THE STATE OF UK NIGHT WORK: WHAT’S WORKING?

The State of UK Night Work: what’s working?

Millions of people work through the night to keep the UK running. From healthcare and transport to logistics, manufacturing, retail and food production, night workers are essential to how our economy and society function.

We all by now know a lot about the health impacts of working at night. But there is much less shared understanding of how night work is actually being designed, managed and supported by UK employers – and which approaches are making a difference.

Across the UK, organisations are trying different things. Looking at fatigue and safety. Rethinking shift patterns. Supporting sleep and recovery. Training managers. Finding better ways to engage night teams.

But what is working?

What are organisations learning? Where are the gaps? And what could employers learn from one another?

Bringing employers together

At our next Night Club Consortium on 28 October (taking place online), we'll bring employers, researchers and experts together to explore some of the practical challenges of night work – from managing fatigue and safety to designing shifts, supporting recovery and making sure night teams are properly supported.

How we design and manage night work has implications for fatigue and safety, but also for employee experience, engagement, retention and performance.

We'll be asking:

How are organisations identifying and managing fatigue?

How are night workers supported compared with their daytime colleagues?

Are shifts designed with sleep and recovery in mind?

What information and training are workers and managers getting?

And perhaps most importantly: what can we learn from organisations facing similar challenges?

Three different perspectives

We'll hear from three speakers with different experiences of work, leadership and organisational change.

Andy Perry, Supply Chain Director at Waitrose & Partners, brings more than 25 years' experience across retail, supply chain and logistics, including senior roles at Tesco, Co-op, Asda and Primark.

Catherine Muirden, Chief People Officer and Board Chair, brings senior people and leadership experience from organisations including John Lewis Partnership, Marks & Spencer, Barclays and the Co-operative Group, where she held senior HR and People Director roles.

Professor Adam Whitworth, from the University of Strathclyde, brings research expertise in employment support interventions, work-health and job crafting, alongside experience working with government partners on large-scale UK employment interventions.

But this isn't just about hearing from speakers.

We want to hear what's happening on the ground.

What’s working where you work?

This Consortium is the starting point for a new piece of work from Night Club – The State of UK Night Work.

Since 2019, we've worked with more than 15,000 night and shift workers, and with employers across logistics, transport, manufacturing, retail, food and drink, infrastructure and other 24/7 industries.

That gives us a community with a huge amount of experience to draw on.

So we want to hear from you. What are you seeing in your organisation? What have you tried? What seems to be working? Where are the biggest challenges? What do you wish you had better evidence or guidance on?

These are the questions we want to explore with employers, workers, researchers and others who understand night work.

Building a better picture of night work

The first step will be a State of UK Night Work report, bringing together employer insight, worker experience, existing evidence and examples of practice across different sectors.

We want to build it with the people who understand night work – sharing what's working, identifying where more evidence is needed and exploring the challenges organisations are facing.

If you're responsible for people working at night – in operations, HR, health and safety, wellbeing or workforce strategy – we'd love to hear from you.

Share what's happening in your organisation, hear what others are trying and help us build a clearer picture of night work across the UK.

Join the Night Club Consortium on 28 October and help shape the State of UK Night Work.