Abstract
This study betters understanding and provides an outline
of the negative effects that shift work has on employee health and
wellness in food manufacturing company in South Africa. Given the
realities of the modern day employee rights and well-being there is
need to consider how these can be achieved whilst concurrently
improving organisational effectiveness and performance. It is
imperative that we understand the health effects at the work place and
more importantly determine what can be done to reduce the negative
health impact that shift work has on employee’s wellness. To this
end, the objectives of this paper is to: Highlight the negative effects
that night shift or irregular shift patterns have on employee health and
wellness; Establish what programs can be developed by the employer
to reduce the above negative effects; Establish if improved employee
health and wellness for shift workers could lead to improved business
performance. The paper establishes the relationship between shift
work and the negative health effects on employees in a South African
Food Manufacturing Company, and determines if programs can be
implemented to counteract or limit these negative effects, thereby
resulting in an improvement in operational performance.