Recruiting an employee

If you do not have a business ID, you can hire an employee as a private individual, i.e. as a household. This means that you will become an employer and, as a rule, you will be subject to the same obligations as other employers.

Check the Tax Administration's website to see how the employer's obligations are determined in different situations.Opens in a new window.

This guide will give you instructions on the methods you selected on the preliminary questions page. If you are using an invoicing service, check with your invoicing service before recruiting an employee in this way.

In order to find the most suitable employee, you should plan the recruitment process thoroughly.

When you need an employee,

• survey your company's work situation and consider different options to ensure that you can afford the employment costs
• prepare a realistic schedule for recruitment
• decide how much money you can spend on recruitment
• familiarise yourself with the employer's obligations so that you do not forget to comply with the legislation and collective agreements.

Note the following in the schedule:

• Defining the employee's tasks and creating the job advertisement
• Publication of the job advertisement
• Receiving and reviewing applications
• Selecting the employee, including any interviews and aptitude tests
• Concluding an agreement
• Preparing for the employee's arrival and planning the orientation
• Employee orientation

If the amount of work your company can offer varies greatly at different times, you can agree on different working time arrangements with your current employees.

Working time arrangements are a way of making working time more flexible in a sensible way. The possibility of working time arrangements usually depends on how the working time is defined in the employee's employment contract and the collective agreement binding on the employer.

For detailed information, see the Suomi.fi Working-time arrangements page.

You should consider hiring an employee when your company's business has grown or could grow with the help of a new employee. Your company should have enough money to cover the new employee's monthly salary and other employer's obligations.

A new employee can also be hired part-time or invited to work when necessary.

You can also consider a fixed-term employment relationship if your business operations justify it.

All employment contracts are valid until further notice, unless otherwise agreed. A fixed-term employment relationship is an exception for which there must be a justified reason.

Estimate how much work there will be for the employee. If you need an employee only on some days of the week or at certain times of the year, you can search for a part-time employee or an employee that will be invited to work when necessary. It is also possible to arrange the working hours of a full-time employee in different ways.

When hiring an employee through a temporary agency, you lease the employee from a temporary agency, which also serves as the employee's employer.

The workers work for your company and usually at your company's premises. Your company's task is to guide, guide and supervise the temporary agency workers.

Hiring an employee through a temporary agency is a good option if

• your company wants to fulfil less statutory obligations
• your company needs an individual employee for a short period of time
• there would only be work in certain periods or part of the week
• you want to improve the efficiency of activities that are not part of your company's core competence
• your company lacks a specific expertise.

Read more about hiring an employee in the guide published by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment (PDF, in Finnish).Opens in a new window.

Apprenticeship training is a good option if your company needs an employee for a job that does not require a lot of prior learning. In an apprenticeship, you train the employee directly for the tasks you need.

In apprenticeship training, it is possible to complete

• entire degrees
• units belonging to a degree.

Apprenticeship training is based on a fixed-term employment contract, the duration of which varies as necessary. The average number of working hours per week must be at least 25.

More detailed information on recruitment through apprenticeship training can be found on the Recruit or train staff page of the Oppisopimus.fi webserviceOpens in a new window..

When you take a trainee in your company,

• you give a student the opportunity to apply the knowledge and skills acquired in their studies to real work
• you can offer the student an opportunity to complete a thesis on a topic related to your company
• you can familiarise yourself with the future professional already during their studies and hire them after their studies have ended.

The training at the workplace may be:

• practical work training that is a part of studies in a university of applied sciences or university
• a workplace apprenticeship pertaining to vocational education
• on-the-job learning pertaining to labour market training.

The duration of a traineeship may vary from a few weeks to up to 18 months. Often your company can also propose a certain duration for the traineeship.

The placement may only be unpaid if it is based on an agreement between the workplace and the education provider.

In this case, the trainee does not have an employment relationship with the workplace; instead, the trainee is acquiring competence at the workplace through practical work tasks.

In most cases, unpaid traineeship students are in either vocational education and training or labour market training.

A trainee must be paid a salary whenever the training is based on an employment relationship.

The amount of pay is usually determined by the applicable collective agreement.

You can either apply for a trainee for a fixed-term employment relationship or hire a student that has applied for the training on their own initiative. It is easiest to recruit a trainee for a summer traineeship of two to three months. An employment contract or training contract must be made for the training.

If you cannot find an employee in Finland whose competence would meet your company's needs, you should also look for an employee abroad. When recruiting, pay particular attention to the schedule, as it may several months for the employee to obtain a residence permit and move to Finland.

If your employee is moving from abroad to work in Finland, they must apply for the right type of permit:

• EU, EEA and Swiss citizens may work in Finland on without an employee residence permit. However, they must register their right of residence if the employment lasts for more than 90 days.
• Citizens of other countries usually need a residence permit issued by the Finnish Immigration Service. If you hire a foreigner who moves into Finland to work in your company, they need a residence permit based on employment.

There are no work permits in Finland, but different residence permits based employment.

Please also note that if you hire an employee from outside the EU and EEA countries and your employee applies for an employee's residence permit or a seasonal work residence permit lasting more than 6 months, the TE Office may first assess whether suitable workforce is available in Finland.

Foreign employees must always have a permission to work in Finland.

When recruiting, note that

• obtaining a residence permit might take some time
• you must fill in the terms of employment in your employee's residence permit application.

Also note that:

• it is advisable to plan the induction of the employee carefully
• you might also need to help the employee with matters outside work.

If the employer is abroad and the employee is a foreigner, a residence permit cannot be obtained solely on the basis of remote work carried out in Finland.

If starting recruitment feels difficult, remember that you can get free support and advice, for example from:

• TE Office
• municipal recruitment services
• Enterprise Finland telephone service
• the new business centre in your region if your company has been operating for 0–3 years
• the development company in your area.

You can also outsource the recruitment entirely to a direct recruitment or personnel service company. Those services charge a fee.

Many parties also organise various recruitment and training events that provide information on how to start recruitment.

Contact information of new business centres - uusyrityskeskus.fiOpens in a new window.

Contact information of development companies - sekes.fiOpens in a new window.

In international recruitment, you should usually ask for help from experts in the field. TE Offices provide free advisory services in matters related to international recruitment.

Also read the guides for international recruitments published by the Work in Finland network (inFinnish).Opens in a new window.