Organisational responsibility

Kela has a particular responsibility for ensuring the environmental sustainability of our operations. By operating within environmentally sustainable limits, we can best promote people’s wellbeing over the long term. 

Therefore, it is essential to take a disciplined approach to promoting sustainable operations, structures and values not only in Kela’s own operations but also more broadly in society.

Some of the ways in which are systematically developing the environmental agenda include:

• We measure our carbon footprint, our energy and paper consumption and our production of waste on an annual basis. 
• We set goals that help us reduce our environmental impact.
• We use our facilities more efficiently and make it possible to adopt environmentally friendly work practices.
• We reduce our paper consumption by making a transition to digital services.
• We promote environmentally friendly mobility by offering an employee bike benefit. We encourage the use of public transport.
• We work steadily towards greater sustainability in our operations. Five of our locations with the largest staff numbers are part of the WWF Green Office network.  
• We participate actively in the public debate around wellbeing and the sustainability transition.

The WWF Green Office network helps Kela’s staff members work for the good of the environment. Kela joined the network in 2022.

Kela’s operations have an impact not only on the services that society produces but also on people’s wellbeing and finances. It is therefore important that we operate in a socially responsible way.

We are continuously developing the way we operate in order to promote equity and to better recognise diversity in our staff and clients. Our services must be accessible and understandable to all. As a large employer, recognising the diversity of our personnel is an essential responsibility for us. As a government organisation, we have an obligation to protect and promote non-discrimination.

Social responsibility can mean

• valuing diversity in our clients and staff 
• promoting equity
• making our operations more inclusive, accepting everyone as they are.

In promoting inclusion, we seek to ensure that everyone feels included when interacting with or working at Kela. 

Social responsibility means that our clients and staff are recognised equally for instance in recruitments, customer service and communications regardless of their background, gender, age, ethnicity, religion, disability or sexual orientation. 

That can help us offer better services, improve the customer experience and nurture a diversity-friendly organisational culture.

Networks and cooperation partners

Kela has a variety of networks that unite staff members based on their common goals and backgrounds. 

They include

• The DEI Network, which seeks to strengthen the organisation’s understanding of diversity, equity and activities that promote cohesion. It also serves as a channel through which staff can bring up ideas for development.
• The Kirnu Network supports the development of Sámi-language services. 
• The Rainbow Network offers support and cultivates an equal workplace culture for sexual and gender minorities. Kela also participates in cross-government rainbow efforts. 

Kela seeks to ensure equal opportunities for all kinds of people. To further this goal, we participate in a range of events, projects and programmes.  

The Romako project

Coordinated by the Diakonia University of Applied Sciences, the Romako project  supports adults in the Helsinki-area Roma community in various ways, including gaining access to internships. The Romako employer pool is a search portal that students and graduates from a Roma background can use to find suitable employers for jobs and internship positions. Kela has registered as an employer with the Romako employer pool. 
When we post a job advert to seek new talent, we list the type of experience, skills and educational background we are looking for. The selection among candidates is made on the basis of the publicised selection criteria. That way we can offer all candidates regardless of their backgrounds an equal opportunity to work for us. 

Pride

For several years, Kela has been an official partner of Helsinki Pride. Pride works to promote the rights, inclusion and wellbeing of gender and sexual minorities. These issues are also important to Kela.

Kela’s annual procurement budget varies between 0.7 and 1.5 billion euros. Our procurements have a notable impact on our environment and society. At Kela, sustainable finances are part of the planning of public finances. 

We are continually developing our methods for evaluating and managing the impact of our procurements. We go through our responsibility goals when planning and preparing new procurements, and monitor how well they are being met throughout the procurement lifecycle. Our participation in the WWF’s Green Office programme requires us to take issues of responsibility into account also in facility-related procurements.