Labour Force Service Center Helsinki

1. Labour Force Service CenterHelsinki Ilkka Haahtela Workshop, Elblag 12.5.2010

2. The Labour Service Centre acts as a one-stop-shop for those for whom finding employment has proven difficult.   The Labour Service Centres are service points, which function co-operatively with the Employment and economic development Office, the municipalities, and the Social Insurance Institution of Finland (Kela).

3. The Labour Services Centre aims to find a suitable solution to the client's situation: finding employment, educating or rehabilitating oneself or retiring.  The main goal is finding long-term solution for clients. Services are tailored specifically to the needs of each client.  Any further plans are based on the client's own goals and objectives.

4. The Labour Service Centre may obtain, as an outsourcing service for their clients, training, coaching, guidance, assessment of functional and working ability, and personal support services.   Services are available for groups, as well as for individuals. We have 30 groups and 10 courses for clients (year 2010)

5. In Helsinki we have five teams and each team has its own psychologist, nurse, social workers and employment officers. This multiprofessional team try to see a big picture of the client´s situation. We have used five different datasystems, because each sector has its own system.

6. Activate rate v. 2009: 26,1 % • We try to activate our clients: • workshops in the city • courses and groups • training in the workplace (or third sector) • help them get to rahabilitation

8. The big challenge is the Finnish system, where nobody has the overall responsibility of the client's process. Client is standing in the middle of a circle, in which different sectors operate (there is co-operation, but not responsibility of the whole process). Customer is focused only on his own community.

9. 1) The unemployment allowance (employment condition 10 months) Basic allowance (social insurance, Kela) Earnings-related (unemployment funds, e.g www.ytk.fi ) 2) The labour market subsidy Finnish unemployment benefits

10. Financial Benefits An employment official must check whether there are grounds for paying the benefit. The condition for receiving unemployment benefits is that the unemployed person is available to the labour market. Entrepreneurship, fulltime studies, military service or hospitalisation may be obstacles to receiving the allowance. The basic condition for receiving the earnings-related allowance is that you are a member of an unemployment fund. You apply for earnings-related allowance from your own unemployment fund, and the basic allowance and labour market allowance are provided by KELA.

11. Financial Benefits • The purpose of the Labour Market Subsidy is to provide financial assistance for • unemployed job seekers who enter the labour market for the first time or otherwise have no recent work experience • long-term unemployed persons who have exhausted their 500-day eligibility for the basic or earnings-related unemployment allowance. • Municipalities pay for half of Labour Market Subsidy

12. Benefits during the training Job seeker: - Free coaching - 9 e/day extra - Full wage (if wage subsidies) Employerss: - Wage subsidies (50-90 %, 6-12 months,) - Training without costs (max 6 months) - Training with coaching (varies)

13. Office services At a jobsearch interview, you will get together with an employment counsellor to assess your competences and need for training. Then you will make a jobsearch plan specifying how you will look for work and how the employment office can support you in your efforts. If you have been unemployed continuously for more than five months, you will get an individualised jobsearch plan specifying details including your need for services, the types of jobs and training you will apply for and the measures that will best promote your employment.

14. Office services Jobsearch training allows you to practice various issues related to jobseeking, learn to recognise your own strengths, make job applications and prepare for job interviews. Jobsearch training takes place in the form of courses that last around one week. The jobsearch clubs are a type of jobsearch training where jobseekers look for work with support of the club leader and the rest of the group. The club provides tools for jobsearch and meets once a week.

15. Office services • The labour administration’s vocational rehabilitation means services provided for disabled persons. These include: • vocational guidance and career planning services; • counselling and advice related to work placement and training; • medical examinations and aptitude testing as well as expert consultations; • work and training try-outs; • other measures supporting work placement; • labour market training. • In this context, the term ’disabled’ refers to a person whose potential for gaining suitable work, retaining their job or advancing in work has diminished significantly due to an injury, illness or disability

16. Labour shortages • Recruitment problems are increasing as employees retire from the working life (the baby boomers generation in the late 1940’s) • Problems occur mostly in Helsinki metropolitan area and other larger cities • Most problematic fields: health care, hotel and catering, services TOP 5 Shortages (2009) • doctor 4. cleaner • nurse 5. cook/chef • practical nurse 6. hairdresser/barber

17. Part-time jobs • Nurses • Practical nurses • Shop and market sale persons • Telephone salespersons • ”Berry pickers” • Cooks/chefs • Restaurant service workers • Waiters/waitresses • Au pairs • Cleaners

18. OPEN JOB MARKETS IN FINLAND: Plenty of skilled job seekers available (recent layouts) Employers expect: High level of professionalism and skills Capability for initiative Capability to comform and for flexibility Company personnell structure is flat: absence of middle management Only about half of the companies have at least one dedicated HR-person Number of Social Enterprises is insignificant Disabled jobseekers over 45 years

19. How unemployed disabled clients are directed to open Job markets OPEN JOB MARKETS JOB COACH JOBS CLIENT EMPLOYMENT OFFICER TRAINEESHIPS Employment officer provides Client with more opportunities in open markets as well as channels public compensations and services. EO may as well fund job coach services, who provides extra network and possibilities. Client’s own activity is crucial. Experiments

20. Employer’s Prejudices against +45 workers: • Exhausted and fed up • Sickly • Irritated • Stuck in old patterns • No enthusiasm left • Employer’s Prejudices against disabled: • Problems in tailoring suitable tasks or working hours • Why unemployed for so long? • Suspicious of health and capabilities • Suspicious of initiative and conformity • Prefers skill over compensations / social responsibility • POSITIVES: • Compensations help open doors • Traineeships help open doors • Willing to consider when lack of other candidates • Builds public image • Disabled less likely to change company • When familiar with disabled, willing to employ more • Other Limitations as seen by Employers: • Unfamiliarity about byrocracy and compensations • Unfamiliarity about benefits • No time for byrocracy / fact finding

21. OPEN JOB MARKETS IN FINLAND: Plenty of skilled job seekers available (recent layouts) Employers expect: High level of professionalism and skills Capability for initiative Capability to comform and for flexibility Company personnell structure is flat: absence of middle management Only about half of the companies have at least one dedicated HR-person Number of Social Enterprises is insignificant more than 45-year-olds in the labor market situation Ageism Varies by occupation Young people are very well educated and multilingual In Finland, there is currently no shortage of labor If you're ready for almost any job, the opportunity to get a job is good