What financial support can I get to hire an employee?

Employment services and municipalities may grant different types of subsidies for hiring.

Contact local employment services well in advance of the start of the employment relationship, preferably already at the recruitment planning stage. You can also get help finding an employee at the same time. Contact details on the Job Market Finland’s regional pagesOpens in a new window.

Subsidy for arranging working conditions is financial support for

• supporting an employee (e.g. getting help from another employee)
• purchasing tools
• making alterations at the workplace.

Subsidy may be granted if your employee's disability or illness requires significant purchases or alterations in relation to the company's financial situation.

Apply for subsidy for arranging working conditions from the employment services. The subsidy is paid retrospectively according to actual costs.

The employer may be paid training compensation if the employer incurs costs and this is agreed upon in the apprenticeship agreement.

The training compensations are:

• for basic qualifications, an average of EUR 100-200/month.
• for further education (vocational and specialist qualifications), 10-100 euros/month However, additional training is not always compensated for.

The training compensation is agreed on a case-by-case basis. The compensation is paid by the apprenticeship office or the educational institution organising the apprenticeship.

Kela compensates the employer for the costs incurred by occupational health care for each financial year when the employer pays both the employer's and the employee's health insurance contributions to Finland.

Compensation for occupational health care requires that the employer has an up-to-date occupational health care agreement, occupational health care action plan and workplace survey.

Your company can receive compensation for

• preventive occupational health care
• general practitioner-level medical care, which the employer obtains from the same occupational health care service provider as preventive occupational health care services.

Reimbursable expenses may arise from the services of occupational health care professionals (occupational health physician, occupational health nurse and occupational physiotherapist). Costs incurred from the services of occupational health care experts (e.g. occupational health psychologist, specialist) may also be reimbursed if the occupational health care professional has assessed them as necessary.

Occupational health care provided remotely is only compensated to a limited extent.

For detailed instructions on how to apply for occupational health care compensation, see Kela's quick start guide (in Finnish and Swedish)Opens in a new window..

The employer may apply for sickness allowance from Kela for the period after the personal liability period for which the employer pays the employee sick pay. The personal liability period usually starts from the date on which the physician found that employee was unable to work.

Even if Kela does not pay sickness allowance, the employer may still be obliged to pay the employee a salary for the sickness period.

Kela may also pay partial sickness allowance to either the employer or the employee. Partial sickness allowance is paid to the employer only if the employer pays full-time salary for part-time work.

Read more about the personal liability period for sickness allowance and applying for sickness allowance on Kela's website (in Finnish and Swedish).Opens in a new window.

When you pay your employee a salary during parental leave, Kela can pay the parental allowance to your company. Kela calculates the amount of daily allowance on the basis of the 12-month pay data you have submitted to the Incomes Register.

If an employee has several employers paying them salary on the basis of parental leave, the daily allowance is distributed among the employers in proportion to how they have paid the salary.

If the employee works during z paid pregnancy or parental leave, Kela does not pay the parental allowance for the working day even if the work is carried out for another employer.

The collective agreement for the sector usually determines whether the employer is obliged to pay salaries during parental leave.

Read more about the amounts of parental allowance on Kela's website (in Finnish and Swedih).Opens in a new window.

You can apply for family leave allowance from Kela for costs incurred by your female employee's parenthood.

Family leave allowance may be granted if the following conditions are met:

• The employee has received pregnancy allowance, maternity allowance or parental allowance for an adoptive mother from Kela.
• On the basis of pregnancy or adoption, the employer has paid a salary for at least one month during the period of pregnancy allowance, maternity allowance or parental allowance for adoptive mothers based on a collective agreement or employment contract.
• The employee's employment relationship has lasted at least three months before the beginning of the pregnancy allowance period, the maternity allowance period or the parental allowance period for adoptive mothers and is based on an employment contract concluded for at least one year.
• Before the beginning of the pregnancy allowance period, maternity allowance period or adoption mother's parental allowance period, the employee's working time is at least 80% of the full-time regular working time in the sector.

The family leave allowance is EUR 2,500. Compensation is specific to pregnancy or adoption.

Read more about family leave allowance on Kela's website (in Finnish and Swedish).Opens in a new window.

You can apply for annual holiday compensation from Kela if you pay your employee holiday pay or holiday compensation for annual leave accumulated on the basis of parental leave.

Annual holiday compensation is paid for 2.5 days for each calendar month for which the employee has accrued annual leave on the basis of parental leave and for which the parental allowance has been paid for at least 14 days. Holiday bonuses or holiday return bonuses are not taken into account. The maximum amount of compensation for annual holiday costs that the employer has been obliged to pay as holiday pay or holiday compensation is increased by a factor of 1.21.

Read more about applying for annual holiday compensation on Kela's website (in Finnish and Swedish).Opens in a new window.

When you pay your employee a salary for the period of participation in rehabilitation, Kela can pay the rehabilitation allowance to your company.

Kela may also pay a partial rehabilitation allowance to your company if the employee is part of the working day in rehabilitation and part of the day at work. The condition for the partial rehabilitation allowance is that the normal daily working hours have been reduced by at least 40% due to rehabilitation.

If your employee participates in rehabilitation on their own time, your company will not receive a rehabilitation allowance. For example, paid annual leave, overtime leave or saved leave is calculated considered ‘own time’.

Read more about the rehabilitation allowance paid to the employer on the Kela website (in Finnish and Swedish).Opens in a new window.

Under the EURES Targeted Mobility Scheme, small and medium-sized enterprises can apply for support for the orientation and integration of employees arriving into Finland from other EU countries, Iceland or Norway.

More information on EURES Targeted Mobility SchemeOpens in a new window.