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As an employer, you can sometimes need help for different situations you face. You can learn where you can get services, monetary support, or advice at Job Market Finland.
As an employer, you have a wide range of statutory obligations towards both your employees and the authorities.
Paying your employees is not the only obligation that applies to you as an employer. You must also provide occupational health care, take care of occupational safety and health, take out an insurance for your employees, and draw up an equality plan. To ensure that working is as safe as possible, observe the working environment, working spaces and working methods. Remember to also take care of salary-based and other notifications to be sent to different authorities. If there is a valid collective agreement for your sector, the terms of employment must comply with it.
As an employer, the Occupational Health Care Act obliges you to arrange occupational health care for your personnel when there is at least one employee. All your employees have the right to occupational health care regardless of their working hours or the length of their employment relationships. The objective of occupational health care is to promote the healthy and safe working conditions of your employees, to support their ability to work throughout their careers, and to prevent work-related illnesses and accidents.
The aim of occupational safety is to create a safe, healthy, and productive workplace. As an employer, you are obliged to draw up an occupational safety and health policy. Additionally, it is your responsibility to assess and mitigate potential hazards and failures.
An insurance will provide you with security if your employee is injured in an accident at work, on the way to or from work, or becomes ill with an occupational disease. You can take out an insurance from your preferred non-life insurance company. Different insurance companies have different practices, so the exact prices of insurances vary. If you wish, you can tender for insurance companies.
Compulsory insurance policies for employees include earnings-related pension insurance, occupational accident and disease insurance, group life insurance, unemployment insurance premiums, and health insurance premiums. If you wish, you can also take out voluntary insurances.
If you are a large employer, your employment pension contributions are determined by comparing your disability risk with the average risk. The calculation compares the amount of disability pensions previously granted to the average amount of employment pension contributions.
At the beginning of an employment relationship, a customer of TE Office or a municipal trial who is finding employment with partial work ability must request a certificate from TE Office or a municipal trial stating that they have been entered in TE Services' customer register as a jobseeker with partial work ability. After this, they must deliver the certificate to you. As an employer, you must keep the certificate.
If a person with partial work ability becomes incapable of work during the first five years of employment, you must submit the certificate of partial work capacity received from the employee to your employment pension insurance company, in which case the employee's disability pension will not affect your employment pension contributions category.
When your employee requests a certificate of their partial work ability at the beginning of the employment relationship and delivers it to you, you will avoid the effects that your employee's possible retirement on disability pension would have on your employment pension contributions. This may, for its part, encourage the hiring of an employee with partial work ability.
Conflicts may arise in the work community. As an employer, you must identify the challenges in the work community and try to solve problems.
Your employees will certainly have different views on how to do their work. If different opinions cannot be discussed in the work community, disagreements may arise. Listen to and consider your employees' thoughts to help you improve your organization's performance. Try to make your work community a place where everyone can have a natural and constructive discussion.
Conflicts may also be based on discrimination or other inappropriateness. Create an atmosphere in the work community so that your employees can easily report bullying at the workplace, for example. As an employer, you must intervene in discrimination or bullying.
The Centre for Occupational Safety offers comprehensive guidelines for dealing with conflicts in a work community. You should familiarise yourself with them so that you know how to act in difficult situations.
The responsibility for work wellbeing is shared between everyone in the workplace. Having healthy, capable and motivated personnel is also very beneficial for the employer.
Are people feeling well in your work community? The values and operating environment of the organisation and its management affect the wellbeing of the work community and individual employees.
As an employer, it is your responsibility to take care of occupational safety. To ensure employee wellbeing at your workplace, anticipate potential problems, set clear goals, and build trust. Also make sure that management works, and that you treat employees equally. When you manage them fairly, openly, and with encouragement, you improve the wellbeing of your work community, and your employees can succeed better in their work.
What can you do as an employer?
You can ask the Occupational Safety and Health Administration for advice and instructions on matters related to health, safety, and terms of employment in the workplace. In addition to this, you must notify occupational health and safety of certain dangerous jobs, confirmed occupational diseases and serious work accidents.
Taking care of your employees' working ability is a prerequisite for ensuring wellbeing in your work community. There are different methods and practices for maintaining working ability. As an employer, you also have an obligation to take assigned measures.
You can have an early support conversation with your employee to find solutions to support their work ability. It is a good idea to continue discussing the situation in the occupational health discussions, which will be carried out together with occupational health care. If you notice reductions in work performance that you cannot fix by your own means at the workplace, you can guide your employee not only to the occupational health discussions but also to an assessment of their ability to work.
Occupational health care works in cooperation with your organisation to promote the health and work ability of your employees at all stages of their careers. Support for work ability is based on the practices agreed upon in your work community. The practices agreed between management, HR management, employees and occupational health care services are recorded in the workplace's work ability support model.
If your employee's illness or disability prevents them from working, you can make adjustments at your workplace. Adjustments refer to changes at work in which the job description is modified to better correspond to and support your employee's expertise and work ability.
If your new or current employee has a disability or illness and coping with work tasks requires, for example, the purchase of tools or changes made at the workplace, you can apply for a subsidy for arranging working conditions from the TE Office or the local government employment pilot.
As an employer, you are obliged to provide at least preventive occupational health care services for each employee in an employment or public service relationship. You can purchase these services from a public or private service provider or arrange them yourself. It is also recommended that you get occupational health care when you are an entrepreneur, even if it is not compulsory.
Rehabilitation may help your employee when the disability or illness complicates their work or coping at different stages of life.
If you notice that your employee's work ability has deteriorated or the sick leave limit (more than 90 days) is exceeded, it is your responsibility to raise the issue and discuss it with your employee.
Sairauspoissaolokäytännöt työkyvyn tukena (ttl.fi, in Finnish)
‘From working life to family leave and back – family leave guide for employers’ contains information that you can use as an employer to facilitate the reconciliation of work and family in your work community and to promote the wellbeing of the entire work community.
The guide summarizes the key issues regarding family leave, the law regarding which was renewed on August 1, 2022. It tells you what you should consider before the employee's family leave, during it, and when the employee returns to work from the leave.
If your employee’s illness or disability prevents them from working, you can make adjustments at the workplace. Adjustments refer to changes at work in which your employee’s job description is modified to better correspond to and support their expertise and work ability.
If you notice that your employee’s work ability has deteriorated or the amount of their sickness absence exceeds the sickness absence limit (more than 90 days), it is your responsibility to raise the matter with your employee. Your employee may also raise the matter if they cannot perform their current tasks in the same way as before.
You can have an early support conversation with your employee to find solutions to support their work ability. It is a good idea to continue discussing the situation in the occupational health discussions carried out as part of occupational health care.
The Occupational Health Discussion – Solutions for Work learning programme at the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health has sections for employees, supervisors and occupational health care providers which provide support for conducting occupational health discussions. Please also refer to the Occupational Health Discussion Guide of the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, which contains instructions for preparing for an occupational health discussion, information on livelihoods, and examples of work adaptation.
In addition to occupational health discussions, you can refer your employee for an assessment of work ability if they experience difficulties in their work performance that you cannot resolve by your own means at the workplace. This involves assessing their ability to perform their current tasks, the development of their functional and work abilities, and their capacity to function in working life. Your occupational health physician is often the best expert for assessing work ability, as they have information about the conditions in the workplace.
Agree with your employee on the necessary job changes and adjustments. You should also make a written agreement on them. In addition, agree when the situation will be re-evaluated together with the employee and occupational health care provider.
When you agree on working time arrangements with your employee, they gain flexibility for their daily work.
You can agree on flexible working hours with your employees as long as the arrangement complies with the Working Hours Act and your sectoral collective agreement. Your employees are therefore able to decide, within certain limits, on the start and end times of their workday.
Your employees can also work part-time. Possible alternatives include part-time pension, partial disability pension, discretionary part-time work and part-time parental leave as part of family leave.
Remote work is work that your employee does either at home or in another agreed location outside the actual workplace. Remote work can be either full-time or part-time. In the latter case, the employee works part of the week remotely and part of the week as normal at the workplace. Your employee can also work remotely on a one-off basis for a separately agreed period of time.
Adjusting work tasks and work processes to fit an employee’s work ability gives them more capacity to work better at different stages of life.
You can reorganise your employees’ work tasks within the workplace or adjust their working hours and forms of work. You can together make either temporary or permanent changes to the division of labour. Seek to agree on the changes together with the entire work community.
You can also use tools such as work analysis to customise the work tasks.
Job rotation, on the other hand, involves moving your employee to other activities or units at the workplace for a fixed period of time, after which they return to their previous assignment. The aim of job rotation may be to increase an employee’s well-being at work or to boost their motivation.
You can use the Ratko method to format and organise work. The method allows you to reorganise tasks in your work community. You’ll break down the work tasks of everyone involved. From the tasks that fall outside your employees’ core competence and ones they are used to performing alongside their own core tasks, you’ll create a completely new set of tasks. You can formulate this new set of tasks in a way that for example matches the work ability of an employee with partial work ability.
You can use the Ratko method for new hires and existing employees. You can also get expert help in implementing the method.
The target working environment is one which values equality and approachability and which feels comfortable for all your employees.
If an employee’s functional ability is impaired due to injury or illness, they can be supported with assistive devices, for example. Introducing the use of such devices is a personalised part of the rehabilitation or treatment process. Primary health care can provide your employee with the most common aids that support mobility, daily activities and sensory functions. A number of actors are involved in arranging the use of these aids, however, and each of these has different responsibilities.
If your employee is unable to cope with certain activities due to injury or illness, they may need personal help. It is the responsibility of the municipality to arrange such assistance, but this process also takes into account the employee’s own opinions, wishes, life situation and particular need for assistance.
If your employee needs interpretation due to hearing loss or a sight or speech disability and they live in Finland and have access to some method of communication, they can use Kela’s interpreter service for the disabled.
You as an employer must develop working conditions and ways of working that promote equality. If you regularly employ at least 30 people, you must have a plan of measures for promoting equality. You must address the promotion measures and their effectiveness with your staff or their representatives.
If a new or current employee of yours has a disability or illness and coping with work tasks requires, for example, purchasing tools or making changes at the workplace, you can apply for a subsidy for arranging working conditions from the TE Office or the local government pilot.
As an employer, you are tasked with supporting your diverse work community and different employees.
There is diversity in every work community, so treat your staff equally. Make diversity an asset and a competitive advantage for your organisation. Fair and equal treatment affects your employees' motivation and well-being at work.
Remember equality in all situations. You must treat everyone equally when you recruit, provide orientation, distribute tasks, and promote or terminate employees.
Ensure that your employees treat each other with respect as well. If conflicts arise, intervene as early as possible. Discuss equality and possible discrimination with your work community. Make sure that your entire work community is aware of the prohibited grounds for discrimination under the Equality Act and the Non-Discrimination Act. In one-to-one development discussions, you have a good opportunity to find out if there are any equality-related problems in the work community.
If you have at least 30 employees, you must draw up an equality plan at least once every two years with representatives appointed by the staff. They must have a genuine opportunity to influence the content of the plan. Among other things, the equality plan should address recruitment, pay, performance assessment, influencing opportunities, and well-being at work. A plan alone is not enough; as an employer, you must ensure that the issues presented in the equality plan become part of the work community's practices. Also remember to update the plan and make sure that your employees familiarise themselves with it.
By showing your appreciation to your personnel, you can create a positive employer image.
One way you as an employer can tell your staff that their contribution is important is to remember them on different important days. For example, birthdays, Christmas or important milestones of service are good opportunities to commemorate an employee with a gift.
Offer gifts or benefits equally to all employees, regardless of their position or performance. A gift can be an object, an entry ticket, a service or an individualised gift card.
Make sure to find out how gifts and employee benefits should be considered in taxation.
When your employee retires, your employment relationship ends. Read what you should remember as an employer before the retirement of an employee.
When your employee notifies that they will retire on old-age pension, agree together on their last working day. Also remember to terminate the employment relationship. It is advisable to end the employment relationship on the last day of the month, because pension payments always start at the beginning of the month.
Remind your employee to apply for pension well in advance, approximately one month before their last working day. Submit a report on the cancellation of the employment relationship and payment of the final salary to the Tax Administration's Incomes Register well in advance.
Your employee may also choose another alternative than old-age pension, such as partial old-age pension or years-of-service pension. In questions related to these, you should contact the employer's pension insurance company.
If your employee’s work ability changes, retirement is not the only option. Your employee's reduced work ability may prevent them from performing their current work, but they may be able to do other work or to continue in their current work on a part-time basis.
There are many ways to help your employee to continue in working life. For example, you can
The local government pilots on employment began on 1 March 2021 in the areas participating in the pilots. The local government pilots will end on 31 December 2024.
During the pilots, you will continue to be offered employer and business services by the TE Office. However, you should consider the effects of the local government pilot on using the services, as some of the job seeking customers have been transferred as customers of the municipalities participating in the pilot and some remained at the TE Office. During the pilot, the responsibility for the services of the customers being transferred falls on their municipality of residence. Those customers who will not be transferred to the pilot will continue to be customers of the TE Office.
All employer and business services offered by TE Offices will still be available to you in the local government pilot areas. For example, you can notify the TE Office of a vacancy and receive help in the development of personnel, in change situations and in matters related to work permits. The contact details of business advisors can be found on the website of the TE Offices.
You may further notify the TE Office of the vacancy, investment opportunity, or a work trial opportunity. If there is a local government pilot in your area, you can also notify the municipality conducting the pilot about the open job. The only exceptions are job alternation leaves, which are managed only by the TE Office.
Requests for contact, job postings, work trial opportunities, and jobs for which pay subsidy is paid submitted through the employer's E-services of TE Services are always referred to the TE Office for processing.
When applying for a pay subsidy during a local government pilot, it should be noted that the persons recruited in your region may be customers of either the TE Office or the local government pilot. If you recruit two people with pay subsidy, one may be a TE Office customer and the other may be a local government pilot customer.
When filling in a pay subsidy application, you must know whether you are applying for a pay subsidy from the TE Office or from a local government pilot. The easiest way to find out this is to ask the person being recruited whether they are a customer of a local government pilot or the TE Office. If the customer has received a pay subsidy card, the correct authority must have been entered in the card. In unclear cases, ask the person to be recruited to find out about the matter from their own expert or from the telephone service for personal customers.
It is a good idea to apply for a pay subsidy well in advance of the starting date of the employment relationship, as you must receive a positive pay subsidy decision before the employee with a pay subsidy can start working.
The collective agreement applicable in the field and the employee's personal employment contract restrict the employer's unilateral right, i.e. the right to supervise work.
However, as an employer, you must comply with the following principles.
In addition, matters that restrict the right to supervise work may be agreed upon in the employment contract. For example, if working hours or tasks have not been recorded in the employment contract, you must provide a written report to the employee at the latest after the end of the first pay period.
Remember that as an employer, you cannot usually unilaterally change the terms and conditions of employment described in the employment contract, but they must be re-agreed with the employee.
The occupational safety and health website contains a detailed list of the employer's obligations laid down in legislation.
You can only dismiss your permanent employee for a justified reason. Dismissal of an employee in a fixed-term employment relationship is only possible if it has been agreed upon separately. If your employee has violated their obligations very seriously, you can terminate the employment relationship. After the dismissal, you also have obligations regarding the offer of work and the reinstatement of the employee.
You must have a justified reason for dismissing an employee with a permanent work contract. Also remember that the dismissed employee's employment relationship does not end immediately, but after the period of notice. The length of your employee's employment relationship affects the duration of the period of notice. You must consult the employee before ending the employment relationship.
However, your employee may resign from a permanent employment relationship without a reason. They are still obliged to observe the period of notice.
You may have a reason for dismissal if
Read carefully the accepted and prohibited grounds for dismissal on the website of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in Finland.
A fixed-term employment relationship ends at a time agreed in advance in the employment contract or when your employee has completed the work agreed in the employment contract. It is only possible for you to dismiss your fixed-term employee in the middle of the employment relationship if you have separately agreed upon it either in the employment contract or during the employment relationship.
If you enter into a fixed-term employment contract with your employee for more than five years, the practices of terminating a permanent employment relationship apply to the employment relationship.
In the case of termination of an employment relationship, the employment relationship is cancelled immediately without a period of notice. As an employer, you can only terminate an employment relationship if your employee has violated their obligations very seriously. Your employee may also cancel the employment relationship if you have seriously violated your obligations as an employer.
During the trial period, both you as an employer and your employee can terminate the employment relationship without a specific reason.
You can find detailed instructions on terminating an employment contract and its possible reasons on the website of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in Finland.
When you dismiss your employee, you have an obligation to offer them employment, primarily employment corresponding to their current duties. In the absence of such work, the employee is to be offered other work corresponding to their training, professional skills, or experience.
You must provide the employee with the training required for new tasks given that organising and participating in it are reasonable for both you and the employee.
If you also control human resources matters in another organisation, you must determine whether the obligation to offer work or training can be fulfilled in these other organisations. A person who has been dismissed is not required to be a job seeker for this obligation, and their status must not be checked from the TE Services. The fulfilment of this obligation does not eliminate any subsequent readmission obligation.
Please remember that when you need more employees for tasks that are suitable for part-time employees, you must first offer work to your part-time employees.
If you employ new personnel within four months of termination of the employment relationships of persons dismissed for production-related and financial reasons, you have the obligation to first offer the work to the employees dismissed from the same or similar work.
If the employment relationship has lasted for 12 years, the rehiring period is six months. For municipal office holders, the duration of the re-employment obligation is nine months. The duration of the re-employment obligation for civil servants is 12 months and for employees nine months. Longer re-employment periods may also be agreed upon in collective agreements or change negotiations. The re-employment obligation does not apply to lay-offs.
If your organisation has a vacancy that would be suitable for an employee subject to the re-employment obligation, you can check by secure email whether the employee is a job seeker in the TE Services, unless otherwise agreed during the change negotiations. The TE Office or the local government pilot will record the query in its information system. If the person is a job seeker at the time of the check, you must offer them employment. You are responsible for keeping the employee's contact information, offering employment, and for ensuring that it is a genuine need for labour.
The obligations described above also apply to the employer who has dismissed employees as a result of the restructuring procedure.
If your company’s financial situation has deteriorated, laying off employees or ending their employment may be the first solutions that come to mind. However, you should familiarise yourself with the different options, especially when a difficult situation only seems temporary.
Using working hours arrangements, such as a work hours bank, you can regulate the working hours of your employees and create flexibility for seasonal work, for example. With working hours arrangements, you can have your employees work more in busy times and have them accumulate paid leave for a quieter period. Remember to take care of your employees’ well-being particularly well during busy times.
You may be able to avoid dismissal or lay-off of an employee by transferring annual leave. Remember to negotiate the transfer first with your employee.
You can develop your employees' skills in a changing work environment through complementary training. First, discuss with your employee whether they are interested in the training and the new tasks it enables.
Offering other available work before dismissing employees is an employer’s legal obligation. As an employer, you should always determine whether your company would have another possible job for the employee about to be dismissed. You should arrange training for a new position if it is reasonable for both you and your employee.
If the organisation of your employees' working hours or additional training does not solve your company's difficult situation, you can avoid dismissals with lay-offs. In this case, the employee's work and payment of salary will end, but the employment relationship will continue.
In the lay-off process, your employee's work and payment of salary are temporarily interrupted, but your employment relationship does not end. Lay-offs can be either full-time or part-time. In part-time lay-offs, your employees only work part of their daily or weekly working hours.
As an employer, you can decide on the need for lay-offs unilaterally, but you can also agree on lay-offs together with your employee.
As an employer, you can lay off your employees either indefinitely or for a fixed term. You may lay an employee off on two different grounds.
You may lay off an employee for an indefinite period if you would have a financial or production-related reason to also dismiss the employee. The amount of work must have decreased substantially and permanently, and you must not be able to offer the employee any other work or training.
If your opportunity to offer work has been temporarily reduced, you can lay off your employee for a fixed term. Fixed-term lay-offs can last up to 90 days. In this case, too, the precondition for lay-offs is that you cannot offer your employee other work or training.
Lay-offs primarily apply to your permanent employees. You can lay off a fixed-term employee only if they work as a substitute for your permanent employee and you would be entitled to laying off said permanent employee.
As the employer, you may only agree with your employee on a lay-off for a fixed period and on the basis of the employer's activities and financial status.
You must always give notice of the lay-off to the employee who will be laid off. The notice of lay-off must be given in person. If this is not possible, you can submit the notification by letter or electronically. The notice of the lay-off must also be delivered to the representatives of the employees to be laid off.
You must give notice of the lay-off 14 days before the start of the lay-off at the latest. The notice period may also be longer, so check the possible collective agreement for your field.
The notice of lay-off must state
In case of fixed-term lay-offs, state the exact duration.
You must provide a written certificate of the lay-off if your employee requests it.
As an employer, you can train your laid-off personnel using Targeted Training (TäsmäKoulutus) or Change Training (MuutosKoulutus). These joint procurement training programmes are organised and funded together with TE Services. The company must always agree on organising the training with the TE Office or the ELY Centre.
Change negotiations are joint activities between the employer and the personnel, the aim of which is to ensure the employees' possibilities of influencing their working conditions.
As an employer, you are subject to a statutory obligation to negotiate if you regularly employ at least 20 employees, and your organisation is about to experience
Before starting the change negotiations, you must submit a written proposal for the negotiations, which must include at least the date and location of the negotiations and a proposal on the issues to be discussed. The negotiations shall address the rationale, impact, and options of measures directed at personnel. Often both parties have a separate representative in the negotiations. In the change negotiations, the parties must act constructively and negotiate in a spirit of cooperation in order to reach consensus.
The change negotiations involve fixed time periods. Violating these can incur compensation payments or fines. Read the instructions for change negotiations carefully.
If you have under 20 employees, the change negotiations will not apply to you. However, before dismissal, you must provide your employees with an explanation of the reasons and alternatives for dismissal and inform them of the employment services available to them
If you need to dismiss employees for production-related and financial reasons, familiarise yourself with change security. Change security helps both the employer and the employee who is to be dismissed.
The objective of change security is to help the dismissed employee and make the change situation easier for you as an employer.
The change security operating model includes
The TE Office also offers you change security services in regions that are part of the local government pilot on employment. There are designated change security experts at TE Offices who are responsible for TE Services in change security situations. Additionally, the TE Office is responsible for preparing an employment plan for job seekers who are part of the municipal experiment when the job seeker who is covered by the change security has not yet transferred to the local government pilot on employment.
Change security includes obligations that apply to you as an employer. The obligations depend on the number of your subordinates and the number of people you are about to dismiss.
Extended restructuring protection is intended for you if you are 55 or older. The purpose of the service is to promote your rapid employment and to improve your position in the labour market.
You are entitled to restructuring protection for those aged 55 or over if
Restructuring protection for those aged 55 or over includes
The restructuring protection allowance corresponds to your average monthly salary. Remember to apply for restructuring protection allowance to your unemployment fund or Kela within three months of the end of your employment relationship.
Restructuring protection training is a service intended for persons aged 55 or over who have been dismissed from their employment relationship. The TE Office must arrange and grant it once information on the person’s dismissal has been gained from the employer.
If you intend to dismiss at least ten employees, you must prepare an action plan to promote employment together with your personnel. This must be prepared when the cooperation procedure begins.
The action plan must include
Please notify the TE Office of the termination of the employment relationship of the dismissed employees. Inform the TE Office of the number of employees to be dismissed, their professions, work duties, and the dates of termination of their employment relationships. Inform the employees that they are entitled to an employment plan.
You can submit a notification using the form ‘Employer's notification’. Use Suomi.fi e-Identification to log in to the Enterprise and Employer E-service, select ‘Contacts and documents’ on the front page and send the completed form.
If there are fewer than ten employees to be dismissed, you must explain in the change negotiations how your employees can apply for other jobs, training, or TE Services during their period of notice.
If you regularly employ at least 30 employees, you must offer those dismissed the opportunity to participate in coaching or training that promotes employment. This applies to employees who have been employed by you continuously for at least five years. You can offer the possibility either during the period of notice or in the early stages of unemployment.
You must pay for the coaching or training you offer. You can also agree with the employee that you will pay for the training or coaching that they themselves acquire.
The principles governing the organisation of training or coaching are recorded in the work community development plan, which must be updated after the change negotiations.
If you fail to comply with the obligation to provide coaching or training, you must pay your employee a sum equivalent to the value of the coaching or training.
If you regularly employ at least 30 employees and the dismissed employee's employment has lasted for at least five years, as an employer, you are obliged to arrange occupational health care for six months as of the termination of the obligation to work. For this period, you will receive compensation under the Health Insurance Act.