Occupational healthcare supports both the body and the mind

Diktamen takes care of its employees’ well-being in cooperation with Mehiläinen Working Life Services. Occupational healthcare provides support for employees across Finland for both ergonomics and mental health challenges.

The software company Diktamen's occupational well-being consists of safe, healthy and productive work supported by good management practices. The management is supported by Mehiläinen's occupational healthcare experts.

- We want to ensure that our employees are doing well, succeed in their work and find it meaningful and rewarding, says Diktamen’s HR Manager Henri Ketola.

Diktamen is Finland's leading provider and developer of patient information documentation services, whose most important products include a digital dictation management system and a transcription service. Diktamen's services are used daily by a total of 16,000 social welfare and healthcare professionals in various hospital districts and private healthcare companies. In the service business, employees are the most important resource of any company.

- We can’t offer our customers service without our skilled personnel. This is why we need to take good care of our employees, says Päivi Tohmo, who manages Diktamen's transcription business and is responsible for occupational well-being matters together with Ketola.

Mehiläinen’s occupational healthcare services cover all of Finland

Diktamen has more than 150 employees working in different parts of Finland, mostly remotely. This also sets certain requirements for the occupational healthcare service provider.

- It is important for us to have a nationwide occupational healthcare partner, whose services are easily accessible to everyone and who also offers well-functioning remote physician appointments and modern digital services, says Ketola.

It is important for Diktamen that the occupational health nurses and physicians are familiar with the work of their employees on the practical level and understand the stress caused by the work.

- Only in this way can the occupational healthcare provider assess the employee's work ability or challenges related to the job description, says Tohmo.

Mental health first

Transcriptionists are the largest professional group of Diktamen. There are certain occupational well-being challenges associated with the rather uncommon job description of a transcriptionist, which need to be addressed proactively.

- In their work, transcriptionists transcribe appointment texts dictated by health care personnel into patient records. The content they listen to day after day can be unpleasant, burdensome and mentally stressful, says Tohmo.

According to Tohmo, Mehiläinen provides good support for the employees’ coping at work. For example, an occupational psychologist has reviewed the heavy content of the work together with the entire staff and given tips on how to handle difficult issues.

At Diktamen, mental health support is considered particularly important, both regarding their own employees and in society in general. The company has already done a lot of good in supporting mental health. It has been awarded the Finnish Association for Mental Health Mieli’s Hyvän mielen työpaikka (“Workplace with a Good Feeling”) designation and it is also involved in a mental health project of the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health together with Mehiläinen.

- We want to bear our own social responsibility to ensure that absences due to mental health reasons are kept to a minimum, and that mental health issues do not make anyone unfit for work, says Tohmo.

Solving the challenges of ergonomics at work remotely

Good work ergonomics is also considered important, as the work posture of a transcriptionist is very static; both hands are on the keyboard and the other foot controls the tape with a pedal.

- For example, since there is little possibility to change your posture, it is important to prevent musculoskeletal problems, Tohmo says.

Although the employees are scattered around Finland, solving the challenges of work ergonomics remotely is smooth, for example, with break exercises and individual guidance provided by a Mehiläinen physiotherapist.

100 % job satisfaction

The staff actively use the remote services and digital tools offered by Mehiläinen, which Tohmo believes will enable good development of cooperation also in the future. So far, the staff has been very satisfied with the cooperation, as indicated by the amazing 100 score of the NPS survey on Mehiläinen’s occupational healthcare services.

Remote work will continue to play an important role at Diktamen, so the company will continue to need a partner who has their finger on the pulse and responds to the demands of modern society.

- We will build even more extensive occupational healthcare cooperation and make it even better, which will support our growth and employees' work ability in the future, Ketola adds.