National Working Life Development Strategy – Towards the working life of 2035

The national Working Life Development Strategy project was launched by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment and the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health. The WORK2030 programme, the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health and the Ministry of Education and Culture are involved in the preparatory work. The strategy work is led by the Minister of Employment and the Minister of Social Security.

The Working Life Development Strategy will provide a common framework and direction for development activities both at workplaces and in society as a whole. At the level of society, the strategy will guide the development of work-life and the allocation of related resources. The strategy will influence the upcoming Government Programmes. At workplaces, the work will be about building the working life of the future and improving productivity, wellbeing and competence. The strategy will help workplaces implement development measures and will encourage the use of new technology and practices.

The Working Life Development Strategy will be drawn up with a view to the future. It will highlight the strengths and areas of development for working life that all interest groups are keen to influence so that Finland will enjoy from high productivity and quality of working life in 2035.

Strategy work is carried out in a broad-based cooperation group consisting of 16 key organisations: four ministries, seven labour market confederations and five other key organisations developing working life.

The senior management of the organisations in the cooperation group forms the management group of strategy work. The management group guides the preparation process and supports the expert group. The management group defines and decides the vision of the strategy and approves the strategy.

The content of the strategy is produced by a group consisting of experts appointed by the participating organisations.

A secretariat is responsible for the progress of the strategy process. The secretariat supports the work of the expert group.

The names of the persons appointed to the management group, expert group and secretariat are available under "Persons" on the project website.

The letter of appointment was prepared in cooperation with the ministries that launched the project (see part 1). A high-level management group led by the ministers (Minister of Employment and Minister of Social Security) and an expert group consisting of representatives of the same bodies were appointed for the strategy work. The decisions on appointing the members were made in each organisation receiving the request.

The previous strategy was drawn up in 2012 with a target year of 2020. Since the end of the strategy period, rapid changes have taken place in working life. All sectors are undergoing a transformation of work, which is changing the content and practices of working, accelerated by digitalisation. As a result of the pandemic, remote and hybrid work have become much more common. This hybrid approach is also visible in the new ways combining remote and in-person services and meetings. Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine has contributed to the ongoing economic uncertainty. Digitalisation, the advancing climate crisis and the increased risks arising from world politics have meant that new competences are required at work. In Finland, the population continues to age, which makes higher labour productivity a critical objective for ensuring the standard of living and services in society.

Among other things, the strategy will be based on the view that the competence and wellbeing of people in work communities will transform into productivity for companies/organisations. At workplaces, the work will be about building the working life of the future and improving productivity, wellbeing and competence. Particular themes emerging from the situation pictures on working life and discussions on them include wellbeing at work, learning, productivity, diversity, digitalisation and artificial intelligence.

However, the expert group will make the final decisions on the priorities and limitations of the strategy. The group will formulate a view on the issues that need to be addressed in order to achieve the vision on the development of working life defined by the management group.

Both. The Finnish working life has significant strengths, such as the high level of competence of the labour force and the perception among employees of work-life being good in general. Nonetheless, labour productivity has not reached the level of the reference countries, which means that solutions to the current and future challenges as well as the development of services, products, practices and work communities are necessary.

In order for the strategy to be implemented and monitored, it must also include limitations. Decisions on these will be made among those involved in the strategy work. Through monitoring, it will be possible to make necessary corrections along the way.

Yes. The preliminary work for the strategy was based on research data. The situation picture on working life collected from the studies was supplemented with extensive participation of researchers, experts and young people. (For information on the situation picture on working life, see question 18.)

The aim is to create a common view on how best to raise labour productivity and improve wellbeing at work, as well as a long-term and forward-looking commitment to the development of working life together.

The objective is a shared, ambitious vision for the development of working life, and to achieve this, jointly defined, synergistic measures at the level of organisations and society towards 2035. The measures will be targeted at workplaces and the working population, in particular.

Joint strategy work will connect research data with a broad-based vision and a long-term perspective which are necessary for the development of working life.

The development of work-life will contribute to longer working careers, better availability of skilled labour, higher wellbeing and productivity.

The strategy will be shared by ministries, labour market organisations and other national bodies involved in working life. In particular, the choices made in the strategy will guide and direct the development activities of these organisations and the use of resources. The strategy will benefit Finnish workplaces and the working population by improving their development activities, productivity and wellbeing.

While the strategy now under preparation is new, considerable use has been made of the previous strategy extending until 2020 in the preparation.

The previous strategy identified employee competence, learning at work and opportunities to influence decisions on one’s own work as strengths of the Finnish working life. On the other hand, the strategy found that there was room for improvement concerning the production of innovations, the work of supervisors and the opportunities of employees to participate in development activities. The development areas are relevant to the ability of organisations to transform competence and knowledge into productivity growth.

The new strategy will seamlessly continue to develop the working life based on the previous strategy. The themes and objectives of the previous strategy formed the basis for the Työelämän tilannekuvia (Situation pictures on working life) report produced as background work for the new strategy.

The strategy work and the development of working life will hopefully spark wide-ranging discussions also among people not participating in the strategy work. For this purpose, an open survey (questionnaire) is available on the strategy website, which will be updated as the work progresses.

In case you want to organise a discussion for your network and need help with it, support material for the discussions is available on the website. You can also contact the secretariat of the strategy work. The contact information can be found on the above-mentioned website.

The strategy will be completed in March 2026 and will extend until 2035.

A roadmap, or an implementation plan, will be created for the measures of the strategy. The measures will be agreed on  among those involved in the strategy work. A precondition for success is that everyone involved is committed to the strategy and its implementation.

An implementation plan and a monitoring and impact assessment model supporting it will be created for the strategy. The achievement of the strategy’s objectives, the desired change and development will be monitored with the help of the model.  

The progress and effectiveness of the strategy choices will be assessed at the Work Life Forum held every other year. It serves as a forum for strategy monitoring and joint learning. It links many interest groups with implementation of the strategy.

In addition, the implementation of the strategy will be monitored by evaluating how the development of working life is reflected in Government Programmes and their implementation, as regards e.g. the EU structural funds programmes.

The strategy and the measures agreed as part of it will be updated whenever necessary. This and other possible monitoring will be agreed on in more detail as part of the strategy work in 2025–2026.

The strategy work will be carried out as part of the official duties of public officials. The costs will be covered by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment and the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health. A monitoring and impact assessment model will be put out to tender (the procurement value will not exceed EUR 35,000).

The strategy will compile the measures and choices for developing working life to support sustainable economic growth. These measures will be defined by different bodies together. The strategy will guide joint national measures, and the choices defined in it will direct public spending within measures developing working life. The strategy will support workplaces in their own development work and encourage the building of work and workplaces of the future.

The development of working life depends on changes in the operating environment and future prospects. Key observations by theme include:

​​​​​Productivity

Finland invests in buildings; others invest in information and communications technology. The ageing of the population and the decline in the skills of young people weaken the human capital. The Working Life Development Strategy focuses on total productivity indicating what is being achieved in work communities and workplaces. In recent decades, Finland’s productivity growth has mostly been driven by growth in total productivity. Finland needs more innovative, pioneering work communities. Extensive remote work has highlighted the importance of interaction for learning and reform.

Wellbeing at work
In the long term, the health of the working population has improved, long absences due to illness, disability pensions, occupational accidents and occupational diseases have decreased and working careers are longer. However, increased sickness absences due on mental health problems have become a significant challenge for the Finnish working life. In the long term, the support of supervisors, opportunities to exert influence, the sense of community and the ability of workplaces to support the health of their employees have improved, which contributes to work ability and coping at work.

Continuous learning
A culture that supports workplace learning has become quite strong, but this development appears to have stalled in the past five years. Learning at work includes working with others, accepting new tasks and participating in the development work. In general, people think learning is important and they enjoy it. However, people and work communities have very different levels of motivation and opportunities to participate in learning. Working conditions and workplace culture can either significantly support or hinder the accumulation of competence. Efforts will be made to promote the accumulation of human capital through solutions that would bring the extensive competence of higher education institutions and other educational institutions for the use of working-age people quickly and in a customised way to supplement their skills.

On the homepage and the official project page of the strategy as well as on social media with the hashtag #maailmanparastyöelämä.

It serves as a forum for strategy monitoring and learning together (see section 15).

No, it is not. While both address issues related to the development of working life, strategy work is not part of the official negotiation system of the labour market.

Young people’s views were included as part of the other preliminary work on the strategy (see question 6). The views were included in the work creating the vision and they will also be considered by the expert group in the discussions on strategy themes and the drafting of the strategy.