New operational focus areas under preparation

We are currently preparing the new operational focus areas for 2025-2029, and they will be completed early in the year. The focus areas of the strategy period that ended in 2024 were the development of competence and work community, technology and preparedness, and networks and cooperation. 

The focus areas mentioned above have guided our operations and in my opinion we have been successful, or perhaps even excelled. Competence and work community development are reflected in the provision of high quality emergency services, the improved results of assessments of well-being at work, the reduction of absences due to sickness and an overall improvement of the work atmosphere. In the Trust & Reputation survey of public administration organisations, we have reached the podium for five years in a row – twice in the first place and three times in the third. 

The investment in working capacity management has had visible results, and significant improvements have been achieved in a short time. Absences due to sickness are being reduced, and there are great savings thanks to a decrease in disability pension payments. The results have also been noticed in wider circles, and the Emergency Response Centre Administration was awarded the “Työkykyjohtamisen teot” (Work Capacity Management Actions) recognition at the 60th anniversary celebration of the public sector employees' pension provider Keva. The recognition was given for active and effective work to strengthen the working capacity of employees and reduce the risk of work disability. The challenge in the coming years will be to maintain the positive development. 

From the perspective of technology and preparedness, we are also at a high level. The ERICA emergency response centre information system has a reliability requirement of 99.996%, which means it may only be out of service for a maximum of 21 minutes per year. This goal has been achieved, meaning that the system operates reliably.

Networked emergency centre operations make it possible for any of the six emergency centres to answer emergency calls coming from anywhere in Finland. People rarely realise that this Finnish system and feature is the only one of its kind in the world. It also enables preparedness exercises, in which one emergency response centre is actually cleared out in reality while the other 5 emergency response centres take care of emergency calls during this time.

We have been able to improve cooperation continuously. In fact, cooperation is key to efficient emergency response centre operations. As our latest task, we have revised the risk assessment instructions for emergency medical care and received positive feedback for this both from within the agency and from the health and social welfare authorities. This year, we will be working with the police to review their risk assessment instructions, and here, too, the goal is to continue to improve the quality of alerting, i.e. assigning the right resources to the right place at the right time with the right urgency.  

New organisation – new culture

The ERC Administration was reorganised in early 2024. Our new organisation is still in its early stages. We have strived to improve leadership and created different channels to enable employee engagement. However, we recognise that establishing a new organisational culture is a long process. I have emphasised that while the culture changes slowly, what is important is the direction. Therefore, it is essential that we take small but active steps to change our operations and create a new organisational culture. We will support the change of organisational culture with the new focus areas. 

What is our aim when we change our organisational culture? The aim is for all activities to be thoroughly planned and realistically scheduled so that the goals of the operations are clear to everyone and they are achieved as planned. It is also important to ensure that everything we do is directed towards being even more efficient in handling emergency calls and alerting the appropriate authorities to the location. Success requires all staff to work towards this in their own roles. 

Productivity programme – threat or opportunity?

Government organisations are currently preparing productivity programmes. The administrative branch of the Ministry of the Interior together with the administrative branches of the Ministry of Defence and Ministry of Justice got away with lower savings targets than the administrative branches of other ministries. This is a sign of the current international political situation that requires ensuring overall security.

Nevertheless, the productivity programme will require increasing operational efficiency in the coming years at the Emergency Response Centre Agency, too. Savings or productivity goals are often seen purely as a threat to the current activities, but personally, I want to see an opportunity here to make the organisation even more efficient. I strongly believe that with a good and analytical approach, we will be able to achieve the goals of the productivity programme while maintaining a high level of service. Again, all employees must be strongly committed to working together for us to succeed. 

Taito Vainio 
Director General of the Emergency Response Centre Agency