Stakeholder engagement

A strong interaction with various stakeholders forms part of our co-operative heritage and mission.

OP improves its responsibility together with its stakeholders.

Stakeholder engagement is deeply embedded into OP’s cooperative business model. For example, the administrative bodies of OP Financial Group member cooperative banks include of owner-customers who can thus contribute to their banks' operations.

We aim at open and continuous dialogue with our stakeholders. One of the main principles of stakeholder engagement is to use dialogue to identify aspects in OP’s sustainability actions that require development. We assess stakeholder views and engagement through various surveys and feed-back requests.

Our actions are guided by our sustainability programme, which was updated in 2022.

Personnel and governance

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 and customers

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.

Read more about being an owner-customer

Procurement partners and supplier requirements

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.

Read more about procurement

Local communities, schools and universities

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.

Our cooperation with universities around Finland has involved lectures and visits, common research projects, practical training and theses. OP has also given significant donations during rounds of fundraising for universities. OP supported Finnish education and competence in 2022 by donating a total of 1.8 million euros to Finnish universities during the funding period ending in June 2022. With the donation, OP Financial Group supports Finnish expertise and research, creates opportunities for sustainable growth and promotes the long-term success of its operating region.

Media

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.

Read more about our communications and media relations

Industry associations, NGOs, authorities and decision-makers

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.

OP Financial Group’s ESG forum

The purpose of the ESG forum is to listen to the views of our important stakeholders, so that we can develop OP Financial Group’s sustainability work to better meet the expectations towards us. Through the forum we can have open discussions with different actors, and thus advance the themes that are important to us all and to listen to those parties, which our actions might affect.

ESG forum gathers the relevant stakeholders we have identified, and they represent different fields and views of our stakeholders, such as our owner customers, personnel, environmental, social, and financial and business actors. We use different meetings and surveys to listen to the representatives’ views and opinions.