Finnair builds a sustainable work life through active work ability management and the support of Auntie

Everyone has the right to a good working life, and at Finnair we are committed to providing our people with a safe and healthy workplace. Building a thriving work community is seen as a shared responsibility where each individual has an important role to play. We especially want to highlight the importance of maintaining work ability throughout different stages of a career, so that employees can enjoy a good life both during and after their working years. Preventive people leadership and wellbeing initiatives require not only collaboration, but also long-term use of data-driven insights and an open culture of dialogue.

Auntie’s services provide versatile support for mental wellbeing. Employees can find help for managing stress and workload, for personal development, or in navigating sudden life changes. Auntie’s conversation packages also support managers in their daily work, offering tools for leadership and self-development.

Access to the service is completely confidential, self-directed, and available exactly when support is needed. This makes Auntie a truly low-threshold solution that helps employees cope with everyday challenges, identify issues early, and strengthen their work ability. The result is fewer absences and stronger organizational performance in the long term.

Finnair also benefits from Auntie’s expertise through tailored unit-level coaching. This ensures support can be directed toward current needs while also raising awareness of wellbeing topics that affect the entire community. Auntie forms a natural part of Finnair’s broader wellbeing ecosystem, working smoothly and purposefully together with occupational health and other partners.

“For example, employees are sometimes referred from occupational health to Auntie when it’s identified they would benefit from the service. This collaboration works really well for us,” explains Nikula. “Offering wellbeing services like Auntie also sends a clear message: we care about our employees and their wellbeing truly matters,” Nikula concludes.

Supporting employees proactively in Finnair’s daily operations

Finnair’s working environment is both diverse and demanding: more than 3,000 employees work in flight operations, and a large part of the workforce does shift work. The airline industry is sensitive to external changes, and sudden developments have a direct impact on employees’ daily lives. That is why investing in work ability and wellbeing is a top priority for Finnair.

“Work itself is a source of strength, but sometimes life brings challenges that affect how well people can cope. Through Auntie, employees can quickly access support—whether the challenge is related to work or personal life,” explains Milla Nikula.

According to Nikula, Auntie’s biggest strengths are its low threshold, diverse content, and preventive impact. Sessions with Auntie professionals are held online, which makes the service easily accessible even for employees working shifts.

Auntie’s discussion packages cover a wide range of mental wellbeing themes, from stress management and resilience to strengthening mind skills and supporting leadership. Early support helps maintain work ability, makes daily work smoother, and strengthens employees’ resources resulting in better organisational performance and a more positive employee experience across Finnair.

 Multilingual and flexible support for the wellbeing of Finnair’s international workforce

Finnair is an international company with employees representing a wide range of languages and cultural backgrounds. According to Nikula, it is especially important that when it comes to mental wellbeing, support is available in an employee’s own native language. This lowers the threshold for seeking help and makes the support more effective.

Finnair employees have already used Auntie’s services in more than ten different languages. The broad language selection has enabled equal access to support across the company’s international workforce.

Auntie’s expertise has also been integrated into the daily work of different teams and functions. Content has been brought closer to employees through webinars, coaching sessions, and other events further lowering the threshold to talk about and address mental wellbeing challenges at an early stage.

“We don’t just talk about Auntie’s discussion packages. We’ve also benefited from Auntie’s broader expertise and know-how in our work. It’s valuable to have this kind of support for everyday situations,” Nikula emphasises.

From individual support to organisational impact: How Auntie strengthens wellbeing at Finnair

Auntie’s impact at Finnair is visible in many ways – not only in the experiences of individual employees, but also on a wider scale. The service’s popularity has grown steadily, and its benefits are regularly highlighted in internal communications.

Finnair monitors employee wellbeing systematically, and Auntie has also come up in employee surveys: the service has received a great deal of feedback and all of it is positive. This shows that low-threshold support is genuinely valued as part of the company’s overall wellbeing offering.

“Employees who have used Auntie feel their daily life improves and that they receive the right support in the right time. That is the most important thing for us, and it also proves the service’s effectiveness,” says Nikula. Employees value the service’s easy accessibility, confidentiality, and broad content, which together provide both security and practical support in everyday life.

At Finnair, wellbeing is seen as a strategic investment that supports both employees’ ability to cope and the long-term success of the company. Auntie plays an important role in this. Better wellbeing and resilience translate into stronger commitment and higher productivity.

Finnair’s goal is to be an employer where everyone can be themselves, do their work safely and sustainably, and live a good life both during and after their career. The idea is that work should support life – not take away from it – and Auntie’s services fit perfectly with this vision.

“When our employees feel well, Finnair feels well too,” Nikula summarises. She emphasises that investing in mental wellbeing is not only good and responsible, but also a wider societal contribution and that is why Finnair is committed to it.

Mental wellbeing challenges affect all of us at different stages of life, and they are not always related to work. That is why support must be easy to access and preventive by nature. Auntie provides exactly this: confidential support, at one’s own pace, without the need to involve the employer.

And as Nikula concludes: “What could be better than having the right support directly available at work – easily and with a human touch? This is a model I warmly recommend.”

Read more customer stories here.