Climate change is transforming the workplace in ways that few organisations would have predicted a decade ago. While much of the conversation has focused on improving energy efficiency and making buildings more resilient, another shift is beginning to emerge. Employers are increasingly having to rethink not just where work happens, but when it happens.
As temperatures rise and heatwaves become more frequent, organisations across logistics, manufacturing, transport, healthcare and utilities are exploring earlier starts, later finishes and overnight working to reduce employees’ exposure to extreme daytime heat. Research published in Nature Climate Change suggests that shifting work into cooler parts of the day can significantly reduce heat-related productivity losses and improve worker safety, particularly in physically demanding roles. Further modelling published in The Lancet Planetary Health also highlights the potential of changing working hours to reduce heat-related productivity losses. However, both studies recognise that this adaptation strategy creates new challenges for workforce health.
For many organisations, adapting working hours is becoming a practical response to climate change. But it also raises an important question: if more people are going to work at night, are organisations ready to support them?
The UK already has around 8.7 million people working through the night, keeping essential services, transport networks, food supply chains and healthcare operating while most of the country sleeps. As climate change drives more organisations to consider evening and overnight working, that workforce is likely to grow.
Moving work into cooler hours makes operational sense. It can reduce heat stress, improve comfort and help maintain productivity during periods of extreme weather. But night work is not simply daytime work after dark.
Decades of research demonstrate that working outside traditional daytime hours disrupts the body’s natural circadian rhythm, affecting sleep quality, alertness and recovery. Long-term shift work has also been associated with increased risks of cardiovascular disease, metabolic disorders and poorer mental health outcomes, particularly where shift schedules are poorly designed or opportunities for recovery are limited.
The Health and Safety Executive’s guidance on Managing Shift Work (HSG256) recognises fatigue as a workplace hazard rather than simply an individual wellbeing issue. It recommends that employers consider workload, scheduling, rest periods and recovery as part of their wider health and safety responsibilities.
This creates an important balancing act. Climate adaptation research increasingly points towards moving work into cooler hours, while occupational health evidence reminds us that working through the night introduces its own risks. The challenge for employers is not choosing between one or the other, but understanding how to manage both effectively.
Historically, decisions about shift patterns have often been driven by operational requirements. Increasingly, climate resilience means they should also involve HR, occupational health and health and safety professionals.
Changing working hours affects far more than productivity. Earlier starts or overnight shifts influence commuting, childcare, recruitment, retention and employee engagement. They also expose a challenge that many organisations have yet to address: much of the support available to employees is still designed around the traditional working day.
Occupational health services, wellbeing initiatives, training sessions and employee communications frequently take place during office hours, meaning night workers can have less access to the very support intended to help them. Managers may also have limited experience of recognising fatigue or supporting colleagues whose working lives operate on a completely different schedule.
The Grantham Research Institute at the London School of Economics has also highlighted that while shifting work into cooler hours can reduce heat exposure, it may increase fatigue and safety risks if work is not redesigned appropriately.
If climate adaptation leads to more employees working outside traditional hours, organisations should resist simply extending operational schedules without reconsidering how support is delivered. A workforce operating across 24 hours requires a wellbeing strategy that does the same.
Forward-thinking organisations are already recognising this. Rather than treating night work as simply an operational necessity, they are investing in education around fatigue, sleep, nutrition and wellbeing while strengthening manager capability and improving communication with overnight teams. These approaches recognise that healthier night workers are also safer, more engaged and more resilient.
One example is Night Club, an initiative developed in collaboration with Oxford University’s Sleep and Circadian Neuroscience Institute to improve the health, wellbeing and experience of people who work at night. Rather than treating night workers as an afterthought, it provides practical, evidence-informed education and resources tailored to the realities of working outside conventional hours, while also encouraging organisations to think differently about leadership, communication and access to support across a 24-hour workforce.
More than 40 organisations, including Sysco GB, TfL and Co-op, have already used Night Club to strengthen support for their night teams, helping improve sleep, engagement and retention while ensuring wellbeing does not stop at 5pm.
Recent UK heatwaves have demonstrated that extreme temperatures are no longer exceptional events. As organisations develop climate adaptation plans, there is an opportunity to broaden the conversation beyond buildings, equipment and business continuity.
The future of work may increasingly extend beyond the traditional nine-to-five. If it does, organisations will need more than flexible shift patterns. They will need evidence-based approaches to fatigue, recovery, communication and employee wellbeing that ensure adapting to a warmer world does not unintentionally create a less healthy one.
About the author:
Night Club
Night Club is the specialist partner for better night work, delivering training, events and consultancy that strengthen health and wellbeing, safety and performance across night teams.
Established in 2018, Night Club is developed in collaboration with Oxford University’s Sleep and Circadian Neuroscience Institute (SCNi) and shaped directly by the experiences of night workers themselves.
To date, we’ve supported 14,000+ night workers across 40+ employers, from logistics and supply chain to manufacturing and healthcare – helping organisations respond more effectively to the realities of working at night.
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