Relationship between perceived work ability and productivity loss.

Area of Science:

• Occupational Health
• Workplace Productivity Research

Background:

• Presenteeism, or on-the-job productivity loss, significantly impacts organizational performance.
• Assessing presenteeism accurately is crucial for effective workplace health interventions.
• Perceived work ability offers a potential, measurable indicator of productivity.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore the utility of perceived work ability as a proxy for presenteeism.
• To develop and validate an approach for assessing productivity loss using perceived work ability.
• To investigate this relationship within Finnish food industry organizations.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a mixed-methods approach combining existing presenteeism research with register and survey data.
• Developed a quantitative model linking perceived work ability scores to productivity loss.
• Analyzed data from Finnish food industry employees.

Main Results:

• A one-point decrease on the perceived work ability scale theoretically reduces productivity by approximately 5%.
• Company-level productivity loss averaged 3.7%, with a median of 0%, compared to 5.0% sickness absence.
• Factory workers exhibited a fourfold higher probability of productivity loss than office workers.

Conclusions:

• Perceived work ability serves as a robust and potentially interchangeable indicator for assessing presenteeism.
• The developed approach allows for individual and organizational-level assessment of perceived productivity loss.
• Findings highlight disparities in productivity loss across different employee roles within the industry.