Employee productivity can significantly impact the success of a business. Maintaining productivity during winter can be challenging, as the temperature gets colder during the winter months.
Those working in warehouses or large facilities may experience a drop in productivity in the winter, and sick days tend to increase. Keeping places like a warehouse warm is paramount if you want to keep productivity high and days off low.
Unlike an office, warehouses are notoriously cold as they often are too large to install air conditioning, have minimal insulation and the doors and windows often need to remain open which can create a wind-tunnel effect. While this is great in the summer, it can be a major issue in the colder months. We explore how to keep a warehouse warm and its benefits on employee productivity.
Does winter affect productivity?
Winter can impact all of us, but those who feel it most are the ones working in colder rooms, outside or in large open or drafty spaces.
Businesses can use equipment to keep warm in the winter like Industrial Heater Fans For Your Workplace being widely available from places like Fanquip.
Mobility
If someone is cold, it can affect their ability to move. For example, anyone trying to type on a smartphone or computer with cold hands will feel exactly how this works, and it’s a problem for the body overall.
If you’re working in a warehouse, lifting and moving many things, your mobility is vital for getting your job done properly. If someone is too cold, they generally move slower and get less done. This directly affects how productive they can be and can also increase the likelihood of injury.
Focus
Being cold can affect someone’s focus in two ways. The first is biological, as more of the body’s energy is being used to stay warm, therefore cannot distribute as much energy as it would like for other tasks.
The second way is the fact that being cold can be quite distracting. If you’re too cold, you simply can’t focus as well on something as if you were both warm and comfortable.
Fatigue
The cold can make people feel more tired than usual. This is mainly due to the body using excess energy shivering to keep warm, and its urge to conserve energy. Therefore, you may feel more tired than you usually would when temperatures are low.
This is all on top of winter being a lot darker and people having to deal with Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). A happy employee is a productive employee, so combating this is vital.
How can we be more productive at work in the winter?
Maintaining productivity is crucial, and some methods can help with this in the winter months. It’s important to remember that healthy employees are more productive, so prioritising their winter health and comfort with the right heating equipment is essential
Though it may seem difficult, boosting employee productivity and wellness can be resolved in two steps.
Install the right equipment
Arguably the most crucial step, installing the right warehouse heating equipment, can solve almost all your issues in this area.
This can be as simple as installing Heater Fans alongside Giant Fans to generate and circulate warm air. Employees will notice the difference almost instantly as the warehouse temperature rises to a more comfortable level. This combination helps disperse the warm air throughout the space, rather than creating hot and cool spots. Our giant fans can reduce heating costs up to 30% by de-stratification, a term that means to capture the hot air that’s risen and circulate it back down into the space below.
Factory heating can also help you combat winter condensation and mould.
Encourage staff to wear additional layers
Wearing more layers is a tried and tested way of increasing your body’s temperature, so encouraging this among your warehouse team is extremely beneficial.
To go one step further as an employer, you could purchase winter-friendly uniforms or jumpers that you can provide them, meaning they don’t have to source new clothing.
Have all your warehouse heating issue solved with Fanquip
If you want to set up a warehouse heating system to keep your employees happy, comfortable and productive, Fanquip can provide solutions to suit your needs.
Our products can keep you warm in the winter and cool in the summer, with our team of experts helping design a system that works for your business. We offer custom solutions depending on your needs and can support you each step of the way.
Explore our range of heater fans and much more to find the right solution for you today.
