Helsinki (08.09.2009 - Juhani Artto) As a whole, in Finland, companies, municipalities and the state invest far too little in the well-being of their employees. This is the major conclusion of a new study*. To become economically rational, business, municipal and government organisations should spend several times more on the well-being of their employees than they do now.
According to Guy Ahonen, one of the three researchers who carried out the study, the analysis represents a new type of study-the first of its kind in the world- on employees' well-being. The novelty is that the study covers all well-being-related investments within work organisations.
The conclusion is based on two calculations/estimates.
First, the researchers gathered data on investments in the well-being of their employees by companies, municipalities and the state. The data was compiled in February-April 2009 by a questionnaire that was mailed to a representative (by industry and by size) sample of work organisations. Almost 60 per cent of the sampled organisations replied which the researchers regard as a satisfactory level of participation.
Those companies, municipalities and government organisations that replied to the questionnaire spend, on average, EUR789 per annum on their employees' well-being. The study also concretises how the total sum is divided up between the various ways to promote well-being. However, the total sum of the following figures clearly exceeds the EUR789. This is due to certain investments being counted twice, Guy Ahonen explains.
With regard to training of personnel the organisations directed EUR392 and to health EUR223 per capita. The rest was used for recreation and cultural activities (EUR133), well-being promotion (EUR74), physical exercise (EUR73), projects (EUR43) and well-being-related communication (EUR15).
When the average investment of EUR789 per person is correlated with the aggregate number of wage and salary earners in Finland, one ends up with an estimate of EUR1,9 billion being allocated by companies, the municipalities and the state, on their employees' well-being.
Second, Guy Ahonen has calculated that the annual cost of disability pension cases totals EUR21 billion. The sum consists of disability pensions paid out plus the loss the national economy suffers from employees' premature retirement.
Another risk that could be reduced by well-targeted additional investments in employees' well-being concerns the amount of sick leave days. According to the study, this could be cut by 27 per cent, which would create an annual saving worth approx. EUR2.4 billion nationally. This 27 per cent reduction potential is the conclusion of an international scientific study, which summarised several studies on the impact of well-being programmes on sick leave days.
These costs –more than EUR23 billion in all- constitute the risk that one reduces by increasing well-being investments of companies, municipalities and government organisations. "Several international scientific summarised articles have concluded that the well-being investments' input/output -ratio is 1:3. This means that an investment in this sphere offers a three-fold return."
"Thus the (investment of) EUR1.9 billion, as concluded in this study, is really small compared with the total national risk."
A more adequate investment should be EUR5.4 billion, the study by the three Finnish researchers says. Using the 1:3-ratio, the benefit accruing from an investment of that magnitude would be EUR16.2 billion.
Thus they have good grounds to recommend to companies and to politicians that they study carefully the calculations made in their study. "Within companies it isessential to direct the new investments properly. Through political decisionmaking one has to safeguard (the existence or creation) of the infrastructure, possibly demanded by the investments."
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*Ossi Aura, Guy Ahonen, Juhani Ilmarinen: Strategisen hyvinvoinnin tila Suomessa 2009, produced by Excenta Oy (in Finnish)