Support at the workplace and Finnish Customs’ environmental efforts

The situation on the eastern border led to a significant rearrangement of work duties in 2023. Since the border crossing stations closed, many Finnish Customs personnel who were working on the eastern border have been reassigned to provide executive assistance and as a consequence of internal rearrangements within the facilities department. This allowed all Finnish Customs personnel from the eastern border to continue their work in 2023, and no layoffs had to be considered, for example. The abnormal situation on the eastern border has demanded much flexibility from both the employees and the employer. It has been great to see that both parties have been willing to be flexible.

In addition to the situation on the eastern border, our HR work has been affected by new duties and general societal changes. In recent years, Finnish Customs has been assigned new and wider-ranging duties such as the supervision of the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism and the enforcement of sanctions. This has required us to learn new things and develop and update our competences. 

The VM-Baro survey conducted in 2023 indicated that well-being at work at Finnish Customs had improved slightly. The overall job satisfaction index was 3.70 (on a scale of 1–5). Work community events included reviewing the work community’s own VM-Baro results, brainstorming areas for improvement, and preparing development plans to promote well-being at work.

We must continue to pay attention to and invest in well-being at work as our operating environment has changed.

There were 14 Moment of Well-being sessions for all employees, covering various areas of well-being at work and working capacity. Topical sessions and training on well-being at work and working capacity were arranged to support management and supervisory work. A total of 14 personal, one-hour topical events on well-being at work and working capacity were arranged for supervisors. Support sessions for the employees who worked on the eastern border were purchased from the occupational health service psychologist, and three joint discussion sessions were arranged. In the spring, a mental well-being campaign was arranged in collaboration with work community communication, highlighting recuperation methods, among other things.

In 2023, we invested in the development of the competence of our employees by providing training independent of place and time. We set up a Digipedagogical Services group to support the planning, implementation and publication of online and remote training. The online training included Finnish Customs’ equality and non-discrimination training, which is mandatory for all personnel involved in customer service, customs control and crime prevention.

The diverse expertise of the personnel has been reinforced, enabling them to quickly adapt to new roles in the changing work environment. One example of this is the situation on the eastern border, and related additional training was arranged at short notice. This was to respond to requests for executive assistance from the Finnish Border Guard and reassign Finnish Customs personnel to other customs offices and location-independent duties. A varied skillset and flexibility are especially valuable in situations like this when work duties need to be quickly reallocated.

The total scope of personnel training at Finnish Customs in 2023 was 19,026 days of training, amounting to 9.2 days per person-year.

The volume of official travel increased in 2023 to almost the same level as in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic. Travel expenses increased towards the end of the year as personnel were reassigned from the eastern border to other parts of Finland to assist the Finnish Border Guard.

The target for the future is to utilise working from home and remote technologies to reduce the overall need to travel. Meetings and training courses are largely virtual. Face-to-face events only take place if there is a specific purpose such as fostering a sense of community or processing security-classified materials. A further target is to increase the use of public transport for official travel and reduce the use of aeroplanes and cars. The distance flown in 2023 was nowhere near the level seen in 2019: it has decreased by more than a third since the onset of the pandemic. Meanwhile, train travel has increased compared to previous years.

Finnish Customs’ updated facility strategy was approved in March 2023. Finnish Customs’ facilities are developed according to the strategy to address the changing needs and opportunities. In line with the premises strategy of central government and Finnish Customs, Finnish Customs enhanced the efficiency of its use of facilities and took environmental sustainability into account in its facility projects and activities while facilities were in use.
In Pasila, Finnish Customs’ largest office unit, the volume of office space was reduced by 35.15% (old office floor area: 7,708 m2, of which 35.15% is 2,709 m2). 

In Oulu, Finnish Customs moved out of the old port facilities to central government offices on 1 June 2023. Office space utilisation efficiency changed from 20.8 to 12.4 square metres per person-year. The project used the RTS environmental classification system. The renovation of the facility in Oulu involved overhauling the lighting and heating system to make it more energy-efficient and environmentally friendly, among other things. The energy efficiency target was set as A+ (E-value of 94). When the leases ended, furniture in good condition was handed over to the next tenant or used at Finnish Customs’ other sites. We continued to participate in the Down a Degree energy savings campaign for lessors in 2023.

Finnish Customs has approximately 250 official cars. Most of them, 215 cars in total, are used for operational activities. Approximately 35 cars are used by the administration and support functions. Diesel cars account for 203 of the vehicles, 13 use petrol, 31 are more environmentally friendly plugin hybrid cars and 2 are fully electric cars. In addition, Finnish Customs has two special vehicles built on a lorry chassis. In 2023, the average emissions of official cars were 132 g/km, the average age was 10.5 years, and the average fuel consumption was 5.2 l/100 km.

In 2023, work began on a procurement assessment framework to enhance the sustainability of procurement. The idea of the framework is to bring together topics for consideration and assessment in procurement processes, as well as related guidelines. For example, social and ecological sustainability are broad topics with specific terminology. The idea is for the procurement assessment framework to assist employees in taking into account all related issues in the preparation of procurement projects by means of straightforward questions. The first version of the assessment framework will be introduced in spring 2024.