In the City Strategy, Helsinki has committed to promoting non-discrimination, equality and human rights in all its activities. The City’s work on non-discrimination and equality aims to highlight human rights as a basis for activities, particularly from the perspective of non-discrimination.
Based on the interim report of the City of Helsinki equality and non-discrimination plan for services 2022−2025, the implementation of the plan was well underway across the City organisation and almost all measures were expected to be completed by the end of the plan period. In the next strategy period’s City-wide equality and non-discrimination plan for services, it is important to seek to refine the quality and effectiveness of measures, while further clarifying the relationship between the plans for social sustainability.
The City will continue as Helsinki Pride’s main partner in 2024–2026. The City is also involved in the national campaign against racism, as part of which it will continue and strengthen its anti-racism work across the City organisation, a work that has long been considered important. The hel.fi redesign during the strategy period also included an update of the equity-related content to better serve the city’s residents.
A sample survey was carried out in autumn 2024 to find out residents’ views on the implementation of equality and non-discrimination and their experiences of discrimination and inappropriate treatment in City services. Of the nearly 950 respondents to the survey, 21% reported having experienced discrimination in City services and 15% had experienced inappropriate treatment. A clear majority (around 70%) of both those who had experienced discrimination and those who had experienced inappropriate treatment were women. Of the total number of respondents, 9.6% had experienced discrimination and 8.4% had been treated inappropriately in the last 12 months. In autumn 2024, a gender analysis of selected strategic indicators was also carried out, revealing gender differences in a wide range of aspects. The School Health Promotion study shows that girls’ anxiety and experiences of sexual harassment are alarmingly common.
In the Education Division, the key successes of the strategy period are considered to be the strengthening of the prevention and identification of discrimination and inappropriate treatment, as well as the strengthening of the response to them. The understanding of the themes of equity and gender equality among both learners and staff has been enhanced through teaching and training on the subject from different perspectives. A low-threshold channel for reporting inappropriate behaviour has been made available to learners in basic education. A City-wide hate speech intervention model has also been developed and implemented, coordinated by the Education Division. Challenges are identified in terms of commitment to promoting equality and non-discrimination in the everyday activities of educational institutions, enhancing norm awareness and addressing the challenges of girls’ well-being.
The Social Services, Health Care and Rescue Services Division has also invested heavily in improving staff skills, and training on the theme has been extensive. The division has intensified cooperation with the office of the Non-Discrimination Ombudsman and Roma organisations and has built up a knowledge base on the discrimination situation. Efforts are being made to improve the process of carrying out preliminary assessments of gender and equality impacts. Services better recognise the diversity of families. Despite the progress made, challenges remain in identifying and tackling discrimination and reaching vulnerable people and identifying their service needs.
Culture and leisure services have taken the diversity of residents more systematically into account during the strategy period. The voices of diverse residents have been widely heard in the creation of customer understanding in areas such as the vision work of cultural centres and sports services, and the Culture and Leisure Division’s integration promotion project. All youth centres and many other cultural and leisure facilities have adopted safer space principles.
Staff perspective on equality and non-discrimination
The City of Helsinki is the largest employer in Finland, employing approximately 39,000 people. The City has worked for a long time to promote the wellbeing and equality of its staff. The staff equality and non-discrimination plan guides HR policy work in promoting equal and non-discriminating working life.
The measures of the equality and non-discrimination plan promote, among other things, the employment of people with disabilities or those with partial work ability, summer jobs for young people aged 16–29 who need targeted support for employment, and accessible practical training. The City of Helsinki favours anonymous recruitment and has piloted affirmative action in recruitment. Diverse recruitment is based on the equal and non-discriminating treatment of applicants and promotion of staff diversity. Management and supervisors were provided with training and workshops on accessible recruitment and affirmative action. A diversity clause is used in job advertisements and anonymous recruitment is encouraged.
Work communities use the Helvi virtual facilitator on equality and non-discrimination and diverse recruitment. The equality and non-discrimination Helvi has been translated into Swedish and English, as well as Finnish sign language. A survey on equality and non-discrimination was carried out among the City’s staff in spring 2023. Staff surveys are one way to assess and receive information about the realisation of non-discrimination and gender equality, and to identify possible discrimination in the City’s workplaces. Work-life balance is one of the key factors in work-related quality of life, which ensure staff coping and well-being and good services. A positive aspect is that a large majority of the respondents across the City organisation (80%) felt that they had managed to balance their work and personal life very well or moderately well.
The City organised Pride pre-party weeks for its staff in early summer 2023 and 2024. In 2023, work communities were invited to move in the spirit of ‘We Walk with Pride’, and many communities found their own ways and schedules for physical activity. We also organised an art workshop for the Queer Helsinki network, which offered them the opportunity to express their identity and reflect on their experiences of working for the City while representing a sexual or gender minority. Employees also had the opportunity to attend a discussion event where business experts shared how we can make our working culture truly inviting and inclusive. We also organised a training session led by the Pride manager for our staff. The themes of the training included an LGBTQ+ glossary and a diverse work community where everyone feels well. In 2024, we organised an event for staff to watch the first part of the Suomi on Queer (Finland is Queer) documentary series. The documentary is an interesting and touching look at Finnish queer history from an experiential perspective. We also organised a Pride training course for supervisors, management and HR.
In the spring of 2024, an anti-racism training course was organised for staff across the City organisation to identify, assess and, if necessary, change their own thinking and the organisation’s practices. The training strengthened the participants’ ability to identify different forms of racism and the practices and patterns that perpetuate racism in their own thinking and work. Staff skills have been strengthened in terms of hate speech intervention and prevention by training staff with the help of Helsinki’s hate speech intervention model.
Successes:
- Overall, good progress has been made on the measures of the equality and non-discrimination plan for services 2023–2025.
- A wide range of thematic training has been provided, some of which has been delivered in a pervasive way for a specific professional group (e.g. anti-racism training for Youth Services and training for early childhood educators on norm awareness and the promotion of equality and non-discrimination).
- The culture of intervening in discrimination and inappropriate treatment has been strengthened across the City organisation, for example by spreading awareness of the City of Helsinki’s hate speech intervention model.
- The action cards on addressing bullying, discrimination, harassment and violence in upper secondary education have increased the capacity and skills of staff to address and prevent inappropriate behaviour.
- Sustained work, such as the City’s Pride partnership and anti-racist work, particularly in the Education Division and Youth Services.
Areas for development:
- Development of an evidence-based overview of discrimination and inappropriate treatment experienced by city residents.
- Long-term and transparent integration of non-discrimination and gender equality into the City’s core processes, such as financial and operational planning.
- Dissemination of information and actions on the theme to all levels of the City organisation.
- An increase in compulsory staff training on the theme, so that attitude building and competence strengthening can be achieved across the board.
- Practical effectiveness of equality and non-discrimination measures and its measurement.
Programmes:
City of Helsinki equality and non-discrimination plan for services 2022−2025 PDF