Investing in health at work: Saving billions by reducing sickness absence – case Finland Mikko Rissanen mikko.rissanen@stm.fi 30.08.2015

General background Health & safety at work has a key role to: - make work more productive and - improve the well-being of their personnel Most workplaces are small and they don´t have special trained OSH staff => inadequate know-how with health related questions To improve the situation we need generally accepted and comprehensible facts and calculations 3.6.2018 Etunimi Sukunimi

Background for calculations The report: “Cost of lost labour input”, available on NDPHS homepage Calculations are based on the employee´s total wage sum including non-wage labour costs (when possible) Calculations are conservative estimates, they all based on year 2012 (yearly estimates) Our aim was to quantify minimum level of costs of lost labour input 3.6.2018 Etunimi Sukunimi

Sickness absence Cost of lost labour input = price of a sickness day * number of sickness days Calculation separately for long-term sickness leaves (> 10 days) and for the short ones In Finland cost of lost labour input due to sickness absence was 3,4 billion € 3.6.2018 Etunimi Sukunimi

Presenteeism Presenteeism accounts for higher loss of productivity than absenteeism (absence due to sickness) Conclusion: Value of presenteeism ≈ value of absenteeism Cost of presenteeism ≈ 3,4 billion € 3.6.2018 Etunimi Sukunimi

Occupational accidents and diseases Total costs of occupational accidents and diseases are divided into: direct costs and indirect costs Direct costs are mainly the same as accident insurance compensations = 0,584 billion € Indirect costs are 3-4 times higher than direct costs ≈ 1,5 - 2,0 billion € 3.6.2018 Etunimi Sukunimi

Disability pensions Finland lost 180 928 work years due to disability pensions in 2012 Cost of lost labour input was calculated using annual wage sums by educational levels Loss of potential labour input ≈ 8,0 billion € 3.6.2018 Etunimi Sukunimi

Health care expenditure in Finland Health care costs of working-age population without preventive measures ≈ 7,8 billion € 3.6.2018 Etunimi Sukunimi

Summary Sickness absence 3,4 billion € Presenteeism, working while ill Occupational accidents and diseases 2,1 - 2,6 billion € Disability pensions 8,0 billion € Cost of health care 7,8 billion € Totally 24,45 - 24,95 billion € (any overlapping costs has been subtracted) 3.6.2018 Etunimi Sukunimi

Outcomes These calculations have a wide acceptance in Finland especially concerning the cost of sickness absence Concept of presenteeism is difficult to understand (people usually understand only their own experience with flu) Occupational accidents, occupational diseases and work disability are non-frequent for most small workplaces 3.6.2018 Etunimi Sukunimi

Next steps Who is paying these costs? => next calculations Need for simple preventive actions and solutions What are the indirect long term effects? Linkage to well-being at work and productivity OSH organisations broader view of occupational health and safety 3.6.2018 Etunimi Sukunimi