Economic impacts of workplace disability management in a public enterprise

Objective: To analyze the financial impact of a new work disability management system of a public in-house enterprise.
Methods: The material was disaggregated from the enterprise’s and city group’s databases. A cost benefit model was utilized for the economic analysis of the period 2009 to 2012.
Results: The main costs arose from the investments on loss of production due to lowered production standards and on the work ability co-ordinator’s work. The main financial benefits came from the reduced pension costs and sick leaves. A traditional linear approach led to a 14% annual positive return on investment. A non-linear cost assessment approach led to a 4.7-year pay-back period, followed by a 175% return on annual investment over the following years.
Conclusions: The results support a long-term approach to analysing the financial impact of workplace disability management.