Project

How is Finland doing?

The research project produces current information on the development of well-being at work in the population and different groups of employees before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. The project sheds light on the areas of development and strengths of Finnish work life, based on which solutions and recommendations to promote well-being at work are suggested.

Press release 11.3.2025: Well-being at work no longer in decline

The deterioration of Finns’ well-being at work has stopped. However, work engagement, boredom at work and work ability are still at a weaker level than before the pandemic. One in ten are likely to have experienced job burnout, and 15 per cent have an increased risk of job burnout. One in three people under the age of 36 experience symptoms of job burnout. There seems to have been a change in relation to remote work: no factors linked with it were found to impair well-being at work.

See the result summary below (Issuu-publication) or download the pdf.

How is Finland doing? research results March 2025 (pdf)

Read the press release

Timetable

1.5.2020–

Objectives

Right before the COVID-19 pandemic that hit Finland in the spring of 2020, the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health collected data on the well-being at work of Finnish employees in a research project Resilient employees in changing work life.

After the outbreak, the follow-up of these respondents' well-being at work was continued in the How is Finland doing? study. In the latter stages of the study, new respondents have been invited to take the survey, which has been carried out every six months.

The project provides unique information on the development of well-being at work from the time before the COVID-19 to the modern day. The aim is to provide solutions and information to support decision-making both in workplaces and in society.

Data and methods

The study charts the experiences of the Finnish population about:

well-being at work and the lack thereof in a broad sense (e.g. work engagement, job burnout, job satisfaction, boredom, workaholism, working while sick),
working conditions and work-related attitudes (e.g. fairness, insecurity, cohesion),
other aspects of well-being (health, work ability, depression, life satisfaction),
different forms of work: effects of remote, hybrid and in-office work to well-being and
individual resources.

The study will also examine the extent to which the above experiences and changes in them may differ between different groups of the population and employees.

Taloustutkimus Oy carries out the collection of survey data on behalf of the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health.

Contact us

Jari Hakanen

Jari.Hakanen@ttl.fi

Phone

+358 30 474 2453

Janne Kaltiainen

janne.kaltiainen@ttl.fi

Phone

+358 30 474 2668

Research group

Researcher Sampo Suutala
Statistics Specialist Maria Hirvonen

Previously, Anniina Virtanen and Jaana-Piia Mäkiniemi were also part of the study as researchers.

Funding

Currently, How is Finland doing? Currently is being implemented in the The Mental Health Toolkit project, which is part of The Mental Health at Work Programme. The project is funded by Finland's Sustainable Growth Programme through the European Union’s one-time recovery tool (Next Generation EU) via the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health.