Change measures to support work ability

As an employer, you are responsible for maintaining your employees’ work ability and finding solutions to possible problems related to their work ability.

You have various measures at your disposal that may help you find solutions when your employee’s reduced work ability has started to hinder work.

Adjusting work

If the illness or disability of a new or current employee prevents them from working, you can make adjustments at the workplace. Adjustments refer to changes at work in which your employee’s job description is modified to better correspond to and support their expertise and work ability.

Agree with your employee on the necessary job changes and adjustments. You should also make a written agreement on them. In addition, agree when the situation will be re-evaluated together with the employee and occupational health care provider.

When you agree on working time arrangements with your employee, they gain flexibility for their daily work.

For example, you can agree on flexible working hours, which means that your employees can decide the start and end times of working days within certain limits. The arrangement has to comply with the Working Hours Act and the collective agreement for your sector.

Your employees can also work part-time. Possible options include discretionary part-time work, partial old-age pension, partial disability pension and partial childcare leave included in family leave.

Part-time job (erto.fi, in Finnish)⁠⁠

Remote work is work that your employee does either at home or in another agreed location outside the actual workplace. Remote work can be either full-time or part-time. In the latter case, the employee works part of the week remotely and part of the week at the workplace. Your employee can also work remotely on a one-off basis for a separately agreed period of time.

Flexible working hours (ttl.fi, in Finnish or Swedish)⁠

Adjusting work tasks and work processes to fit an employee’s work ability may give them more capacity to work better in different life situations.

You can reorganise your employees’ work tasks within the workplace or adjust their working hours and forms of work. You can together make either temporary or permanent changes to the division of labour. You should discuss the changes together with the entire work community.

Partial work ability in the work community (ttk.fi)

Job rotation, on the other hand, involves moving your employee to other activities or units at the workplace for a fixed period of time, after which they return to their previous assignment. The aim of job rotation may be to increase an employee’s well-being at work or to boost their motivation.

You can use the Ratko method to format and organise work. The method allows you to reorganise tasks in your work community. You’ll break down the work tasks of everyone involved. From the tasks that fall outside your employees’ core competence and ones they are used to performing alongside their own core tasks, you’ll create a completely new set of tasks. You can formulate this new set of tasks in a way that for example matches the work ability of an employee with partial work ability.

You can use the Ratko method for new hires and existing employees. If necessary, you can get help with implementing the method from the Ratko expert service or the user training for the Ratko method.

The target working environment is one which values equality and approachability and which feels comfortable for all your employees.

If an employee’s functional ability is impaired due to injury or illness, they can be supported with assistive devices, for example. Introducing the use of such devices is a personalised part of the rehabilitation or treatment process. Primary health care can provide your employee with the most common aids that support mobility, daily activities and sensory functions. A number of actors are involved in arranging the use of these aids, each of them being responsible for specific areas.

If your employee is unable to cope with certain activities due to injury or illness, they may need personal help. A person has the right to receive personal assistance if the prerequisites for receiving the service specified in the Disability Services Act are met. The wellbeing services county is responsible for organising the assistance.

If your employee needs interpretation due to hearing loss or a sight or speech disability and they live in Finland and have access to some method of communication, they can use Kela’s interpreter service for the disabled.

You as an employer must develop working conditions and ways of working that promote equality. If you regularly employ at least 30 people, you must have a plan of measures for promoting equality. You must address the promotion measures and their effectiveness with your staff or their representatives.

If a new or current employee of yours has a disability or illness and coping with work tasks requires measures such as purchasing tools or making changes at the workplace, you can apply for a subsidy for arranging working conditions from employment services.

Subsidy for arranging working conditions

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Other solutions to challenges caused by reduced work ability

Even if work adjustments or other preventive measures have been taken to maintain work ability, your employee’s work ability may nevertheless decrease during the employment relationship. There are various kinds of options and help available for such situations.

You can refer your employee for an assessment of work ability if they experience difficulties in their work performance that you cannot resolve by your own means at the workplace. An assessment of work ability involves assessing the employee’s ability to perform their current tasks, the development of their functional and work abilities, and their capacity to function at work. Your occupational health physician is often the best expert for assessing work ability, as they have information about the conditions in the workplace.

Assessment of work ability (tela.fi)

If a new or current employee of yours has a disability or illness and coping with work tasks requires measures such as purchasing tools or making changes at the workplace, you can apply for a subsidy for arranging working conditions from employment services.

Subsidy for arranging working conditions

Rehabilitation may help your employee when a disability or illness complicates their work or coping in different life situations.

A pay-subsidised employee of yours can be transferred to another employer, for example in a situation where the other employer can offer tasks that are more suitable for your employee’s work ability. The transfer can be either for a fixed period or for the rest of the pay subsidy period.

Transferring a pay-subsidised employee to another employer

Impact of disability pensions of a person with partial work ability on the employment pension contributions of large employers

If you are a large employer, your employment pension contributions are determined by comparing your disability risk with the average risk. The calculation compares the amount of disability pensions previously granted to the average amount of employment pension contributions.

At the beginning of an employment relationship, a customer of employment services who is finding employment with partial work ability must request a certificate from the employment official stating that they have been entered in the employment services' customer register as a job seeker with partial work ability. After this, they must deliver the certificate to you. As an employer, you must keep the certificate.

If a person with partial work ability becomes incapable of work during the first five years of employment, you must submit the certificate of partial work capacity received from the employee to your employment pension insurance company, in which case the employee's disability pension will not affect your employment pension contributions category.

When your employee requests a certificate of their partial work ability at the beginning of the employment relationship and delivers it to you, you will avoid the effects that your employee's possible retirement on disability pension would have on your employment pension contributions. This may, for its part, encourage the hiring of an employee with partial work ability.

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Proactive support for work ability

You can find information on the prevention of work ability problems on the ‘Proactive support for work ability’ page. The page describes the work ability support model, sickness absences, occupational health care, early support conversations, and occupational health discussions.

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