"Telework 1998":
Annual Report from the European Commission
3.5 Finland
With one of Europe's smallest populations distributed across its fifth
largest geographic area, Finland has strong natural motivation towards both conventional
and advanced telecommunications applications. This is reflected in its very rapid take-up
of Internet and widespread acceptance of uses such as online banking, which is well
established in Finland while still a novelty or a future possibility in many other
countries. Finland also leads Europe in mobile communications, both as a user and
supplier. Telework, unlike home banking or mobile telephony, involves organisational,
social and behavioural changes; telework in the sense of a general new way of working has
been slower to gain acceptance. Take-up has been influenced by the high unemployment rates
associated with the recent recession, from which Finland is still recovering; people are
concerned with getting or keeping a job rather than with how and where the work is done.
Nonetheless, with something over 5% of the workforce already using telework to some degree
(depending on the definition), it can be expected to spread as unemployment rates are
reduced.
In more specialist forms of telework - such as tele-medicine - a
dispersed population plus a highly developed information infrastructure makes Finland a
natural leader. The Government has proactive Information Society strategies and Finland is
very well placed to play a significant role in Information Society developments both in
Europe and globally.
3.5.2 Telework background and take-up of ICTs
General background:
- With a small population, spread across a large geographic area, Finland is Europe's most
sparsely populated country:
| |
Population
(millions) |
Area ('000 km2) |
Population per
km2 |
Netherlands |
15.4 |
41.5 |
371 |
Belgium/Luxembourg |
10.1 |
30.5 |
331 |
UK |
58.1 |
243 |
239 |
Germany |
81.1 |
358 |
227 |
Italy |
57.2 |
301 |
190 |
Denmark |
5.2 |
43 |
121 |
Portugal |
9.8 |
89 |
110 |
France |
57.7 |
544 |
106 |
Austria |
7.9 |
84 |
94 |
Greece |
10.4 |
132 |
79 |
Spain |
39.6 |
505 |
78 |
Ireland |
3.5 |
70 |
50 |
Sweden |
8.7 |
450 |
19 |
Finland |
5.1 |
338 |
15 |
USA |
267.1 |
9373 |
28 |
Japan |
125.1 |
378 |
331 |
- Finland's economy has been undergoing a faster transformation than in most European
countries since the collapse of Soviet Union, which accounted for between 20% to 25% of
Finland's foreign trade. There has been a relatively rapid switch services employment:
| |
1975 |
| |
Employment
(%) |
Employment
(%) |
| |
Agric + Ind |
Services |
Agric + Ind |
Services |
Finland |
51 |
49 |
36 |
67 |
Ireland |
54 |
46 |
43 |
57 |
Netherlands |
41 |
59 |
27 |
73 |
- Strenuous national efforts have brought Finland out of a deep recession and unemployment
is now falling, though still uncomfortably high and above the European average.
- The transformation has included very rapid take up of new telecommunications methods.
Finland is among the world's most intensive users of mobile phones and Internet, although
the pace of growth together with difficulties in measurement and reporting mean that
Internet numbers must be treated with caution:
| |
Mobile
subscribers (% of telephone subscribers, 1996) |
Internet usage
(users per 1000 population, 1997)* |
Sweden |
28.1 |
152 |
Finland |
29.1 |
146 |
Denmark |
26.5 |
131 |
UK |
11.6 |
95 |
Germany |
6.7 |
65 |
* Source:
IDC (http://www.idcresearch.com) estimate for December 1997 |
- In Nokia, Finland boasts one of the world's leaders in mobile telephony.
- Finland's small population supports two official languages (Finnish and Swedish) as well
as widespread knowledge of English.
Driving factors:
- Large distances and a widely scattered population provide a motivation to explore all
kinds of telematic applications, so that Finland has been among the pioneers in focused
applications such as telemedicine.
- The Government is committed to a proactive information society policy and public
authorities and services at all levels are actively pursuing online services. All citizens
have access to the Internet at public libraries. IT and telematics training is regarded as
a key national priority.
- Public acceptance of new communications applications is high: home banking for example
is well established and widespread.
Constraints:
- Although telework in Finland is generally a positive personal response to the benefits
of telework, high levels of unemployment have made some people reluctant to risk novel and
uncertain ways of working so that telework in the form of working at home can also be seen
as a response to unemployment.
- Although there have been a number of publicly supported telecentre projects designed to
bring work to small, scattered communities, few have been successful in achieving
sustainability without ongoing public funding.
- The normative social profile for a majority of Finns has been as wage-earners rather
than entrepreneurs and marketeers; there is a need for stronger and more robust structures
supporting and legitimising telework as a recognised and fully integrated part of the
employment and self-employment environment before most employees will be keen to take the
plunge.
- While there are no explicit legal constraints on teleworking, trade unions are not yet
very positive about increasing flexibility in the organisation of work.
Telework activities and results
- Telework in Finland is both a mechanism adopted by self-employed people and participants
in work-and-trade co-operatives, as well as seen as an organisational strategy by some
enterprises.
- There are no legal or other insurmountable barriers to organisational telework, but
neither are there particular strong driving factors or motivation to change.
- Finland has, however, established itself on the European "map" so far as
telework is concerned, with substantial contributions to European discussion and
understanding. In 1998 the main European conference on telework research findings and
requirements is being held in Turku.
3.5.3 Conclusions
- Although home based telework for part of the working time, in conjunction with working
at the ordinary workplace for most of the rest, is reasonably widespread by general
European standards, it is low relative to Finland's general leadership in the use of IT
and telecommunications. On the other hand, mobility at work is well established and
growing fast; a majority of the workforce uses mobile phones, Internet use is well
adopted, laptop computers are widely used by professionals and managers.
- The extent of teleworking can be expected to change if the economic and employment
recovery is sustained, labour moves from over- to under-supply, employers have to work
harder to attract and retain staff, and employees become more confident. The technological
infrastructure is in place.
- Telework, with teletrade, has an important role in sustaining the more isolated Finnish
communities. Success in this will require steps to be taken to widen acceptance and
recognition of telework and (especially) of self-employment, for example to provide parity
of treatment for employees and self employed, alongside the existing actions to promote
entrepreneurship.
- The link between telework and teletrade is particularly important in Finland; Finns are
natural co-operators and joiners but traditionally to a lesser extent entrepreneurs and
marketeers. Given Finland's high profile in Internet use, the opportunities are there to
become a proactive source of new Information Society innovations and services that can be
marketed and applied world wide.
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