Managing the risk of fatigue: the Transport for London approach

Transport for London (TfL) is the integrated transport authority responsible for delivering the Mayor of London’s transport strategy and, as part of this, we run the day-to-day operation of the capital’s public transport network and manage London’s strategic roads. We have around 27,000 employees in an incredibly diverse range of roles and locations, all working to provide a safe and reliable transport service to millions of Londoners and visitors every day.

Photograph: iStock/mino andriani

Such significant responsibility does not come without risk. Managing such risk in a complex and varied organisation like TfL provides both unique challenges and exciting opportunities to innovate better solutions. One such risk – both to the individual and the organisation – is around fatigue. How does such a vast organisation support individuals with their health and wellbeing while simultaneously working to manage and control organisational risk from fatigue?

The answer is with a dedicated programme team, clear strategic vision and a lot of collaboration and engagement. Understanding the needs of the business and plotting a series of medium- and long-term goals were the key initial actions, which has led TfL to develop a variety of key tools with which to aid fatigue management.

Fatigue Management Plan

In November 2022, we launched our Pan-TfL Fatigue Management Plan (FMP) setting out 12 activity areas for managing fatigue risk, aligned with regulatory and industry good practice (see the diagram far right that sets these out). Progressive requirements from minimum to best practice are set out for each activity. Business areas need to meet minimum ‘must’ requirements, ensuring compliance with standards, but are also encouraged to work towards progressive ‘should’ good practice requirements, continually building maturity in risk management. The plan has been embedded within our refreshed Safety, Health and Environment (SHE) Management System, which is easier for colleagues to access, understand and apply.

Supporting the launch of this new framework, we have continued to progress activity within each of the fatigue activity areas, such as the development of ‘fatigue friendly’ rosters in response to business changes. We have carried out a complete refresh of training materials, launching four new fatigue training courses online, which also means that colleagues can do it at times suitable to them. These have been appropriately targeted to positions and are proportionate to the level of risk associated with different roles – for example, a colleague in an operational role will require different training to a colleague in a head office role. These include:

1. Fatigue Awareness at TfL – targeted at all employees, providing an overview of and stressing the importance of managing fatigue, and how to take action.
2. Managing Fatigue at TfL – targeted at managers, providing an overview of requirements for managers to enable effective management of fatigue for their teams.
3. Fatigue and Shiftwork Awareness – targeted at those who work shifts, providing additional detail and guidance on how to proactively manage fatigue.
4. Fatigue Awareness for Schedulers – targeted at colleagues who manage, update or otherwise interface with schedules and rosters, providing knowledge on best practice for minimising the impact of fatigue on colleagues who work shifts.

We have also developed the ‘Managing Fatigue at TfL’ handbook available to all staff containing advice and actions for improving fatigue, health and wellbeing, as well as developing a guide for colleagues’ family and friends to help them understand the impact of shift work and how they can support their loved ones in minimising the impact of fatigue.

Credit: Transport for London

Contributory factor

Determining whether fatigue may be a contributory factor in incidents is key to preventing recurrence and – to that end – we have been trialling a new approach where managers ask questions as part of investigations.

Understanding this information from a pan-organisational level is key in enabling us to identify key trends in order to target interventions in the most efficient way. Utilising advances in information technology and business intelligence, we currently have in development an app that will enable managers to comply with current and emerging requirements, while simultaneously allowing a programme level view of trends and data in order to further inform initiatives and interventions.

What does the future hold? We have begun to audit against the fatigue requirements in our SHE Management System, so in the short-term we will continue to embed the information and increase understanding of fatigue across the business. Engaging our colleagues who have traditionally been difficult to reach will continue to be a strong focus of the programme and we have been delivering support in a number of different ways.

For example, we have delivered face-to-face briefings to night workers engaged on our maintenance and upgrade works on the Docklands Light Railway. By delivering key messages on both the causes and impacts of fatigue in person, as well as what can be done to reduce the occurrence of fatigue, we were able to respond to questions and clarifications instantly. Additionally, these briefings provided simple key messages on recognising the signs and symptoms of fatigue in themselves as individuals and others, to further aid self-management and reduce the potential impacts of fatigue.

Engaging colleagues

Our programme team is also focused on innovative ways to engage colleagues in this complex and difficult to manage topic. We ask a lot of our people in order to provide a safe and reliable transport service to millions of Londoners and visitors every day and delivering support to all colleagues is a key part of this work. We have recently worked with an external contractor to deliver a ground-breaking intervention, which was developed in close partnership with night-time workers themselves, and is underpinned by rigorous academic research from Oxford University’s Sleep and Circadian Neuroscience Institute.

Chris Jones is safety strategy manager - safety, health and environment at Transport for London. Photograph: Transport for London

‘Night Club’ is designed to engage and communicate the best available evidence-based sleep health information to night workers in situ during the night shift. Sleep experts are on hand to offer easy to follow advice on the interventions individuals can make to improve the quality and extent of their sleep.

We have delivered ‘Night Club’ to hundreds of TfL colleagues across a variety of roles in multiple operational locations. ‘Night Club’ brings sleep experts into the workplace to inform colleagues with evidence-based sleep health information during their shifts. Their sessions focus on improving diet, exercise, sleep hygiene, mental health and understanding of chronotypes and sleep.

Ultimately, the health and wellbeing of our colleagues is paramount to us, not just as a responsible employer, but because it is vital for the safe running of the transport network. We will continue to build on the work that has already been undertaken to make sure that we effectively mitigate risk as we seek to transport people from A to B across the capital.

Chris Jones is safety strategy manager – safety, health and environment at Transport for London.