Mehiläinen invests in social responsibility issues

Social responsibility is one of the key areas of corporate sustainability, and human rights play a significant role in this work. Large companies have long been recommended to assess the adverse human rights impacts of their activities, and the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive will make this mandatory in the EU.

Mehiläinen’s activities in the field of human rights are guided by the human rights policy approved in 2023 and the human rights commitment included in it. Mehiläinen has now also starteda more systematic assessmentof human rights.

- Human rights are present in the everyday activities and customer encounters of each Mehiläinen professional. It is important that we are aware of our impact on the realisation of human rights and, in particular, the potential adverse impacts that our activities may have. This enables us to plan our activities in such a way that we can proactively prevent these risks. It has been a pleasure to see how the human rights report and talk about human rights have inspired and activated the Mehiläinen professionals that have been involved in the process," says Marina Lampinen, Director of Public Affairs and Corporate Responsibility at Mehiläinen.

In early 2024, Mehiläinen’s social services assessed the human rights impacts of the activities and implemented Mehiläinen’s first Human Rights Due Diligence process. The process was carried out in accordance with the UN’s established guidelines, and over 100 Mehiläinen professionals and representatives of stakeholders were consulted during the process. In addition to customers of social services, the process involved the personnel of units, supervisors, specialists and management.

As a summary of the process, Mehiläinen produced an assessment of the human rights risks associated with our activities. Our usual activities do not cause serious human rights risks, but our activities can affect the realisation of human rights for both employees and customers. Several impacts of various levels were identified, and it was also noted that our existing operating methods (such as whistleblowing channels and the anomaly system) comprehensively prevent the risks identified in the assessment.

During the process, the most important categories in which impacts could arise were classified as follows:

• the safety of employees and customers as well as psychological and physical stress
• the share of employees with immigrant backgrounds and non-native speakers in the work community: for example, impacts on the work community and management, impacts on occupational safety and resident safety, division of work
• restrictive measures and the right to self-determination and
• the right of customers to receive the social and healthcare services they are entitled to.

In the autumn, the same process will also be launched in healthcare services, and we will continue to communicate on human rights issues in the future as well.