Business and Regional Development:

Joint action on IWL

This project concerns developing a portfolio of good examples of Inclusive Working Life (IWL) initiatives in industry (both private and public), and making others aware of them. The significance of this project is that the development work is carried out in collaboration with management, employees, public funding bodies and research scientists. In other words: co-operation within a network.
Inclusive Working Life (IWL) is normally associated with high sick leave. This is not entirely without good reason. Many businesses suffer from a high degree of absence due to sickness, and Ostfold is perhaps one of the counties which suffers most. Another reason that so many IWL efforts focus on reducing sick leave is that this can have such obvious and immediate positive effects on the companies' financial results.

However, IWL is about more than just sick leave - it is particularly about the better use of human resources. This can mean facilitating the  employment of the disabled, or adjustments allowing  people to  work longer (e.g.through policies for keeping the elderly in employment). Taking care of  human resources is about companies maintaining their unique expertise and thus also their ability to compete. We can already see that lack of qualified workers is one of the greatest challenges to industry.