The digitalisation of the sick leave notification and monitoring processes, developed by Norway’s public welfare organisation (NAV), won this year’s Digitaliseringskonferansen award. In Norway, the majority of workers on sick leave and their employers can now exchange sick leave notifications electronically. The employer receives sick leave via Altinn, Norway’s eGovernment mailbox.

With Digitalsykmelding, NAV has streamlined the processes involved in communicating between everyone involved in sick leave, including employee, employer, medical professionals and NAV.

In a four-minute video, NAV explains how in Norway, each year some 830,000 employees notify their employer that they are sick. Making the notification digital and more efficient frees up time and reduces costs. The aim is to improve care and follow-up, and get employees back to work faster.

An employee uses Digitalsykmelding to send a message via the NAV portal directly to the employer. NAV is currently testing the extension of the system to include claiming sickness benefits. This currently still requires handing in a paper form. In addition, NAV is digitising the medical follow-up of sick leave notification, by linking the system to electronic health record systems.

The Digitaliseringskonferansen took place in Oslo on 8 and 9 June.

More information:

Announcement by Difi (in Norwegian)
Digitaliseringskonferansen website (in Norwegian)