Equal working life increases flow, efficiency and commitment
We spend a large part of our lives working, which is why equality and parity at work is particularly important. We can only bring our full potential to work if we feel safe in our environment and if we are allowed to be our genuine selves at work. If we need to hide who we are in our everyday lives, it eats away at our energy levels. Therefore, promoting equality and diversity has a direct link to personnel’s well-being, performance, the organization’s reputation and results and the employer image. Anu Harjumaaskola, Occupational Health Psychologist at Terveystalo, explains what kinds of action in work communities can ensure and maintain equality.

In our society, Finnish working life and even globally, equality is the starting point of cooperation. Many organizations have assessed questions of equality in relation to the time they are living in, and in the previous decades, they have addressed questions such as gender equality, age discrimination and ethnicity.
“Right now, we are on a journey of understanding and adopting questions related to diversity. In the future, these questions will most likely be considered as normal and self-evident as questions related to environmental responsibility are today,” says Harjumaaskola.
In her work as an occupational psychologist, Harjumaaskola has discovered that there have been huge leaps of progress in the field of gender sensitivity, diversity and equality in recent times, and the concept of a safe space, for example, is increasingly present in various events and meeting places. Many work communities also pay better attention to gender-neutral terminology, and have updated their equality and parity plans to cover the concept of gender diversity as well.
“The operating environment and customer base increasingly require organizations to consider questions of diversity. Companies cannot give such a customer promise outwardly before making the same promise to their personnel. For example, if a restaurant promises to be a safe space for its customers, it must also be a safe space for its personnel or the promise lacks credibility,” says Harjumaaskola.
Regulations and policies maintaining structural inequality still exist in society and can be hard to identify if they do not impact your everyday life. The Transgender Act, for example, specifies what is possible in life and what is not. Organizations may have similar restrictions and conditions that shut some people out, even if that is not their purpose. On a journey to an equal organization, the employer is responsible for demonstrating the will to respect diversity and setting up standards for how to act when someone violates that goal.
“Setting up standards is a good idea, because studies show that the workplaces where, from the new employee orientation onwards, everyone understands the rules of interaction and the shared operating model for addressing inappropriate behavior and harassment have a lower incidence of inappropriate behavior compared to other organizations,” says Harjumaaskola.
Actively promoting equality strengthens employees’ work ability, motivation and commitment to the organization.
“Each employee needs to feel treated fairly and justly at work and to feel safe at work. This keeps the mental load of working life in check and prevents harmful stress which, if prolonged, can lead to burnout and illness,” says Harjumaaskola.
Words create our reality
An equal work community stems from the right attitude; willingness to learn, being aware of your actions, even when unintentional, and understanding diversity. To ensure equality, working environments should pay attention not only to compliant operations but to the practical application of the spoken language and the ways of phrasing things.
1) Never assume anything but diversity
We are all unique individuals. Talk of sexual minorities unintentionally includes the assumption of the existence of a majority. In reality, each one of us is part of some type of minority, which is why it is more equal to talk about diversity.
2) Adopt the terminology
A positive and interested attitude towards learning is the decisive factor. Learn about the rainbow vocabulary found on the Seta website and learn more about diversity and safe, gender-sensitive terminology.
3) Examine your way of talking and make it equal
Spoken language can often be unintentionally loaded, so examine your way of talking and think about ways to express things more equally. Think about your workplace; does it ‘allow’ and ‘tolerate’ differences? ‘Accepting’ difference suggests that every one of us is not a unique individual. It is more equal to say that your workplace appreciates diversity.
4) Put your phrasing appreciating diversity into practice
Phrasing and statements should translate to practical choices, such as gender-neutral spaces and the option to personally define your gender in surveys and forms. Especially in fields where the employees meet people, it is a good idea to train your personnel to consider diversity in their encounters and mutually agree on a policy of using gender-neutral terms.
According to Harjumaaskola, the main issue is that organizations wake up to this topic and set out on a journey in line with their resources towards a diverse and healthy work community. Maintaining equality and parity requires constant work as organizations that do not develop tend to fall back.
Latest articles

Investments in technological development support Terveystalo's effective occupational health activities
Technological development and digitalization are fundamentally changing work: routine tasks are being automated, knowledge-based decision-making is accelerating, and people's roles are increasingly focused on creativity, problem-solving, and developing the customer experience. At Terveystalo, technology is seen as a strategic enabler that can be used to support the smooth running of corporate customers' everyday operations and create a foundation for even more effective occupational health services. Our vision for the future is to be a pioneer in the digitalization and effectiveness of occupational health services.

Flu season has begun: 7 tips how doctors prevent the flu
The common cold is prevalent in Finland throughout the year. However, viruses spread more readily in the fall, and the influenza season typically begins at the end of the year.

Näin Suomi voi: The decline in mental health-related sick leaves continues to accelerate
At Terveystalo, we committed at the beginning of the year to reduce mental health-related sick leave by 5% among our current customer base during 2025. This ambitious reduction target has progressed excellently during the first half of the year, with the reduction already almost doubling the target. This excellent result has been driven by the development of mental health services for occupational health customers and close cooperation with our corporate customers.

The future of work is built on curiosity and amazement – this is how you can boost your learning efficiency
The future working life will challenge our brains in entirely new ways. Organizations and individuals will have to adapt to constant change, where learning, sharing information, and utilizing diverse thinking will take center stage. It is no longer enough to master a single skill thoroughly; curiosity, the ability to innovate, and the skill to creatively combine different perspectives are also required. According to brain researcher Katri Saarikivi, cognitively stimulating work improves brain health, as long as organizations manage to ensure that the workload does not become too heavy.

Nicotine satches and e-cigarettes already pose a threat to oral health
Nicotine sachets use is increasing, especially among working-age men and women. Among young people, e-cigarette smoking has even tripled in five years. It is already known that nicotine sachets and e-cigarettes cause similar changes in the mouth as traditional smoking. Ritva Lindblad, senior dentist at Terveystalo, warns that we are only now beginning to see the first signs of the products' effects on oral health.

Terveystalo strengthens disease prevention in collaboration with Finnish health technology company MedicubeX
Terveystalo and the Finnish health technology company MedicubeX have entered into a strategic partnership that will make Terveystalo the only private healthcare provider in Finland to have access to MedicubeX's self-monitoring stations (e-Health Stations™). The aim of the partnership is to support the health of the Finnish population and prevent lifestyle diseases.