Fatigue is one of the most significant hidden risks in safety-critical industries. It contributes to a substantial portion of workplace incidents, yet many organizations struggle to manage it effectively. If you’re responsible for health, safety, or operations, investing in a fatigue risk management system (FRMS) can be a game-changer—but only if you choose the right one.
Download the full guide: Buyer's Guide to Purchasing a Fatigue Risk Management System.
This post breaks down everything you need to know to evaluate and purchase an FRMS that fits your operational needs and helps you move from reactive to proactive fatigue management.
Why Fatigue Risk Management Matters
Workers on night shifts or extended hours often get significantly less sleep than daytime workers, increasing fatigue-related risks. Industries like mining, trucking, utilities, and oil & gas report that fatigue contributes to anywhere from 13% to over 60% of serious incidents. Beyond safety, fatigue also impacts productivity, compliance, and costs.
Traditional reactive approaches—like investigating incidents after they occur—are no longer enough.
Today’s best FRMS solutions help predict fatigue risk before it affects your workforce, allowing supervisors to take action early.
What Is a Fatigue Risk Management System?
An FRMS is a proactive safety tool that uses data and models to forecast fatigue risk by analyzing factors like sleep, shift schedules, and workload. The best systems deliver personalized fatigue scores like the ReadiScore for every worker hour by hour, support supervisors with actionable insights, and integrate smoothly into daily operations without adding complexity.
Reactive vs. Predictive Systems: Why It Matters
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Reactive systems alert you only after fatigue-related events occur, often relying on sleep logs or cameras with many false positives.
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Predictive systems forecast fatigue risk ahead of shifts, delivering real-time alerts and personalized profiles to help supervisors intervene early.
Choosing a predictive FRMS is critical if you want to reduce incidents, improve safety culture, and increase productivity.
Key Capabilities to Look For
When evaluating providers, focus on these must-have features:
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Proactive fatigue prediction: Hourly fatigue scores covering the entire shift ahead.
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Operational fit: Seamless integration with your workflows and existing systems.
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Supervisor tools: Dashboards, alerts, and action tracking that empower frontline decision-making.
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Data privacy & union compliance: Systems designed to respect worker privacy and union agreements.
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Flexible data collection: Support for wearables, machine learning models, or hybrid approaches based on your operation.
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Robust support: Fatigue management training, change management resources, and ongoing customer success.
Building Your Internal Evaluation Process - Your Buying Team
Successful FRMS implementation depends on cross-functional alignment. Involve stakeholders from:
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Health & Safety: Define safety outcomes and training needs.
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Operations: Ensure system fits daily workflows and productivity goals.
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IT: Validate integration, data flow, and security requirements.
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Legal & HR: Confirm privacy, union, and compliance considerations.
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Finance: Model costs, ROI, and total cost of ownership.
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Supervisors & Dispatch: Identify must-have capabilities for frontline users.
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Executives: Secure business case buy-in and change management support.
Develop a requirements document listing your success criteria and feature needs, and use it to score potential vendors.
Questions to Ask FRMS Vendors
Before deciding, ask providers about:
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How fatigue risk is calculated and validated.
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Whether they support wearable and non-wearable data collection.
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Real-time supervisor intervention tools.
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Change management and training support.
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KPI tracking and reporting capabilities.
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Offline operation and scalability.
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Privacy safeguards and union experience.
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Industry-specific experience, especially in mining, transport, or utilities.
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Examples of anonymized customer dashboards and outcomes.
Pilot, Rollout, and Expansion
Run a pilot with real users and scheduled reviews. Use insights to adjust deployment and train supervisors effectively. Plan phased rollouts prioritizing sites or teams ready to adopt the system.
Institutionalize fatigue KPI reviews in your regular safety meetings and share early success stories to build momentum.
Final Thoughts
Choosing the right fatigue risk management system isn’t just about technology—it’s about aligning people, processes, and priorities to proactively reduce fatigue risks and improve safety outcomes.
If you want a detailed checklist, vendor questions, and a step-by-step roadmap to buying and implementing a fatigue risk management system, download our full EHS Buyer’s Guide to Fatigue Risk Management Systems [Insert download link].
Taking the time to evaluate thoughtfully today can help prevent costly incidents tomorrow.
