The Well Workplace

Possibly the most important fatigue-fighter is good quality sleep. if your drivers are feeling fatigued each morning and throughout the day, a lack of good quality sleep may be the problem. If so, a lack of sleep can contribute to chronic fatigue and exhaustion. In addition, studies have shown that poor sleep quality can contribute to chronic illnesses such as diabetes and heart disease and even shortened life expectancy. And of course, fatigue has immediate risks to your drivers, including impaired driving and other safety concerns.

Recently, we have been looking at how Physical Abilities Tests can help mitigate compliance, operational and financial risk. In this post, we’ll address the ways that Physical Abilities Testing can affect an organization’s reputation. 

The bottom line is ultimately one of the most important things a business organization considers with every decision. As such, risky financial moves are often avoided. If your organization requires a labor force capable of physically demanding work, there is an easy way to mitigate financial risk: the implementation of Physical Abilities Testing.

The implementation of a pre-hire Physical Abilities Test (PAT) offers an employer many benefits, but when it comes to mitigating operational and productivity risk, a PAT is especially beneficial. We have previously explained how to mitigate compliance risk when implementing PAT. While avoiding all forms of risk is preferred, preventing operational risk is an immediate benefit of a proper PAT.

Employers who are hiring for physically demanding jobs can mitigate the risks associated with hiring candidates that don’t have the physical abilities to do the job, through the use of pre-hire Physical Abilities Tests (PAT). The improper use of PAT, however, can lead to another type of risk: compliance. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) specifically spell out the laws relating to these tools so that employers can be sure not to violate federal anti-discrimination laws. Some of the EEOC’s best practices include:

While maneuvering down the highway and passing the occasional tractor-trailer, have you ever stopped to think about what those drivers endure? Long-haul drivers, those who are on delivery routes that require them to spend a lot of time in the cab of a truck rather than at home, do not have the easiest of work environments. Truckers are sedentary for many hours, have little access to healthy foods, experience erratic sleep schedules and have to deal with the daily stresses of being on the road. It is no wonder truckers are more likely to have heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, and obesity, as compared to other working U.S. adults.

A well-designed physical ability test (PAT) program can be a very effective risk management tool for businesses today. This is especially true of companies that operate within physically demanding fields – health care, construction, housekeeping or manufacturing, for instance – that tend to have higher than average worker injury rates, greatly increasing the cost of doing business. If you are considering investing in a PAT program for your company, one of the most important factors in making a final decision is ensuring the cost-effectiveness of the effort.