Kristian Vetlesen (picture below), senior occupational physician at Orkla Brands Nordic and President of the Norwegian Association of Occupational Medicine (NAMF), is keen to improve work environments, and psychosocial work environments in particular, in order to reduce sickness absence permanently. Close follow-up of persons on sick leave is important, but insufficient to achieve a lasting effect.
"Like the physical work environment, the psychosocial work environment has an impact on health. The company's occupational health service has become far more aware of this fact, and wants to assess employees' psychosocial work environment, as opposed to administering blood tests and measuring blood pressure."
Control of the work situation
Good models and instruments have been developed for studying the connection between the psychosocial work environment and health, and to measure degrees of stress. Karasek & Theorell's stress model has been influential. This model considers the links between work demands, control/learning in the job situation and social support.
"We used to think that occupational stress was simply a question of having a lot to do. Today we know that the degree of stress has much more to do with employees' perceptions of how much control they have and how much they learn in their job. If you work a lot, but nevertheless have control over the work and the opportunity to develop your skills, you also have a sense of mastering the situation. This is motivating, and will moderate your perception of stress," says Vetlesen.
"Other important factors are that you receive social support from your manager and colleagues, feel that you are appreciated, and feel that you are treated fairly by human resources staff. These are universal factors that apply across occupational groups and job levels," he adds.
Systematic surveys
Orkla Brands Nordic's occupational health service has surveyed the psychosocial work environment for many years, by means of questionnaires completed in connection with employee health checks. Vetlesen now also sees greater management focus on this issue.
"This is particularly important in a large group like Orkla, which will always be undergoing organisational changes and major processes. Such processes must be carried out in an appropriate way, and not take an unnecessarily long time or create uncertainty, which can contribute to poor health among employees."
He says that awareness of the psychosocial work environment has also prompted innovative approaches, for example in connection with the work situation of operators in the production plants.
"Emphasis used to be placed on job rotation to ensure task variation. However, it turned out that the work operations on the various lines were often very similar, and didn't provide much of a change. Now there is a focus on enabling assembly line workers to master their workplaces, and on giving them full training in the machinery they operate. This gives them control of their job situations, as well as learning opportunities and motivation," says Vetlesen.
Complex picture
The senior occupational physician believes that it has generally become much easier to talk about the psychosocial work environment since he started working as a company doctor in the 1980s.
"People used to think that it meant being nice to each other at work, or whether your boss was good or bad. Today we know that the issue is complex, and that the psychosocial work environment has a significant impact on motivation, efficiency, job enjoyment and health. Major surveys have shown that high demands and high job pressure, combined with a low degree of control and on-the-job learning, can constitute a significant health risk. Among other things, it can increase the risk of heart disease, and can in fact be as great a risk as high cholesterol levels," he says.
Text: Kari Westersund, Consultant Corporate Communications, Orkla Brands