Funded by the Finnish Work Environment Fund, a multidisciplinary study launched in the North Savo Wellbeing Services County seeks to develop a model to support the recruitment and retention of employees with immigrant backgrounds.
In Finland, the healthcare and social welfare sector is facing challenges in attracting and retaining labour. One proposed solution is to increase labour migration and recruit employees with immigrant backgrounds. The principles of transparency, fairness and sustainability must be adhered to in international recruitment. The Department of Nursing Science and the School of Humanities at the University of Eastern Finland have secured funding from the Finnish Work Environment Fund for the two-year HIRE project, which explores elements related to attraction and retention in culturally and linguistically diverse work communities. The study will be conducted in collaboration with the North Savo Wellbeing Services County and the private service provider Attendo in 2025–2026.
Already underway in the North Savo Wellbeing Services County is the VETOA project, which creates operational models for multicultural work communities in healthcare through education. The data for the new study will be collected from participants in the VETOA project as well as from the staff of the North Savo Wellbeing Services County more broadly. The study describes and evaluates the views of nurses, work communities, and managers from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds regarding recruitment and employee commitment, as well as the factors associated with these aspects.
“The goal is to form a recruitment and retention model for the healthcare sector that can be used to guide future practices related to the recruitment and inclusivity of employees with immigrant backgrounds, and to ensure healthcare organisations’ retention power,” says Docent Krista Jokiniemi of the Department of Nursing Science, the Principal Investigator of the HIRE project.
The HIRE project, short for Recruitment and Retention Elements of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Healthcare Teams: A Longitudinal Mixed-Method Pilot Study, began in January 2025. According to the research team, the results can in the future significantly improve recruitment processes and workplace well-being in the healthcare and social welfare sector, while also developing multicultural and multilingual work communities.
“The research project addresses a socially significant topic and also opens up new opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration between the university’s faculties.”
For further information, please contact:
Docent Krista Jokiniemi, PI of the HIRE project, https://uefconnect.uef.fi/en/krista.jokiniemi/
