenders; those who are always putting in too much overtime. Take them aside to see if you can come to a solution.
· Create a communicative environment: If staff are struggling with their workload, resulting in stress or additional hours, they need to be able to come and speak to you. Keep an open door policy so that employees can talk to you if they need more support.
· It doesn’t just have to be work related: Not everyone will be losing sleep as a result of work, it could simply be that they stay up too late watching TV. Whatever the reason, if you can see that fatigue is taking its toll on them during work hours, offer them the appropriate advice to try and rectify the situation.
· Encourage a balance: It’s not just up to staff to get the balance right. Ensure that you encourage your workforce to have a good work-life balance, and make this an integral part of your company culture.
Getting a stronger work-life balance, as well as better time management and communication can really help employees to catch those Zzzs. This in turn can make for a more positive working day, and a more productive and happy workforce.
Lee Biggins is founder and managing director of CV-Library
