Efficiency through the productivity programme

The tightening of the public-sector economy is reflected in public organisations. Although the cost-cutting obligations in the administrative branch of the Ministry of the Interior are among the least stringent, the productivity programme requires measures to be taken in the agencies within the administrative branch.

The Emergency Response Centre Agency’s most significant expenses are wages and salaries, ICT and outsourced services. We will strive to achieve the necessary cuts by reducing our ICT and outsourced service costs. According to our estimates, this will not, however, be sufficient and we will need to carry out measures to reduce costs in wages and salaries as well. 

The Emergency Response Centre Agency initiated an industrial co-operation procedure in December 2025 with the aim of renewing the organisation during spring 2026. I have stated that, in administrative tasks, the organisational reform and staff reductions will be executed through natural wastage. In practice, this means that when an employee retires or leaves the agency for any reason, the handling of their tasks is assessed separately. We will not be filling vacant posts automatically.

I have already tentatively stated that we will form three administrative regions; in Southern Finland, Western Finland and Northern and Eastern Finland. This will not impact the number or locations of emergency response centres,but will allow us to reduce the number of managers by organising our operations in a new way. This is an opportune time to carry out a reform like this, because two emergency response centre heads retired in late 2025 and a further two emergency response centre heads are planning to retire this year. In addition to this, two units in the data administration and information systems operations will be merged to create the prerequisites for changes to tasks when employees retire or leave the agency.  

I have also outlined that personnel reductions will not be directed at ERC operators. The number of ERC operators will be reduced by approximately five person-workyears each year based on the current number of people being trained and leaving the agency, which is why we have communicated the fact that the number of people trained for ERC operator tasks should be increased for us to be able to maintain the current level. The Minister of the Interior has stated that an additional emergency response centre operator training course will be organised in autumn 2026, which will bring some relief. 

Resources to be allocated to preparedness

The current climate in international politics also impacts the Emergency Response Centre Agency. We will strengthen our preparedness in anticipation of any disruptions and exceptional circumstances. To this end, there are plans to establish a new preparedness, premises and security and safety unit for the agency. This will not require new posts; instead, we will be organising our current resources into a more clearly defined entity. The unit will be in charge of the organisation and coordination of matters concerned with overall security and safety, preparedness planning, preparedness, risk management, premises protection and staff preparedness training at the Emergency Response Centre Agency.  

In addition to this, we have established a premises programme to renew our premises in phases. One essential part of the premises programme is the improvement of the physical security of our premises. All of our emergency response centres are already located in protected facilities, but the objective is to further improve the level of protection when renewing the premises. 

We have excellent prerequisites for success

We are embarking on 2026 with confidence. Trust in the Emergency Response Centre Agency is excellent among our stakeholders and the people who use ERC services. We measure the trust among service users by conducting Reputation&Trust surveys, the latest of which showed that we managed to improve our rating from the previous year. We placed fourth this time around. Last year, we also measured stakeholder trust by means of a stakeholder survey. In the stakeholder survey, our reputation was rated at 4.3 on a scale of 1–5. I would like to thank all our stakeholders. The success of emergency response centre operations is dependent on the successful cooperation between the organisations participating in emergency response centre operations. We will continue to improve our cooperation in the coming year. 

Taito Vainio 
Director General of the Emergency Response Centre Agency