Sick days are often unavoidable, but being confronted by a mountain of missed work when you return to the office is never a good feeling. Thanks to funding from the ESF, a Finnish project is working towards helping both employees and businesses manage this hardship. 

The Lantern project (LYHTY) creates a new operating model for the development of work wellbeing services in Finland, directly contributing to employee wellbeing. 

The project could not have come at a better time, as it also helps employees become more adaptable in a post-COVID working environment. Riina, an employee working in a small company, said, ‘[The] remote wellbeing pilot was the highlight of my day and helped me in coping with the pandemic.’ 

With the help of artificial intelligence (AI), new services and new forms of cooperation will be created. The project developed an app for employees to answer questions on their wellbeing. Employers would then use the anonymous data to develop sector-specific, targeted and preventive tools to improve their workers’ wellbeing and health. This data is key to recognise when employee wellbeing is threatened. One employer, Eija, said, ‘Thank you for the results! The differences in the number of sick leaves between sectors were really surprising.’ 

LYHTY benefits employers as the project aims to reduce short-term absences due to sickness and prevent longer absenteeism in order to reach an estimated 10-30 % annual productivity growth. 

The collection of data that explains the reasons for sick leave, curated by the AI system from 2017 to 2020, has enabled employers in the wellbeing sector and occupational health providers to enhance the work environment. This benefits employees and prevents absences due to illness.