What is occupational health care — and what it should be

Occupational health care (in Swedish, företagshälsovård or FHV) is the independent expert resource an employer uses to prevent and manage work-related ill health. Traditionally it has been reactive — you call it when someone is already injured, burned out or on sick leave. But that is only half of what it can be. The more valuable model is preventive company health (arbetshälsa): read the health of the workforce early, act on measurable risk, and stop problems before they cost people and productivity. This article explains what FHV covers under Swedish rules, where the reactive model falls short, and what a preventive, data-led approach adds.

Key takeaways

• FHV is legally an independent, preventive expert resource — not just a sick-leave hotline — under the Swedish Work Environment Act.
• Most traditional FHV activity is still reactive: rehabilitation, medical assessments and crisis support after problems appear.
• Preventive company health adds early, measurable insight — blood biomarkers, validated mental-health questionnaires and wearable data read together.
• Privacy is built in: the employer only ever sees aggregated, anonymised data about the workforce — never any single person's results.

What FHV actually covers in Sweden

Under the Work Environment Act (Arbetsmiljölagen), an employer must provide access to occupational health services to the extent the work conditions require. The law defines FHV as an independent expert resource in the areas of work environment and rehabilitation, with the competence to identify and describe the links between the work environment, organisation, productivity and health. In practice that means ergonomics assessments, statutory medical checks for hazardous work, workplace risk assessments, rehabilitation coordination and psychosocial support.

These are important and, in many cases, legally required. But notice the framing: the classic FHV engagement begins once a risk or an injury is already on the table. It is expert help, delivered late.

Why the reactive model is expensive

Sick leave is one of the largest controllable costs an employer carries. According to Försäkringskassan, the most common diagnoses behind long-term sickness benefit in Sweden are psychiatric conditions such as stress-related exhaustion, followed by musculoskeletal disorders — both of which develop gradually and are, in principle, detectable early. Statistics Sweden (SCB) tracks sickness absence as a share of contracted hours across the labour market, and it moves with workload, age profile and organisational health.

The problem with a purely reactive model is timing. By the time someone is signed off, the biological, psychological and organisational risk factors have usually been building for months or years. Rehabilitation is slower, more expensive and less certain than prevention. A model that only activates at the point of absence is, by design, always one step behind.

What preventive company health looks like

Preventive arbetshälsa asks a different question: what can we measure now, while everyone is still well, that tells us where risk is accumulating? This is where a data-led approach goes further than a single annual doctor's visit.

A modern programme reads three dimensions together — what Pheno calls the 360. First, physical health through blood biomarkers (for example markers linked to metabolic, cardiovascular and inflammatory risk). Second, mental wellbeing through validated questionnaires rather than guesswork. Third, wearable integration — steps, resting heart rate and sleep — for the day-to-day signal that a snapshot misses. Read together, these give a fuller picture than any single measure, and they surface patterns early enough to act on.

Crucially, this is about the workforce, not surveillance of individuals. The employer only ever sees aggregated, anonymised data — never any single person's results. Prevention at the organisational level; privacy at the individual level.

Where the two models meet

Preventive company health does not replace statutory FHV — it strengthens it. Ergonomics, rehabilitation and legally required medical checks still belong to the occupational-health function. But layering early, measurable insight on top means the reactive services are called on less often, because more risk is caught and addressed while it is still cheap and reversible to do so. The best programmes treat prevention and reaction as one continuous system, not two disconnected services.

What Pheno can add

Pheno is preventive company health, delivered as the 360: blood biomarkers, validated mental-health questionnaires and wearable data, read together with a doctor in the loop and built as medical-device software under EU MDR. Employers receive only aggregated, anonymised insight into workforce health, while each employee owns their individual results. It is designed within the framework of företagshälsovård and preventive health. See Pheno for companies for how it fits alongside your existing occupational-health provision.

Frequently asked questions

What does the 360 actually measure?

Three dimensions read together: physical health through blood biomarkers, mental wellbeing through validated questionnaires (a non-diagnostic measure of how people are doing), and wearable data such as steps, resting heart rate and sleep. No single measure tells the whole story, so the 360 reads them as one picture.

Can my employer see my individual results?

No. In Pheno's model the employer only ever sees aggregated, anonymised data about the workforce as a whole. Your individual biomarker, questionnaire and wearable results are yours.

Does this replace our current FHV provider?

No. It complements statutory occupational health — ergonomics, rehabilitation and required medical checks — by adding early, preventive insight so those services are needed less often.

Sources & methodology

This article is general education, not medical or legal advice. It draws on Swedish legislation and public statistics on the work environment and sickness absence, and on Pheno's own product design.

• Arbetsmiljölagen (Work Environment Act), including provisions on occupational health services (företagshälsovård) — Sveriges riksdag / Arbetsmiljöverket.
• Försäkringskassan — statistics and analyses on sickness benefit and the most common diagnoses behind long-term sick leave.
• Statistics Sweden (SCB) — sickness absence as a share of contracted working hours.