Stakeholder engagement

With the help of our forum for stakeholders we strengthen dialogue with stakeholders. The informal forum, which consists of OP’s external stakeholders, meets a few times a year. The members of the forum are representatives of labour market organisations, think tanks, political parties, universities and civic organisations. The chair of the forum is Anni Hiekkanen, Chief Communications Officer.

With our forum for stakeholders, we strengthen dialogue towards the stakeholders. With active and open dialogue, we understand better what the surrounding society expects of our operations. The themes of the forum are, for instance, the evaluation of OP’s success in its responsibility, topical themes in the financial sector and OP’s strategic transformation.

Members of the forum for stakeholders:

Tuula Colliander, HelsinkiMissio
Fredrik Guseff, Swedish People’s Party in Finland
Antti Hakala, Trade Union Pro
Marianne Heikkilä, Martha Organisation
Miika Huttunen, Slush
Kristiina Kokko, The National Coalition Party
Kristiina Kumpula, Finnish Red Cross
Leena Alanko, Demos Helsinki
Veli Liikanen, Green Party
Ole Norrback, Eläkeläisten etujärjestö (Union for pensioners)
Antti Oksanen, Federation of Finnish Financial Services
Pekka Piispanen, Akava
Riikka Pirkkalainen, Centre Party of Finland
Anu Puusa, University of Eastern Finland
Marja-Liisa Rajakangas, Finnish Conferedation of Professionals
Liisa Rohweder, WWF
Antton Rönnholm, Social Democratic Party of Finland
Juha A.Panzar, Takuusäätiö

Personnel

OP Financial Group wants to be an attractive employer. Excellent employee experience is one of OP Financial Group’s five strategic priorities. Our goal is to have satisfied, motivated and competent employees who are capable of delivering the best customer experience.

OP’s central cooperative has been in the process of transitioning to an agile and self-managed operating model since the autumn of 2018. One of the objectives of the new operating model is to improve our employee experience, and it is based on self-managed, multi-skilled teams. This gives the teams more influence over their own work and a sense of importance. Our new operating model is also designed to overcome the challenges of the transformation of work and to provide our employees with opportunities to learn new skills and grow.

OP Financial Group sees diversity as an asset and guarantees equal opportunities and rights as well as fair treatment for all its employees. Employees are treated equally with regard to, for example, pay, recruitment and career advancement. In respect of executive positions, we aim to have both genders represented at a ratio of 60/40 percent.

Governance

In OP, governance includes Group member cooperative banks' boards of directors and supervisory boards and OP Cooperative’s Supervisory Board and their members.

The members of governing bodies can enhance their skills on a dedicated online learning environment, Hallinnon Luotsi. Hallinnon Luotsi aims to support their competence development and help them successfully perform their duties in member cooperative banks' governance, thereby supporting the renewal of the entire Group.

Owner-customers are both our customers and owners. They can participate in the governance and decision-making of their own bank and thereby influence local business life and prosperity. As an owner-customer, you can take part in making important decisions.

OP attaches great importance to cooperation with its customers.  Listening to customers' opinions about both our successes as well as our areas in need of improvement is valuable to us, and we thus monitor our feedback system actively. With a view to continuously improving our service channels to meet our customers' changing needs, we focus strongly on developing our electronic services. Social media channels enable an increasingly versatile dialogue and exchange of ideas between us and our customers.

OP’s sourcing strives to ensure that all goods, services and rights that the Group acquires are, on the whole, cost-effective, of a high standard, reliable and ethical, and that suppliers are managed professionally and in the interests of OP Financial Group and its customers.

OP has drawn up CR requirements for suppliers which need to be observed when providing services or products to OP. In our purchase agreements, we require the supplier to comply with our Code of Business Ethics, international agreements and applicable laws and regulations. Our Supplier Code of Conduct is binding on all of the Group’s service providers, suppliers and partners. OP is a significant purchaser of goods and services. In 2019, the combined purchase volume of goods, services, rights and the claims settlement partner network amounted to approximately EUR 1,800 million, and suppliers numbered more than 22,000.

Local and regional communities

Prospering together is one of our core values. In line with this, OP Financial Group takes active part in developing local and regional vitality. We have Finland's largest network of banking and insurance services. This means that customers have equal access to services, wherever they live.

National, local and regional projects and events involving various stakeholders form an integral part of OP Financial Group’s CSR programme. Member cooperative banks organise local events around Finland, and the related decisions are also made locally.

Schools and universities

Supporting financial literacy in Finland forms part of OP’s corporate responsibility. The member cooperative banks give regular presentations on financial matters to children and adolescents. We aim to promote financial literacy and knowledge of banking and insurance in Finland. In 2019, we strengthened the financial literacy of more than 70,000 children and young people.

Our cooperation with universities around Finland has involved lectures and visits, common research projects, practical training and theses.

OP's corporate communications are tasked with promoting the Group's business by providing all stakeholder groups with true information on the Group's goals, targets and operations. Both external and internal communications are based on facts and provide a true picture of the state of affairs. The Group releases all news without undue delay.

We are continuously developing our corporate communications practices, since our stakeholders consider transparent and understandable communications to be one of the most important elements of OP's corporate social responsibility.

OP takes part in the working groups of the European Association of Co-operative Banks (EACB) and Finance Finland (FFI) and is involved in the operations of the Finnish Business & Society (FiBS) and Finland's Sustainable Investment Forum (FINSIF). We meet regularly with various NGOs and discuss topical CSR issues with them.

With authorities, we engage in continuous and close dialogue about the financial sector's development.