Finnish Institute of Occupational Health online news article 3 October 2025
Work life is undergoing a transformation on many fronts at the same time. Hybrid work is challenging the sense of community, diverse work communities need new ways to resolve conflicts, the ageing population increases the crisis in care work and the adoption of AI solutions call for a deeper review of social and ethical sustainability.
The Finnish Institute of Occupational Health is launching four extensive research projects to address these challenges. They provide knowledge, tools and operational models that can be used to develop a new kind of management and innovation culture in work life.
– The Finnish Institute of Occupational Health is conducting research to ensure that Finnish work life remains competitive and sustainable even in the midst of changes, says Päivi Husman, Director of the Transformations of Work Unit.
CHILL – Communality, learning and innovation in the hybrid work model
The CHILL project researches and develops solutions that enable Finnish organizations to tap into hybrid work as a competitive advantage. The study looks at how a hybrid work culture can be built to support communality, learning and innovation. In addition, the project examines what kinds of changes hybrid work requires from management and HR practices and what kinds of impacts it has on well-being at work.
The project will result in new hybrid work models, management practices and workspace solutions that strengthen communality, well-being and work performance and can be widely used in Finnish workplaces.
– The project will be carried out as a learning network of more than 30 organizations, and the results can be applied to practically any organization that uses hybrid work, says Research Professor Tuomo Alasoini.
The project is funded by Business Finland and conducted in co-operation between the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health and Turku School of Economics under the University of Turku.
Learn more: Chill communality learning and innovation in the hybrid work mode (CHILL)
MANAGE-AI – Managing socially sustainable digital and AI transformation
The MANAGE-AI project is investigating the impact of digital innovations and artificial intelligence on work life in the social and health care sector. The study examines how artificial intelligence and digital solutions affect work tasks and working practices, what kinds of new competence needs they create and what consequences their introduction has on the meaningfulness of work.
– Artificial intelligence is rapidly becoming more common in social and health care services that collect large amounts of data, but we do not yet have sufficient information on how it changes work tasks, competence and well-being at work. Organizations need support and new evaluation practices alongside traditional ethical assessments of technology in order to understand the impacts on work, explains Chief Researcher Eveliina Saari.
The result of the project will be a research-based co-evaluation practice that helps technology developers and user organizations anticipate the impacts of technology and also identify undesirable consequences. The new model supports socially and ethically sustainable deployment of solutions, accelerates the scaling of innovations and strengthens the competitiveness of Finnish work life.
The project is funded by Business Finland, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health and six technology companies participating in the project. The consortium project is led by VTT while the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health acts as the project partner.
Learn more: Managing socially sustainable digital and AI transformation by the means of co-evaluation – (MANAGE-AI)
SHADOW – Intervening in trouble at work
The SHADOW project investigates how problems are addressed at workplaces and what impact they have on well-being at work and social sustainability. The study investigates what kinds of problems are considered to require intervention, who is expected to intervene and when, how the intervention occurs and what consequences it has.
– Intervening in problems prevents risks and streamlines work, but in diverse and hybrid work environments, it can be a socially demanding act that challenges personal relationships and can affect the atmosphere of the entire work community, says Chief Researcher Elina Weiste.
The results will provide new information on the dynamics of intervening and its effects. They can be used to develop practices that make addressing problems more impactful and support social sustainability and inclusiveness in work life.
The study is a four-year consortium project funded by the Academy of Finland and implemented in collaboration between the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health and the University of Tampere.
CAREFUTURE – Alleviating the care crisis by exploring innovation
The CAREFUTURE project seeks solutions to the care crisis by investigating both grassroots innovations as well as innovations driven by artificial intelligence, organizations and policy.
– We want to better understand shortage of labor in care work and how care work can be maintained as an attractive, meaningful and ethically sustainable work, says Chief Researcher Eveliina Saari.
The study explores how local innovations developed by employees and citizens could be integrated in the wider care system and what kinds of solutions artificial intelligence and digital tools may provide in a socially and ethically sustainable way. In addition, the project looks for ways to support nursing students’ entry and retention in health and social care and investigates the links between nurse communities' well-being at work and innovation.
The project will organize a national innovation competition and innovation councils in which policy makers, care operators, citizens and nurses evaluate and develop new solutions. The results can be used to strengthen the appreciation of care work, improve the care system's capacity for innovation and support its sustainable renewal.
The project is led by the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health and will be carried out in consortium co-operation with the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, Tampere University of Applied Sciences and the University of Jyväskylä. The project is funded by the SKILLS program of the Strategic Research Council (SRC).
Further information
- CHILL: Tuomo Alasoini, Research Professor, tuomo.alasoini [at] ttl.fi, 050 564 6140
- MANAGE-AI: Eveliina Saari, Chief Researcher, eveliina.saari [at] ttl.fi, 040 526 1643
- SHADOW: Elina Weiste, Chief Researcher, elina.weiste [at] ttl.fi, 050 336 3727
- CAREFUTURE: Eveliina Saari, Chief Researcher, eveliina.saari [at] ttl.fi, 040 526 164
See also
Learn more about all the projects of the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health.
