Measures at the workplace when challenges are unrelated to illness

Many possible underlying reasons 

Employees’ problems are not always related to their health. Problems at work can be connected to e.g.

• insufficient competence  
• loss of motivation  
• a problem in the work community  
• bullying  
• unclear roles   
• a turning point in life, e.g. returning from parental leave  
• work-life balance  
• difficult life situations.   
•  

If your employee’s problems are unrelated to work or result from a challenging life situation, try to reduce their workload until the issue has been resolved.

You can provide different kinds of support

• Talk to your employee about their motivation.   
• Help them to prioritise.   
• Clarify the work targets and roles, division of work and responsibilities.
• Make sure that their tools and technologies work. 
• Add to the work’s variety, independence, flexibility options or opportunity to make decisions concerning their own work and to impact matters concerning the work community.
• Adjust the amount of work and the work pace.   
• Ensure sufficient and timely communication, orientation and competence development. 
• Create shared practices and rules to support the work processes.

Remember that it is not always necessary to take measures. Many problems can be solved through dialogue. When you and the employee find it necessary to make accommodations to the work, there are many ways to do this.

Use the many possibilities of accommodating work

Accommodating work means measures that help match the work with the employee’s work ability and functional capacity.

Examples of work accommodation:

• Limiting tasks: focusing on only some or one task or area, no overlapping work
• Reducing the workload: adjusting targets to take one’s resources into account
• Giving schedule-free tasks  
• Acquiring more suitable tools
• Developing co-operation and competence through working in pairs or changing the work team’s structure
• Quieting down the work environment: dedicated workspace, possibility to focus on work without continuous interruptions.
• Implementing working time-related solutions: regular working hours, avoiding overtime, shorter hours, transferring from work involving evening and night shifts to daytime work
• Enabling flexible work arrangements: remote work opportunities, diving up vacation days.

An employee’s challenges may be partially or entirely linked to their state of health. Read more here.