3 megatrends challenge wellbeing management and productivity: 'Fear of the paranoid is ever-present for managers'

Ville Iho, CEO of Terveystalo, says that the megatrends in working life are reflected in what occupational health services are consumed and what is wanted in contracts. "The three biggest trends at the moment are the decrease in physical strain, the phenomena brought about by the increase in the average age of working-age people and the challenges of mental well-being.

In turn, demographic change brings with it not only challenges to labour supply, but also issues that have not been discussed much in the past. One issue that has emerged in the debate is menopause. According to Iho, it is also an issue of cultural change and equality.

One of the driving forces behind the challenges to mental wellbeing is that work is becoming more abstract. Statistics show that mental health challenges are particularly prevalent among young people and those living through peak years.

– It is important to identify these phenomena with employers and frontline workers at a very early stage, so that interventions can be targeted precisely at both organisational and individual level risks.

When challenges arise, services should be accessible at a very low threshold.

–  We have pioneered mental wellbeing services in corporate health. For example, brief psychotherapy produces very good results. The best-case scenario, regardless of the work capacity challenge, is that the person is able to return to work.

A better working life than its reputation

Iho challenges the notion that our working life is as miserable as the public debate suggests. Even in the Healthy Working Life Barometer 2024, commissioned by Terveystalo, only less than half of people consider Finnish working life to be healthy in general, while 70% consider their own organisation to be healthy. When combined with the challenges of diminishing workforce capacity, it is a toxic equation.

Iho wants to turn the discourse on human-consuming working life on its head and present a different, even radical, view from the general debate. 

– The work community and work are a force for health. A good working life has an overall health-promoting effect. Workplaces have an excellent opportunity to play a role in providing positive routines, stability and life structure that bring health and a sense of empowerment and achievement.

At the same time, it is important for every workplace to define what wellbeing at work means and what it does not mean. 

– It may be easy to create a positive message at the top about how you want to work, but where the actual work is done, the agenda can get lost in the shuffle. When talking about the different drivers of wellbeing at work and what you want to achieve, you should be as specific and concrete as possible.

Terveystalo supports business success through its core activities of identifying workplace risks, understanding organisations and communities through data, and empowering individuals.

Thanks to its knowledge base, the occupational health partner is an expert sparring partner for workplace change and sector-specific situations.

– We have 27,000 customers across all industries and sizes. We can use data to show what a particular approach can achieve. It's great to be able to support development by integrating best practice and showing results.

Towards human efficiency

According to Iho, old medicines are clearly not working and data shows that new perspectives and solutions need to be found. Productivity is coughing up, even with the technology to improve it. What's your advice?

– To run something, you need to understand it, whether it's processes or people. If digital processes are a black box to a manager, development management cannot be clear or effective. Equally, if the content of the information work is not understood or the workflow is not outlined, it is impossible to manage. Both sides of the equation need to be better and better understood.

In building and maintaining a healthy working life, the role of the occupational health partner should also be seen in a new and broader way than in treating acute situations and symptoms.

– We are constantly seeking answers and challenging ourselves in how we can help to understand new phenomena. We want to be a partner in developing work communities and working life so that it is more resilient the day after tomorrow.

A leader makes a difference with small gestures

As a leader, Iho wants to be as clear and concrete as possible. As a leader, you can influence an awful lot of people with small gestures. The most important lesson he has learned about leadership is the degree of impatience you can have in moving things forward.

– There is always a paranoid fear that you will lose momentum and not do the right things quickly enough.

Another important observation made by Iho is that you should always try to get to the root of things and have the courage to question things you don't understand.

– Although the journey from the vague to the explicit is a difficult one, it is a journey worth taking. It is important not to follow trends and management by fad, but to approach things through objectives and people in a very concrete way.

New generations of employees are also bringing new resources and courage to the workplace, with a different kind of self-confidence.

– Combine this with management's uncompromising desire to understand how things really get done, and add courage, experience and technology to the equation, and productivity will soar.