The Finnish workplace approach to coping with the COVID-19 pandemic

Many of the factors that have affected Finland’s successful coping with the COVID-19 pandemic are
strongly rooted in the Finnish culture going back hundreds, if not thousands, of years.

The first Finns who settled in Finland had to face very harsh conditions. If we just consider the weather, for
instance, for about six months of the year the entire country was covered in snow and ice. Finding food or
growing anything was a challenge. In more recent history, we have faced invasion by our neighbouring
countries, Russia and Sweden, before becoming independent in 1917. Sisu is a Finnish word that describes
the perseverance of the people. We are able to cope with all types of harsh conditions with persistence and
resilience.

Several studies have been made during the COVID-19 pandemic comparing how well different countries
have coped and which countries have suffered more or less (economically or healthwise). The studies seem
to highlight some of the characteristics that are strong in the Finnish culture and have a positive effect on
resilience.

Here are few factors and practical actions taken by Finnish organisations. If you are interested to read more
about the topic you can find the full paper here.

Remote work

Before the pandemic, Finland was in the top five of countries that do the most remote work in Europe. It is
not surprising that in 2019 remote work was structurally more widespread in countries such as Sweden,
Finland and Denmark with larger shares of employment in the knowledge and ICT service sectors. Eurostat
data from 2020 shows that the Helsinki Capital region had the highest number of remote workers
compared to any other EU region. Several studies during the COVID-19 period have shown that the Finnish
people have felt their well-being has increased slightly as well as self-perceived productivity, despite the
long time working remotely.

Innovation

Finland has always scored high on comparisons regarding innovation between countries. In a global
ranking, Finland was chosen as the Innovation Champion of the World. During the pandemic, innovation
was needed to make sure the economy would be hit as little as possible, and many organisations quickly
invented ways to reorganise operations to ensure people could stay at work.

Trust

Finnish people trust in other people and authority, which is helpful during times of crisis, Finns’ trust in the
police is the highest in Europe, and in the political system and the legal system the second highest. Finns
also trust news the most in the world (37 countries in the comparison) and Finns’ trust in other people is
the highest in Europe. Our trust in authority helps us obey the rules and restrictions that are enforced by
the authority — for example, during the pandemic, Finns have been following instructions from the health
authority and obediently wearing masks. Trust has also been a key component already prior to COVID-19,
which has led to a low hierarchy within Finnish companies and high self-leadership. Thus organising remote
work was not as big a challenge for Finnish organisations as it was for some other countries with more
traditional working cultures.

Maija Ahokas, Ørn Software
Antti Pitkänen, Agile Work

This paper was originally published in Corporate Real Estate Journal, summer 2022