Many employers who allow smoking in the workplace often complain about the amount of productivity that's lost because of the frequent smoke breaks employees take. What makes it worse is employees usually want company when they have a smoke. If you're faced with a similar problem in your company, there's a solution. Here are five tips you can use to control the smoke breaks your employee takes.
If you provide smoke breaks during work hours, this is one area you have to monitor closely, says the Health and Safety Advisor.
The last thing you want is to have productivity grounding to a halt when three or four employees congregate for long periods during smoke breaks.
Here are five ways to ensure employee smoke breaks don't compromise productivity
- Find a way to record the amount of time a smoker spends on smoke breaks, for example have a clocking system;
- Ensure the smoking area isn't too far from the workplace so employees don't waste time getting to the office;
- Limit the number of smoke breaks employees can take during working hours, for example, restrict smoke breaks to lunch breaks and tea time;
- Limit the duration of smoke breaks. For example, you can designate specific smoking times, impose a smoking shift system so your employees don't all smoke at the same time;
- Ensure the smoking area is visible (glass partitions) so you can monitor the amount of time your employees spend in the areas or install a CCTV camera to monitor your employees.
Using these methods will help ensure employee smoke breaks don't compromise productivity. What's more, this reduced smoking time could also encourage smokers to quit smoking.
Editor's note
Don’t forget to enforce the practice of handwashing after smoking in line with Regulation 962 of the Foodstuffs, Cosmetics and Disinfectants Act.
Article reproduced with permission from FSP Business: http://fspbusiness.co.za/
