11.10.2024 | News, SAVALnews
“If I had to mention one thing that really opened my eyes to social inequality and racism, it was the two-kilometre walk from our West Philadelphia home to the University of Philadelphia, an Ivy League university,” says Shadia Rask, a research director at the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL).
Rask spent six months on a research exchange at the university to complete her PhD in public health in 2017.
Three-quarters of the residents in the family’s West Philadelphia neighbourhood were Black. At the university, however, only two kilometres away, Black and African-American students together made up only about seven per cent of the student body.
Cross-generational poverty and unequal social structures were plain to see. Finnish society also has its problems, however, and a history of racism.
This understanding spurred Rask’s participation in the debate on equality, inequality and racism with evidence-based arguments. Rask’s efforts were recognised this year with the State Award for Public Information. These awards are granted by the Ministry of Education and Culture.
Shadia Raski’s research career began at the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) in 2010 in a project on the health and wellbeing of immigrants. This study focused on the health of people with Russian, Somali and Kurdish backgrounds in relation to the general population in Finland. A key finding of Rask’s doctoral research, completed in 2018, was that experiences of discrimination, even only indirectly, affect people’s physical and mental health.
Rask researches equality and diversity, especially in working life. Among other things, she ran a diversity recruitment experiment at THL, which was chosen as the Recruitment Act of the Year at the Rekry recruitment gala in 2021.
Diversity and equality in teams and organisations as a whole have been shown to lead to improved capacity for problem-solving, ideation and productivity.
“The research evidence from this perspective is clear,” Rask says.
Studies have shown that diverse, inclusive and well-managed workplaces perform better (McKinsey & Company, 2020; Deloitte, 2022; Dixon-Fyle, et al., 2020). Diverse teams are better at identifying customer needs and entirely new groups of customers. It’s also easier to enter new markets when teams have knowledge and understanding of different cultures.
Rask points to a progressive made by the management of Itis shopping centre in Helsinki: by making changes to accommodate the Eid al-Fitr celebrations, the shopping centre increased its sales. The Muslim marketing experts who partnered with Itis came up with the ideal offers and events for celebrating Eid al-Fitr. This enabled the shopping centre to better serve its customer base, which includes a large number of Muslims.
“If a group of employees is too one-sided, a company can unwittingly set itself up for infamous blunders, such as a health app released a decade ago that didn’t take into account the menstrual cycle. This example shows how costly and harmful it can be when part of the population – in this case, women – are excluded from the development process.”
According to Rask, in addition to boosting product and service innovation and expansion into international markets, a diverse workplace has an advantage in competing for staff. “For younger jobseekers, sustainability and diversity are important. But recruitment processes that focus on diversity alone is not enough. What’s equally important is to build up an inclusive work culture and psychological trust.”
Of the companies that responded to a survey published by the Finland Central Chamber in 2023, two-thirds (66 per cent) said that employee shortages were limiting their growth and business development. In addition, 59 per cent reported an acute shortage of skilled labour. “In this climate, a company’s ability to appeal to a wide range of applicants is a competitive advantage.”
In addition to talking about economic benefits, Rask wants to bring an ethical perspective and values to the discussion on diversity and equality. “For instance, one of THL’s strategic values is to pioneer equality. This jointly agreed strategic value helps us to take action to promote equality.”
Rask writes columns for the national broadcaster Yle and Taloustaito magazine, among others. In her first column for Yle in 2022, she introduced herself directly: Hello, I’m Shadia, brown and Finnish. The article was about an everyday situation where, like so many times before, strangers spoke to Rask in English based on her skin colour.
This is despite being born in Espoo, to a Finnish mother and a Sudanese father. Rask grew up in several places – Moscow, rural Sweden and Hawaii.
Rask has trained many organisations on diversity and equality issues in both the private and public sectors. In one workshop, a participant said they felt like they were no longer allowed to do their job, as there were so many others who looked the same and had the same name at the workplace.
As Rask sees it, such fears and resistance to change are only human. The aim of such training, she says, is not to marginalise any individual person, but to level out unfair advantages. Among other things, a fairer culture would mean that job applicants are not discriminated against on account of having a foreign name. Instead, skills should be the decisive factor. By carefully considering recruitment criteria in advance, for instance, concerns about favouritism can be avoided. Planning, perseverance and transparency are important in allaying needless concerns and fears.
At the end of 2022, the European Parliament adopted a directive aimed at correcting the gender imbalance of senior management in listed companies and increasing the proportion of women on boards of directors. In Finnish companies, a consequence of this directive is that boards must have at least 40 per cent of the under-represented gender. Companies have until July 2026 to complete the transition.
“Smart companies think ahead and foster a shared experience and trust, which is good for all of us and creates a common cause."
This is also important because no initiative to improve the rights or status of minorities has ever progressed without the support of the majority.
According to a report published last year by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), Finland ranks among the main offenders in EU when it comes to racism and other discrimination against people of African background. In the FRA report, entitled “Being Black in the EU – Experiences of people of African descent”, Finland is described as one of the most racist of the 13 EU countries surveyed. Of the survey respondents in Finland, 43 per cent said they had experienced racist harassment in the past year. More than 6,700 people responded to the Finnish survey. The most common types of discrimination were when looking for a job, at work, and when looking for housing.
The aim of the anti-racism campaign launched by the current Finnish government is to engage Finnish workplaces and other organisations in the fight against racism. Anti-racism campaigns are important, Rask notes, but adds that no campaign alone is enough to promote diversity and equality: what really matters is what happens when the campaign is over. “What about all the other days and weeks when the campaign is not running?”
It may also be that the organisations that need the campaign most are the least likely to participate, whereas those that have already made an effort in the past to promote equality are more willing to do so again. Having run numerous training courses, Rask knows that the most enthusiastic participants are those that already care about the matter.
“Promoting equality can’t be left only to enthusiastic and interested individuals; it must be done at organisational level. For example, in the early 2020s the City of Helsinki set a target that all 38,000 of its employees would undergo training to promote greater equality. This indicates that knowledge in this area is considered a core skill along the lines of data protection and other competences that also involve mandatory training.”
“Promoting equality can’t be completely outsourced”
Under the Non-discrimination Act, employers have a duty to promote equality. If the company regularly employs at least 30 people, the employer must also draw up a plan for promoting non-discrimination. This can start with information gathering and gaining an overview of the current state of affairs, followed by planning and taking the appropriate measures and monitoring their impact accordingly. However, even the best-made plans go to waste if they are not followed up by long-term action to further equality. Here also the commitment of management is key.
“An equality and diversity plan is one of the key means of promoting diversity and equality. You only achieve what you measure,” says Rask.
There are various sources for comprehensive information and techniques for drawing up a plan to promote equality, such as the those provided on the Equality.fi database maintained by the Ministry of Justice.
“Many companies have also sought advice from other organisations, for example, or hired consultants for the purpose. Promoting equality can’t be completely outsourced, though. It needs to be an inclusive and long-term process: it must be clear who’s responsible for what, over what timeframe, with what resources, and how progress is to be monitored.”
In a corporate responsibility survey conducted in 2021 by Finnish Business & Society (FIBS), which is the largest corporate responsibility network in the Nordic countries, 71 per cent of human resources professionals said that practical examples and sharing experiences with other companies were the best way to promote diversity in companies.
However, many companies are still in the early stages of increasing diversity.
“For example, only 60 per cent of municipalities in Finland have an equality plan. Very many are still lacking,” Rask notes.
Employers in Finland have a legal obligation to monitor equality and non-discrimination. There are also obligations at EU level: for instance, social responsibility and the related issues of diversity and inclusiveness are included in the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), which came into force at the beginning of 2024.
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In Finland, compliance in the workplace with the Non-discrimination Act is guided, and monitored by the Occupational Safety and Administration in Finland, which also provides guidance in this area. The aim is for workplaces themselves to be able to resolve problems related to discrimination.
In 2023, the Occupational Safety and Administration in Finland carried out a total of 123 inspections to monitor equality plans and the duty of employers to promote equality. More than 70 per cent of the checks found deficiencies.
During 2023, the administration received around 520 contacts about discrimination at work. The most common questions asked were for advice on how to deal with discrimination in the workplace, or whether the treatment constituted workplace discrimination. Not all experiences of discrimination were brought to the attention of the Occupational Safety and Administration.
Some of these contacts led to a written request to the administration for supervision by the worker or jobseeker. There were 175 actual requests for control related to workplace discrimination. In 2023, a total of 101 labour inspections were carried out in response to requests for inspections to monitor discrimination experienced by an individual worker or job applicant. Around half of the inspections carried out in response to requests for supervision concerned termination of employment. Another 40 per cent concerned discrimination during employment relationship, and the remainder concerned recruitment. The most common ground for discrimination continued to be state of health, although several different grounds could be assessed in the same inspection. In a quarter of all the inspections carried out following a request to monitor discrimination, the employer was found to have violated the Act on Non-discrimination.
In addition to the Occupational Safety and Administration in Finland, the Non-Discrimination Ombudsman can also provide advice on matters relating to discrimination in working life. From June 2023, the powers of the Non-Discrimination Ombudsman in working life were extended, and the ombudsman is now also empowered to monitor compliance with the Non-discrimination Act in individual cases of work-related discrimination.
Source: Ulla Riikonen, senior inspector, director of the public administration unit Ulla Riikonen, and Merit Ekman, inspector, of the Regional State Administrative Agency for Southwestern Finland
Text and pictures: Iida Ylinen. The article has been published on ASIA membership magazine 3/2024.
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