Employees today need benefits that genuinely make life easier, not just ones that look good in an employer’s offer. The “Preventive Health Leave – 8 Hours for Medical Check-ups” programme responds precisely to this need: it gives employees additional paid time to undergo tests, attend medical consultations or take other actions that support their health. From the employee’s perspective, it means greater comfort and a stronger sense of security. From the employer’s perspective, it is a modern benefit that supports employee wellbeing and a responsible organisational culture.
A benefit that addresses a specific problem
One of the most common reasons why people postpone medical check-ups is not a lack of awareness, but a lack of time. This is exactly the barrier addressed by the “Preventive Health Leave – 8 Hours for Medical Check-ups” programme, an initiative of member companies of the Polish-Swiss Chamber of Commerce: Novartis Poland, Roche Polska and Sandoz Polska. The idea is simple: an employee receives additional paid time as part of preventive health leave, which can be used to take care of their health.
In practice, this is a benefit that does not compete with an employee’s daily responsibilities, but helps reconcile them with health-related needs. Instead of having to choose between a doctor’s appointment and a meeting at work, the employee is given dedicated time for this purpose — without stress, without haste and without loss of pay. It is not only a health-promoting solution, but also an element of a mature employee policy.
A simple benefit with flexible rules
Under the programme, employees receive eight hours of paid time off per year. They can use it all at once or split it into shorter periods, depending on their needs. This time may be used for preventive examinations, medical appointments or other health-supporting activities, including psychological consultations.
From the employer’s perspective, it is also important that the implementation of the solution is clear and predictable: a company wishing to join the initiative includes an additional fully paid day of preventive health leave in its workplace regulations and communicates the rules to its team.
Sickness absence is a challenge for companies and employees
According to data from Poland’s Social Insurance Institution, ZUS, in 2024 there were 27.5 million medical certificates of temporary incapacity for work, covering a total of 290.5 million days of sickness absence, both due to employees’ own illness and due to care for children or other family members. The average length of a medical certificate was 10.82 days, and statistically every second insured person in Poland registered with ZUS received one.[1] This scale shows how significant employee absences caused by health problems are for the functioning of companies.
For employers, this means not only the direct cost resulting from an employee’s temporary absence, but also a range of organisational consequences: the need to reorganise work, delays in task completion and an additional burden on the team. Sickness absence therefore becomes not only an HR challenge, but also a real business cost.
In practice, the duties of a person on sick leave are very often taken over by other team members. This, in turn, lengthens their task lists, increases pressure and may lead to work overload. In the longer term, it can result in frustration, lower efficiency and a deterioration in wellbeing also among employees who do not themselves take sick leave.
Voices of the initiators
“From the perspective of the Polish-Swiss Chamber of Commerce, this initiative clearly shows how a responsible approach to employees can go hand in hand with rational business thinking. Companies are increasingly looking for benefits that are valuable to teams, simple to implement and consistent with organisational culture. ‘Preventive Health Leave – 8 Hours for Medical Check-ups’ responds precisely to these needs. It is a solution that can be incorporated into modern HR policy, but also into broader thinking about the quality of the work environment,” says Ulrich Schwendimann, Managing Director of the Polish-Swiss Chamber of Commerce.
The programme’s initiators encourage more companies to join the initiative and include an additional fully paid day of preventive health leave in their workplace regulations.
“Medical check-ups require time, and we never have enough of it. The solution in the form of one additional fully paid day of preventive health leave is a proposal that directly reduces one of the most frequently cited reasons for postponing examinations,” emphasises Karolina Demus, Country President of Sandoz Polska.
Irma Veberič also encourages companies to use the solution:
“Concern for health should not lose out to a calendar full of meetings or professional duties. Eight hours for prevention is a concrete incentive to take responsibility for one’s health. At the same time, it is our declaration — as employers in the life sciences sector — of shared responsibility for building health-promoting attitudes and thereby strengthening prevention and preventive healthcare in Poland,” says Irma Veberič, General Manager of Roche Polska.
As Victoria Tian notes:
“Preventive Health Leave — eight hours for medical check-ups — can be used flexibly: as one full day or in shorter periods, depending on needs and work organisation. The purpose of this initiative is simple: we are implementing in our organisations a solution that supports participation in preventive examinations and reduces barriers to accessing medical tests. We are convinced that strengthening prevention and preventive healthcare, which are the foundations of a stable and well-functioning healthcare system, will bring measurable benefits in the long term,” emphasises Victoria Tian, Country President of Novartis Poland.
About the initiative
The “Preventive Health Leave – 8 Hours for Medical Check-ups” programme is an initiative of member companies of the Polish-Swiss Chamber of Commerce: Novartis Poland, Roche Polska and Sandoz Polska. Under the programme, employees of participating companies receive eight hours of paid time off per year for preventive examinations, medical consultations or other health-supporting activities. Details are available at: https://urlopnabadania.pl/
[1] Report on Sickness Absence in 2025, Department of Statistics and Actuarial Forecasts, Warsaw 2026.
Source: Managerplus.pl.
