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Nautor Swan

Pihlajalinna helps Nautor Swan in consistent managerial work.

Employee well-being is directly reflected in Nautor Swan’s profit. Occupational health care cooperation with Pihlajalinna has played a key role in developing the company personnel’s work ability, managerial work, and occupational health.

The occupational health care cooperation between Nautor Swan and Pihlajalinna has been extensive since 2014. The current agreement includes not only the statutory healthcare services but also specialist consultations, laboratory tests and imaging studies, among other services.

“Our occupational health care cooperation has become closer in recent years, and we have reviewed the need for services together. We have developed a coherent occupational health plan that centres around support for managerial work at Nautor and improving their change management,” says Sini Kuusisto, Account Manager at Pihlajalinna.

Nautor Swan manufactures sailing boats

Founded in 1966, the Jakobstad-based boatyard manufactures large, luxury sailing boats.
The company’s turnover is over EUR 100 million.
Nautor has around 320 employees and 130 subcontractors in Finland.
In addition to boat builders, Nautor also employs engineers, office workers and logistics workers.
Nautor has collaborated with Pihlajalinna Occupational Health for over a decade.

Boat-building involves a risk of occupational accidents and musculoskeletal problems

Work in the boatyard is physical, which leads to musculoskeletal problems. Other causes of health issues at Nautor include paints and solvents as well as noise and vibration. Working in such challenging conditions is also reflected in the company’s accident rate.

“There are many jobs involving various exposure factors and occupational hazards in the boat-building industry. One of our common goals has been to bring about a clear cultural change regarding occupational safety. We have succeeded in doing this and our efforts continue,” adds Piia Hanhilahti, Occupational Health Physician at Pihlajalinna.

“Our personnel’s awareness of the importance of personal protective equipment has increased in recent years, and our occupational accident rate has dropped: in 2024, we had 36 accidents – this year we have recorded only two accidents,” says Magnus Ljung, Head of Human Resources at Nautor.

Clear decline in occupational accidents in 2025:

2023 – 25 pcs

2024 – 36 pcs

2025 – 2 pcs

Application helps supervisors manage working capacity

In spring 2025, Nautor began using Pihlajalinna’s Työkyvyn tuki application, which supports HR and supervisors in working capacity management. The application allows supervisors to monitor absences in a centralised manner and respond to problems before they even arise.

“The availability of all the information in one system makes the organisation of working capacity support easier and facilitates supervisors’ and HR’s opportunities to provide early support at the workplace,” Kuusisto explains.

“The application helps us identify the sore points of managerial work and promotes improved managerial practices. Our ultimate goal is to identify potential illnesses and health problems faster to refer the employees concerned for the right treatment before it is too late,” says Ljung.

Open dialogue defuses even the most difficult situations

Magnus Ljung emphasises that an open and reliable partnership is the cornerstone of good occupational health care cooperation. For example, smooth collaboration makes intervening in the work community’s substance abuse problems easy.

“In individual challenging situations, we have received patient and solution-focused support from occupational health. It is great to see that solutions we have developed together have helped some of our employees return to working life,” says Ljung.

Good communication has also helped solve various crises. For example, when Nautor Swan recently held extensive change negotiations, Pihlajalinna’s occupational health team helped the employees recover from the situation.

Occupational health can also help overhaul the entire working culture

Investing in supervisors through training supports the well-being of the entire work community.

“Supervisors take the word of external experts more seriously than simple data,” says Ljung.

Nautor’s and Pihlajalinna’s current goal for the cooperation is to improve preventive activities that support working capacity by training supervisors and HR personnel to incorporate the Työkyvyn tuki application into their work. At the same time, there are plans to take chemical safety more carefully into account to promote employee health and safety.

“We will organise workshops to discuss health problems caused by exposure factors present at the workplace, such as chemicals. Our goal is to have employees use respiration protection as regularly as eye protection,” Hanhilahti sums up.