“It’s naturally very pleasing to see that our sick leave is low compared with other large public authorities. However, we know that generally higher education institutions have lower sick leave compared with other public authorities. Therefore, perhaps a fairer comparison is with the other full-scale universities in which the employees’ tasks, conditions and sick leave patterns are more similar. Our figures also stack up well in this comparison,” says Marie Härstedt, HR director, Lund University.

Stockholm University’s sick leave for 2022 was 3.00 per cent, Umeå University’s 3.20 per cent and the University of Gothenburg’s 3.50 per cent.

“All faculties/equivalent follow up sick leave in accordance with Lund University’s work environment goals. Sick leave is discussed in health and safety committees, locally and centrally, and in the Vice-Chancellor’s Management Committee. The faculties/equivalent draw up action plans annually in order to fulfil work environment goals. We are agreed that we cannot just sit back and be satisfied, but as our sick leave is so low, we can focus more on preventive and early initiatives, for example through managers conducting interviews of concern with staff members if there are early signs of ill-health, ergonomic initiatives or active work based on the results of the organisational and social work environment questionnaire,” says Marie Härstedt.

Read the article about the national comparison on the Publikt website. (in Swedish)

*Publikt is a news magazine focusing on government-owned and government-financed organisations.