YRITTÄJÄ, tule mukaan omiesi pariin! Liity Yrittäjiin.
Half of SMEs with at least 10 employees have hired immigrants – survey
Half of companies employing at least ten people have hired an immigrant. In companies employing 5–9 people, one in three has hired an immigrant, the Yrittäjägallup survey shows.
“Hiring immigrants has developed companies for the better. For one thing, employees’ attitudes have become more tolerant,” says Sonja Antosalo, an expert at Suomen Yrittäjät, the Finnish SME association.
Among companies which have hired immigrants, 73% agree at least somewhat that their employees’ attitudes have changed.
Companies have significantly improved their capacity to serve a broad range of customers following the hiring of immigrants. This is the view of two thirds of respondents who have hired immigrants. The working environment has also improved, as have the staff’s capacity for developing new solutions and companies’ capacity for finding the hires they need.
“The results show that we don’t speak enough about immigrants’ roles in the world of work. Finnish and foreign workers should not be pitted against one another,” says Harri Jaskari, a vice president at Suomen Yrittäjät.
“It’s great to hear how positive experiences have been across Finland and across industries. Very different kinds of companies have hired workers from other countries,” Jaskari says.
Of all the SMEs surveyed, 17% have hired an immigrant. The most frequent hirers were young and pre-middle-aged business owners.
A total of 1,054 representatives of SMEs responded to the survey, conducted by Veriana on behalf of Suomen Yrittäjät between 7 and 13 Nov. 2024. The confidence interval for the survey results is +/- 2.9 percentage points.
Best experiences in eastern and northern Finland
In regional terms, the most positive experiences of hiring immigrants were from eastern and northern Finland (75%).
The regions in which companies hired immigrants the most were the capital region (22%), followed by western Finland (18%) and southern Finland (17%).
“Talk about immigration is too focused on the big cities and highly skilled experts. This survey shows that there is also a large need for foreign labour outside the big cities and in low-skilled roles. Foreign labour has allowed some rural companies to keep operating,” Jaskari says.
Industry is by far the most frequent hirer of immigrants (44%). It is followed by retail (18%), construction (17%) and other services (16%).
Language, ground rules and adjustment present challenges
When hiring immigrants, companies have faced problems in the form of language challenges, adoption of the ground rules in the workplace, and adjustment to the team.
“Language challenges are probably linked to learning the ground rules in the workplace and fitting in as one of the team. It’s important to ensure that work instructions and rules are understood and that there are no language barriers,” Antosalo says.
Industry has faced the least problems when hiring, but in the construction sector almost half of respondents (46%) have experienced problems.
You can read the results in more detail here.
Are you a Suomen Yrittäjät member yet? Read more about member benefits and advantages!
