According to Marja-Leena Rinkineva, the director of economic development at the City of Helsinki, there is potential in employer and business services.
“We are creating a comprehensive service that focuses on ease, accessibility and clarity. Helsinki emphasises customer understanding.”
Rinkineva speaks with genuine enthusiasm. Most business and employment services will be transferred from the state to municipalities, i.e. also to the City of Helsinki, at the beginning of 2025. All customers of the Employment and Economic Development Office, or TE Office for short, will be transferred to Helsinki Employment Services. Some of the service design is still ongoing, but we have already achieved a lot in terms of the transfer.
“We are able to increase cooperation between local operators in the field. We understand the needs of employers and businesses well, and it is easier to find solutions to them in cooperation with other municipalities in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area,” Rinkineva says.
Our objective is to lower the threshold for a company to hire its first employee, and one way to support the company in the transition to becoming an employer is the Helsinki benefit – a financial benefit for employers for hiring an unemployed job-seeker.
Paulus Ähtävä, CEO of Hel Goods, which sells branded products, is satisfied with the ease of working with the Employment Services.
“We used the Helsinki benefit to hire a full-time employee. This was significant, because our industry has suffered due to part-time and fixed-term employment.”
The City of Helsinki is a long-term expert in employer and business services. It has been developing business services for more than a decade now. The innovation and business services offered by the Economic Development Department support business growth throughout the life cycle of companies. International House Helsinki, established in cooperation with the state and other neighbouring municipalities, assists employers in tasks such as recruiting personnel from abroad.
In addition to recruitment and financial support, the new employer services concern, for example, cooperation in staff training and change processes at the workplace. Helsinki Employment Services has the skills needed to provide employers and businesses with services in various situations in the labour market.
“There are 51,000 companies in Helsinki, of which 48,000 are small enterprises and 300 large enterprises – some do not have the time or resources for recruitment,” says Risto Rantala, Employer Services Head of Unit.
Cooperation with Business Helsinki, the TE Office and employment services “has already been fantastic,” leaving no doubt in anyone’s mind that the City of Helsinki and the head of unit mean business.
We are currently developing the service models of the organisation that will be starting operations at the beginning of 2025. One tangible objective is to shorten the time needed to find potential employees for employers.
“Next year, some 60 skilled employees will be transferred from the TE Office – they will have expertise in business cooperation, recruitment, change security and financial support for employers.”
Helsinki therefore believes in the potential of employer services for improving employment, even though finding a job in the current situation is not easy.
“We are building partnerships with employers and training skilled workers for their needs in cooperation with educational institutions. In the new public enterprise, we will be working together to improve the skills of jobseekers or recognise, for example, the potential of our customers in a difficult position in the labour market. We want serve these customers, as well, to the best of our abilities and find jobs suitable for them,” Rantala says.
According to Rantala, diversity at the workplace is in the best interests of employers.
Incidentally, what do customers usually need?
“We talk about all our services for supporting employment and raise awareness about our services among all employers. It really comes down to providing a basic service: finding skilled employees,” Rantala says.
