HR consultancy optashift welcomes Jack Williams as engagement lead
Jack Williams, has become head of engagement at optashift. He joins the human resources consultancy with more than 15 years of experience in B2B communications.
Robert Crossman, director at optashift, commented, “Jack’s specialist expertise will help management, trade unions and shift workers work collaboratively to deliver necessary change and maintain high-performing, engaged and healthy shift work environments. He joins a growing team of shift work experts in key disciplines such as fatigue risk, sleep hygiene, chrono-nutrition, human factors and shift work law.”
Shift work refers to a work schedule where employees work in set periods or ‘shifts’ to cover a full day or extended operating hours. Instead of everyone working the same 9-to-5 schedule, staff are divided into shifts – such as morning, afternoon, evening, or overnight – to ensure continuous coverage. This is common in industries like healthcare, manufacturing, logistics, hospitality, and emergency services.
Since 2023, optashift has worked to help organisations optimise their shift work teams and planning. Its technology-enabled services cover all domains of shift work, including shift pattern design, data analytics, fatigue risk management, health and wellbeing support, stakeholder engagement and systems and process improvement.
Williams arrives after spending almost three years as head of communications at Brabners. As organisations increasingly recognise the strategic requirement to modernise shift work to improve performance, flexibility and support employee health, wellbeing and work-life balance, he will now provide sophisticated communications, engagement, sentiment tracking and preference analysis to optashift’s clients. Meanwhile, he will also look to deepen relationships with academics and academic institutions focused on operational research, productivity, technology and occupational health.
Speaking on his new challenge, he added, “How shift work is designed and managed is inextricably linked to an organisations’ ability to be efficient and successful, whether that is meeting government-mandated targets in public services or remaining competitive in the private sector. It’s also key to maintaining working conditions that minimise absence, help prevent long-term health conditions linked to shift work and appeal to diverse demographics in support of recruitment and retention. I’m looking forward to collaborating with leaders across HR, operations, health and safety, communications, trade unions and business owners to deliver transformative impact in all areas of shift work best practice.”
The appointment follows the arrival of Nigel Walters as a consultant in July 2025. Walters specialises in demand and capacity analysis, shift pattern design, change management, trade union relations and shift work policy development.
