Helsinki tries wry humour in wooing European Chemicals Agency staff

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In collaboration with the state authorities, Helsinki has embarked on a marketing campaign to win over the hearts and minds of chemicals experts and their families, in order to fill vacancies at the European Chemicals Agency, which is scheduled to begin operations in the capital from 2007.
      The big challenge is to get people to move to a cold, remote country on the periphery of Europe, a place where people speak an odd and incomprehensible language.
      A few dozen employees will start work with the ECA in the spring of 2007, but from then on the Agency will grow in size rapidly. Premises in Helsinki are being firmed up, with the final choice to be made from a short-list of three.
     
The groundwork for the city image marketing job was done a few years ago, when Finland was campaigning to get the European Food Safety Agency.
      As we all now know, that venture stumbled and fell owing to an Italian veto and the celebrated "Finnish prosciutto gap" claims of Silvio Berlusconi. Even if Parma eventually and predictably got that plum, a brochure for Helsinki was produced and the framework has remained the same.
      After Finland secured the European Chemicals Agency instead, the booklet was given a gentle makeover, with a few words of introduction and welcome from Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen.
     
Since Helsinki is regarded by many as a "tough sell", the approach has been to use wry humour to dispel some of the preconceptions about the city and the country.
      All the subjects that are expected to alarm prospective employees are handled and deftly turned around: the weather, the language, and the ascetic Northern lifestyle.
      In the winter, for instance, the skiing is great, and after all the TV programmes up here are not dubbed as they are in the south, so you can watch in peace in the original languages. The writer even rather archly points out that "the Finns have done rather too good a job of telling the world how difficult their language is", and notes that nearly everyone speaks English anyway.
     
One very important aspect in recruiting will be guaranteeing adequate places in international schools. Teacher numbers and classes will have to be increased in order to accommodate the children of potential EU staffers.
      It is anticipated that around 400 households will move in, which will also put some strain on the supply of large apartments in the city. Price levels of housing may also come as a shock to new arrivals.
      It is also vital for the success of the project that the Agency does become a truly international workplace - if the ECA is largely manned by Finns, then the venture would have to be seen as a failure.
     
The ECA will be looking for academically-trained experts on fixed-term contracts - chemists and toxicologists in the main. There will also be a need for IT specialists, legal staff, and a bank of office employees.
      The City of Helsinki's brochure, entitled "At Home in Helsinki", can be found from the link below.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Expansion of Chemicals Authority responsibilities receives support within EU (18.5.2004)
  EU Chemicals Authority both a joy and a disappointment (15.12.2003)

Links:
  At Home in Helsinki (.pdf file)
  This is Helsinki

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