UK 
United States
Japanese wedding organisers, Crazy Inc, have implemented a new scheme that rewards employees for getting at least six hours sleep for five days a week – the Economic Times reports.
Employees working for Crazy Inc will receive points for sleeping the optimum number of hours. These points can be exchanged for food in the cafeteria which can translate to to as much as £430 (64,000 yen) per year.
Sleep will be tracked using an app made by mattress manufacturer Airweave Inc.
The scheme was inspired by a new survey carried out by Fuji Ryoki, a health products manufacturer, which found that over 90% of Japanese people over the age of 20 say that they aren’t getting enough sleep. Additionally, Japan has become notorious for death-from-overworking and this is not the first initiative that Japanese employers have introduced to curb overworked employees.
Earlier this year, the Japanese government introduced ‘Shining Monday’ which authorised employees to have a lie-in on the first Monday of every month and rock up after lunch.
Richard Holmes, Director of Wellbeing at Westfield Health, previously told HR Grapevine that workplace fatigue is impacting many workforces and can have detrimental effects on productivity. “Employers need to ensure there are clear health and safety regulations in place around fatigue, especially in industries that require high levels of concentration,” he said.
“The importance of rest time both at work and at home should be taken seriously and encouraged by employers, and fatigue should be considered just as important as any other physical injury or illness.”
So, employers are urged to ensure that their employees are not overworked. Not only will this compromise their wellbeing, organisations are likely to see plummeting productivity levels too.
