Facilitating a seasonal worker’s entry to Finland – StaffPoint and Virtual Finland join in co-operation

Personnel service company StaffPoint and the Virtual Finland project by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Finland are aiming to facilitate through their joint project the arrival of seasonal workers to Finland. A major player in the banking sector and other key authorities are also cooperating on this pilot.

Currently the problem is that the formalities related to entering Finland and starting work cannot be managed digitally. This leads to, for example, a large number of employees being transported to the tax office over hundreds of kilometers in Lapland, which increases the workload of both the personnel service companies and the authorities. Another challenge is the conflicting practices of the authorities, which results in customers not always knowing what steps to take. Up to 45 percent of people with a work permit from EEA (European Economic Area) to Finland eventually end up working elsewhere. Smoother processes could make Finland a more attractive seasonal work destination.

The challenges of the international worker’s entry path are being mapped in the definition phase of the ongoing pilot. After that, the goal is to discover and test new digital solutions for engaging with the authorities. The pilot utilizes tools for shared and trusted information exchange already developed in the Virtual Finland project. The seasonal worker’s path is the simplest of the entry paths for employees since it does not include a market availability consideration, and it is therefore well suited as a pilot project. The lessons learned during the pilot could be used in the future to facilitate work-based entry paths more generally.

Jenny von Knorring, Head of International Services at StaffPoint, is delighted with the cooperation. “We at StaffPoint are solution-oriented working life experts and want to be actively involved in finding sustainable and effective solutions to support Finland’s attractiveness towards international talent. We hope that the digitalized entry services will widely benefit Finnish society as well as international experts. Success in international recruitment is vital for the competitiveness and growth of Finnish companies.”

The manager of the Virtual Finland project, Jukka Kyhäräinen, highlights the significance of cooperation between companies and authorities. “The challenges of work-related immigration should be observed from the point of view of the customer and other operators, and joint pilots by authorities and companies are a great way to bring about concrete solutions.” Kyhäräinen reminds that the solutions being developed support the objectives of work-related immigration and digitalization of the new Government Programme.

More information:

Jenny von Knorring, Head of International Services, StaffPoint Oy
(050 366 9801, jenny.vonknorring@staffpoint.fi)

Jukka Kyhäräinen, Project Manager, Virtual Finland
(029 535 0884, jukka.kyharainen@gov.fi)
Virtual Finland –hanke: https://thevirtualfinland.fi/