Quality work environment in the Nordic finance sector – Financial employees wellbeing in a post-pandemic world

Executive summary

The Covid-19 pandemic has changed the way of work fundamentally during the last two years. As research and surveys widely predicted remote working has come to stay, and that the work-from-home revolution triggered by the pandemic has changed the future of work permanently. Now as employees have returned to the work place a high level of teleworking is still being maintained, which suggests remote working has positive consequences such as more flexibility and autonomy and, in some cases, a better work-life balance. However, these gains do not always outweigh the negative consequences such as being overly connected, a blurring of the lines between one’s work and private life, and a greater intensity of work and technology-related stress.

With these challenges and opportunities in mind an analysis of its effects on employee wellbeing and mental health is necessary to fully grasp the changes that the remote work life brought. With that said, it is important to emphasise that we are still in a learning process.

This report is built on the work done by NFU affiliates on financial employees’ experiences of the remote working during the pandemic and some learnings and analyses for a new normal hybrid work life, with a combination of teleworking and office based work.