How FM Companies Can Support Muslim Employees During Ramadan


As Muslims across the world begin fasting, the Human Resource Managers need to understand how to ensure the business continuity and performance of Muslim employees. Ramadan is the nine month of Muslims. This is the month where every Muslim tries to be spiritual by observing the compulsory and recommended rituals. Throughout the 29 or 30 days fasting, Muslims engage in increased acts of prayer and charity.
Due to this, a Muslim’s daily activities change because sleep and meal times have to be disrupted. Managing such a person in a company where operational efficiency is prioritised towards sustainable value delivery to clients requires a lot of strategies.
This necessitates the need for flexible working hours. HR and Team Lead could allow Muslim employees to work different hours. For instance, Muslims employees’ pick period starts from 9am and ends at 12pm. It is better to schedule the duties or activities of the Muslim employees for the period.
It would be counterproductive to send Muslim employees to sites in the afternoon, starting from 1pm, when fatigue is likely to be more pronounced. During Ramadan, HR needs to monitor Muslims employees more. This is necessary because fasting may affect an employee’s concentration and productivity levels, especially when the employee feels dizzy always.
When this is discovered, the right strategy is to allow such employee to rest. Penalising such employee could amount to discrimination and seeing the company has not prioritising health and safety of employees.
Since the spiritual activities increase during the month, it will not be bad for the HR to arrange a space for Muslim employees to observe compulsory and special prayers. Doing this would be seen by the majority of the Muslim employees as being included and valued.

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