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Financial Gains, Possibilities, and Limitations of Improving Occupational Health at the Company Level

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Handbook of Socioeconomic Determinants of Occupational Health

Part of the book series: Handbook Series in Occupational Health Sciences ((HDBSOHS))

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Abstract

Putting a price on people and measuring the financial gains from investments in human resources stem back to the Romans and the eighteenth century, respectively. In the 1960s, the interest increased tremendously. Researchers in economics, accounting, sociology, and psychology argued that to increase and improve investments in the workforce, accounting and calculation methods for estimating the financial gains need to be developed. Accounting and utility models were suggested. Additionally, numerous investigations of financial gains were performed. Unfortunately, many of these studies were of poor quality. However, during the last couple of decades, some good studies have demonstrated the profitability of improving occupational health at the company level. In the present chapter, some well performed recent studies as well as the most common shortcomings in many studies will be referred to. Special attention will be devoted to the issue of productivity. The reason why financial gains are subject to an (increasing) interest is to increase and improve investments in the workforce. However, Swedish studies have demonstrated that although calculating the economic benefits of investments is important to create attention, it is not enough to start a process of change at the company level. The latter is a much wider and a much more complicated issue. The calculus needs to be put into a wider context, i.e., a performance management context. In the last section of the chapter, a framework for designing and analyzing occupational health management is suggested.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Unit of Intervention and Implementation Research for Worker Health, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden

    Ulf Johanson & Emmanuel Aboagye

Authors
  1. Ulf Johanson
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  2. Emmanuel Aboagye
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Correspondence to Ulf Johanson .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Stress Research Institute, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Stockholms Län, Sweden

    Töres Theorell

Section Editor information

  1. Institute of Medical Sociology, Centre of Health and Society (CHS), University of Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany

    Morten Wahrendorf

  2. Fielding School of Public Health, School of Nursing, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, USA

    Jian Li

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Johanson, U., Aboagye, E. (2020). Financial Gains, Possibilities, and Limitations of Improving Occupational Health at the Company Level. In: Theorell, T. (eds) Handbook of Socioeconomic Determinants of Occupational Health. Handbook Series in Occupational Health Sciences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05031-3_23-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05031-3_23-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-05031-3

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