With its 13 000 employees, Trondheim municipality is among the largest work places in Norway. This trailing research project contained surveys made among the people on sick leave in the municipality, interviews and discussions with a random selection of department managers and frequent work meetings with the municipality. The project has uncovered that there is great potential to be found in the work on sick leave absence, and SINTEF suggests the following specific measures:
- The managers need to be assisted in turning the resources from follow-up work over to preventive work.
- Have good routines for identifying managers who do not perform adequately.
- Commence projects where all work environment groups systematically review the Working Environment Act § 4-1 to § 4-2 and control if the regulations are met for all the employees.
- The personell service should come up with a clear and simple routine for tackling frequent short-term absenteeism.
- Take control of employees with recurrent long-term absences from work, typically where the cause of it varies from time to time.
- Commence a trial project where funds for welfare leave, which are the same as the sick pay amount, are given during the employer period.
- Establish a low-threshold coping service that takes responsibility for different life coping issues among the staff before they develop into mental health problems.