Finnish banks place strong emphasis on customer service. According to the latest Nordic Bank Statistics, they employ proportionally more customer service staff than other Nordic banks.
The Nordic Bank Statistics is an annual, large-scale comparison of the Nordic banking sector. “The statistics show that customer service is still a major function of Finnish banks. The provision of phone and online services has become increasingly common in addition to face-to-face service at the office”, says Tarja Kallonen, Research Manager at the FFI. “Customers are a top priority.”
Invest in well-being to avoid sick leave
Finns reported the second-highest proportion of sick leave in the study, amounting to 3.5% of working days. Only Norway’s proportion of 4.5% was higher. Swedes were the healthiest of the study, taking only 2.6% of working days as sick leave. Time series data shows that the numbers are slowly getting smaller.
“We can actively improve the numbers of sick days even further, because they are affected by lifestyles, working conditions, management and workplace well-being. These are all aspects which employers and employees can both change”, Kallonen points out, underlining also that communication between employers and employees is the key to developing all the above-mentioned factors. As the Healthy Financial Industry Sector project continues, it will be interesting to see if it will have an effect on the number of sick leave days, as they are a concrete indicator of improvements at the workplace.