Social sustainability

We advance a fair and digitally inclusive society

We work every day to build a secure digital environment, so that everyone's equal rights are realised. Respecting human rights and our principles of doing right in our own operations and within our supply chain, we can work together to create a sustainable future. 

Non-discrimination, equality, good leadership, as well as occupational wellbeing and safety are important in our operations.

Responsible employer

We employ thousands of professionals in Finland and internationally. Our success now and in the future is based on our continuous learning and our skilled and adaptable employees.

For several years already, we have been developing our facilities, working culture and work equipment to support safe and equal wellbeing at work in both physical and virtual working environments. 

Elisa’s management principles are based on coaching, having clear goals and shared values. Coaching leadership, regular learning discussions and jointly agreed goals allow Elisa employees to freely choose the working methods and places that suit them and their work best. 

At Elisa, we are committed to providing a working environment that encourages everyone to learn, share their ideas and develop their work. It’s important for us that everybody can be their true selves and feel that they are being listened to for themselves. Discrimination, bullying and harassment are prohibited.

Elisa Corporation also has one of Finland’s best relocation programmes in cases where positions need to be rearranged.

Working at Elisa

Elisa complies with laws and agreements, common values, principles and processes, supplemented by policies and instructions.

Elisa supports families and parents in many ways, for example with the help of a flexible working culture that gives Elisa employees the opportunity to work remotely, regardless of location.

Elisa's child-friendly working culture can be seen in many different ways, for example, in Finland:

• Supporting parents and caregivers when their child is ill by giving them the opportunity to take time off to care for their child

• Supporting families by extending Elisa’s occupational health cover to include specific medical services for children

• Where appropriate and possible, organising work tasks in a flexible way, taking the child's best interests into account

• Offering parents parental leave with partial pay

• Offering Elisa employees the possibility of family care leave to arrange personal help or support for a close relative

Parental leave includes, for example, the following things in Finland:

• Families can take a total of 320 working days of parental leave. If the child has two parents, this leave is divided equally between the parents, i.e. both have 160 weekdays available.

• Pregnant employees receive an additional 40 days of pregnancy allowance before going on parental leave.

• Employees can agree to transfer up to 63 working days of their parental leave to the other parent.

• Parental leave can also be taken part-time, by agreement.

• Parental leave can be allocated flexibly until the child turns two years old and childcare leave until the child turns three.

• Partial care leave (reduced weekly working hours) can be taken even until the end of the child’s second year at school.

Occupational health care services are available to employees during the entire period of family leave.

At Elisa, we also offer work experience positions so that schoolchildren can get to know working life at safe locations, and we support students in implementing interesting thesis and dissertation topics. We also want our employees’ children to be able to get to know their parents' workplace by arranging Bring Your Child to Work Day on World Children’s Day.

We do not accept forced labour or child labour in any form. We cooperate with our suppliers  to ensure that no child labour exists in our supply chain.

Promoting diversity

At Elisa, our goal is that everybody can play their part in advancing our mission: a sustainable future through digitalisation. We invite everyone to give their best.

Elisa's internationalisation continues to emphasise the importance of equity for Elisa from the perspective of employees, different customer contacts and collaboration with partners. By appreciating diversity in the world of work, we improve wellbeing at work, productivity and customer satisfaction. The experience of an equal working community strengthens the feeling of psychological safety, which promotes communication and vital innovation. Respect for one another is also an essential element of our collaboration with partners and stakeholders.

By means of common principles, we promote an inclusive community where no one is discriminated against or treated unfairly for reasons such as their race, age, religion, language or nationality, and in which everyone can equally experience participation. For us, this is not only a key effort, but also a core part of our principles and ethical standards.


In line with the Elisa Code of Conduct and the Human Rights Policy as well as the principles of equality, we treat all our employees equally and with respect in terms of recruitment, access to employment, pay, career development and termination of employment. We do not accept any form of discrimination, harassment or sexual harassment. 

These principles also apply to advertising and marketing, for which we have drawn up guidelines and a process to ensure ethical behaviour. Elisa's employees and our partners have a duty to inform us of any violations of these principles.

The measures and objectives of Elisa's management of equity and equality are adopted by the Elisa HR Management Board. Elisa's Equality Working Group contributes to the achievement of the agreed objectives and ensures the implementation of the principles of non-discrimination. The Working Group reports to the Elisa HR Management Steering Board. We gather feedback and measure our success with an employee survey twice a year.

Wellbeing and safety

Elisa's occupational health and safety practices are managed through supervisor work  and action programs that are part of our daily operations. Development of working environment is a right and a duty for every employee. Employees are invited to participate in and influence the handling of occupational health and safety issues at their workplace. Elisa complies with the occupational health and safety legislation of each country in which it operates.

Elisa’s Human Resources (HR) department is responsible for developing occupational health services and procuring relevant services, ensuring that operations follow good occupational health and safety practices. The goal is to ensure a healthy and safe work environment and a functioning working environment, to prevent occupational diseases, and maintain and promote the work and well being of Elisa's employees. The annual action plans are prepared for occupational health services, covering all units and locations, and presenting the key objectives of occupational health services. The quality and efficiency of occupational health services are monitored continually by Elisa's HR department.

Early intervention is an essential part of Elisa’s daily and wellbeing management. It supports Elisa’s personnel strategy and business goals. Systematic, correctly timed and correctly targeted collaboration between the different sectors of health management guarantees that employees of all ages remain capable of working and increases the personnel’s value in the labour market..

Collaboration with key industry players in occupational health and safety work ensures the timeliness of best practices and guidelines. In Finland, a significant portion of our maintenance work, such as in masts, is carried out by our partners' installers. Therefore, monitoring the performance of occupational health and safety activities is an important part of the collaboration. In Estonia, maintenance work is mainly carried out by Elisa's own employees.

Diverse customers 

Elisa serves more than 2.8 million diverse consumer, corporate and public administration organisation customers in Finland, Estonia and internationally. Customer orientation is one of our guiding values, and customer satisfaction is an important factor steering our operations, as is understanding their needs.

An in-depth understanding of the needs of our diverse customer base is a prerequisite for developing our services and for achieving equality in changing circumstances. Changes in society impose special requirements on services, products and communication at the customer interface. These changes include the multiculturalism that follows from internationalisation, the aging population, the requirements of sustainable development, and the faster renewal cycle of media and communication services brought about by digitalisation.

Elisa is committed to net neutrality and providing all services without any discrimination.

Safe data management and data protection are significant parts of the customer care we provide. More at elisa.com/dataprotection.

In our marketing, we follow the law, the rules of the sector and good practices. The Finnish Competition and Consumer Authority supervises and provides guidelines for marketing in the industry. Our customers have the right to opt out of direct marketing. Our Marketing unit handles our marketing activities.

In our telephone marketing, we apply the Consumer Protection Act, the Personal Data Act and certain other special laws, as well as guidelines and regulations from the authorities. Elisa’s subsidiary Enia is responsible for Elisa’s telephone sales service. Its quality monitoring ensures compliance with the agreed rules.

Our customer support pages give guidance and support. The Elisa OmaYhteisö community provides answers to questions about our products and services. Elisa is also active on social media. 

Safe and easy-to-use services for everyone

The safety, security, accessibility and ease of use of our inspirational services are the most important issues when developing the customer experience. 

Our aim is to design services based on the needs of our customers. We ensure excellence in customer encounters by regularly inviting our customers to meet our service designers and to test our current and future digital services. To meet the needs of our increasingly multicultural customers, we aim to develop our services in different languages and with clear and easy-to-understand language.

Online services are increasingly used with mobile devices. To ensure the best user experience, all Elisa's services are designed first for small screens, and after that, to be responsive on larger ones. 

We develop our services to become even more accessible through e.g. by  collecting targeted feedback on service development work for example from senior citizens and people with visual impairments.

Sustainable supply chain and partnerships 

Having a sustainable and transparent supply chain is an important part of Elisa's social sustainability. It is also a relevant issue for our stakeholders. Our procurement consists mainly of purchases of electronics and equipment, equipment for network construction and various services, mainly from within the EU, but also partly from outside it. Approximately 80% of Elisa's purchases are from Finnish partners.

We work closely with suppliers and subcontractors to improve accountability throughout the supply chain. The risks in our supply chain include, in particular, child labour, poor working conditions, forced labour, security breaches, emissions from product manufacturing, poor waste treatment and corruption. We identify and mitigate these risks through audits.


We are a member of the international Joint Alliance for CSR (JAC), an international association of telecommunications operators with the aim of improving accountability and transparency in supply chains by carrying out social and environmental responsibility assessments and audits along the supply chain in line with jointly defined criteria. Our work with JAC and involvement in working groups (on e.g. climate and human rights) will improve the management of supplier relations and our audit capabilities, increase transparency in the supply chain, and enhance skills in best practices in supply chain accountability.