FEATURED ///
Sep 21, 2022
The Four Hidden Costs of Heat
The Four Hidden Costs of Heat
We all know how unpleasant it is to work in the heat, but you may not know how problematic this heat is for the health of your company. Heat affects way more than just the comfort of your personnel. It affects everything from the quality of your product to your bottom line. That's why installing devices that keep workplaces cool is essential to the success of your business. If you want to know more about the hidden costs of heat, below are four ways heat might be affecting your company without you realizing it.
1. Quality
The quality of your product depends on how effectively your personnel can work, and temperature has an enormous effect on your personnel's effectiveness.
A study by NASA shows that as temperatures in a workplace rise, so do mistakes. The 10° difference between 80 and 90 can lead to a 42% increase in mistakes. That rate increases drastically to 400% when you add just 5 more degrees and raise the temperature of the workplace to 95° F.
The quality of your product is not just a matter of pride. Research about the cost of quality in organizations hypothesizes that more than 10% of your company's revenue can be lost due to problems with quality.
The more mistakes your personnel make, the more it hits your revenue. For example, if you take the numbers above into account, you would be looking at your company losing 2% of its revenue.
Managing the temperature in your workplace is a proactive step to ensure the quality of your product and prevent these concerns.
2. Productivity
Everyone knows it feels unpleasant to work in the heat, but there is irrefutable data that proves heat hinders people's ability to work.
The temperature at which people begin to lose productivity is lower than you might think. Research from NASA and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory demonstrates that this inverse relationship between temperature and productivity begins at only 71°. The hotter it gets, the more productivity drops. After 71°, productivity decreases at least 1% for every 1 degree. By 90°, it's down 29%. 5 more degrees, and that number's 45%.
Proper temperature control in your workplace can not only improve the quality of your product, but also the rate at which personnel can produce it.
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3. Safety
As explained above, heat leads to a decrease in productivity and quality because of how high temperatures impact personnel performance. Another way it affects personnel is their physical health and personal safety.
Heat is correlated with an increase in injuries. According to NASA, at 95° F, people will likely collapse after only 45 minutes of work. OSHA's injury database shows that the injury rate in July and August, the hottest months of the year, is 300 times greater than other months. The U.S. Postal Service's data reflects a similar spike.
Personnel safety is essential to maintaining a functional and productive work environment. Injuries can decrease your productivity and can encourage employees to leave jobs. Thus, prioritizing your employees' health is, in turn, a long-term investment in your company's health.
4. Personnel Retention
It's not just personnel physical health that's affected by heat, but also their motivation and job satisfaction. Personnel leave hotter workplaces at higher rates than air-conditioned ones. The U.S. Department of Labor estimates that people don't go to work 44% more during the sweatier months. Maintaining workers' morale and addressing absenteeism concerns is important for your company's future because it is costly to replace personnel.
This is another hidden cost of a hot workplace. Proper temperature control can help resolve this issue and keep personnel work attendance consistent through the hotter months.
These four reasons emphasize why investing in a cooler workplace is investing in your company's future. If you're interested in learning more about ADS and Power Breezer's solutions, please fill out the contact form below.
If you want to see the effectiveness of air-cooling products firsthand, you can visit our booth #2913 at the AUSA Annual Meeting in Washington DC from October 10th to 12th.
