Teosto bears responsibility for both its own staff and, more broadly, for the entire music industry and the professionals working there. We want the music industry to be a good place to work for everyone.
In order for the Finnish music industry to be successful, we need to include all talents, regardless of their background and characteristics. There is no place for discriminatory culture in music or at Teosto.
Teosto’s staff
Our employees are service-minded, have a high level of wellbeing and are proud to work for Teosto. They produce high-quality service for the needs of our members and customers. Understanding our members and customers as well as serving them actively and professionally are at the core of our duties.
At the end of 2023, Teosto employed 68 people (72 people in 2022). Our employees enjoy working for us: the average length of employment is 12.9 years (11.9 years in 2022).
Teosto’s employer value proposition explains what our employees can expect from their workplace. The supervisor and the employee work together to define the goals of the work and make progress towards them. Clear responsibilities, ensuring wellbeing at work and a culture that emphasises cooperation and openness support us in reaching our goals. We encourage all of our employees to maintain their competence and offer them opportunities for continuous self-development.
Natural, planned and continuous dialogue between the employee representative and the employer is an important part of HR management. This is also supported by Teosto’s cooperation group, which had four meetings in 2023.
Teosto strives to promote equality and diversity among music authors. One of the focus areas of our strategy is to ensure that everyone has equal opportunities to get into and work in the music industry.
In 2023, women accounted for only 21.6% of Teosto’s individual members, only slightly more than in the previous year. The share of women has developed slowly, although the proportion of women is slightly higher among new members. Unfortunately, at the moment we are unable to provide statistics on the number of non-binary people among members, but according to the gender equality survey conducted in the music industry in 2024, their share among people operating in the music industry is about 3%.
In 2023, we took several actions to promote diversity and equality. Early in the year, a survey on the gender distribution in the music industry and the phenomena behind it was published. Together with our member organisations, we compiled recruitment guidelines for the music industry to make recruitment more equal in the entire industry. We organised a discussion on equality at our annual Teosto Talks seminar and discussed the significance of role models for female music authors as part of our programme at the Music X Media event. The survey was followed up by a broader equality survey conducted in spring 2024.
We also work to help young talents break into the music industry by organising a TOP20 Future Hitmakers course for young music authors and a Uudet Soundit (New Sounds) campaign for finding new performers to festivals.
As an employer, we have signed the theses for an equal music industry and, in our equality plan, recorded measures to guarantee everyone a safe work environment that is free of discrimination. The achievement of equality is monitored by the cooperation group, which assesses the situation annually.
The gender distribution in Teosto’s staff is female-dominated. In 2023, 38.2% (43.1% in 2022) of Teosto’s employees were male and 61.8% (56.9% in 2022) were female. Three out of nine management team members and three out of six board members were female.
The largest age group among Teosto employees is 55–59-year-olds. The average age of all Teosto employees in 2023 was 49.2 years (2022: 49.5). We are actively working to promote the opportunities for younger generations to work for us, for example with the “Young People and Teosto” concept, which has been implemented since 2021. Under the concept, we offer work practice learning periods, internships and part-time employment to young people interested in the music industry.
Teosto promotes its staff’s wellbeing at work and work ability with a long-term and systematic approach. We maintain wellbeing at work by carrying out proactive and preventive work ability activities, promoting open dialogue and developing leadership and supervisory work.
We offer our staff a wide range of occupational health care services and create a wellbeing at work plan annually. We are assisted in this work by our occupational health partner Mehiläinen and the pension insurance company Ilmarinen. Wellbeing is also supported by our active employees’ club HeKe, which organises various events that promote wellbeing at work and build team spirit. As a fringe benefit, we offer vouchers that can be used for exercising, culture, massages, dental care or commuting.
In 2023, the greatest challenges to wellbeing at work were caused by occasional heavy workloads in both customer service and development. Wellbeing at work was increased through, for example, updating job descriptions and the organisational structure as well as discussions between employees and supervisors where concrete measures were sought to make the workload lighter. Furthermore, streamed break exercise sessions were carried out twice a week, in addition to joint jogging for staff and a wellbeing at work day in nature. Staff also had access to the HeiaHeia app, which supports wellbeing and team spirit. Teosto’s employees also have the opportunity to split their working day in two, allowing them to exercise and spend time outdoors in the middle of the day. This has been found to be of great significance in supporting coping at work, especially during the darkest months of the year.
We measure our staff’s wellbeing and productivity with the Quality of Work Life (QWL) index. In the survey, our employees respond to 15 questions and use them to assess how the quality of work life is reflected in leadership, supervisory work, organisational culture, competence and processes. At the same time, the employee may offer suggestions for development for each thing they notice. The survey provides us with up-to-date information on the risk of incapacity for work, turnover, sickness absence and burnout.
Our QWL index was good in 2023, with an average of 73.5% from two measurements (an average of 78.5% in 2022). The average in Finnish organisations is 60%.
Our other wellbeing at work indicators are the number of sickness absence days as well as the number of disability pension decisions, occupational accidents and early support discussions. In 2023, the number of sickness absence days was 3.94 days per employee. In 2022, the number was 4.1. There were no disability pension cases or occupational accidents during the year. Our long-term wellbeing at work management efforts are reflected in reduced expenses and sickness absences, better job satisfaction and better performance.
The core of personal development is feedback and making good use of it. This is why Teosto’s leadership and supervisory work has been studied for many years and every employee has the opportunity to give feedback to their supervisor anonymously. The supervisors created new leadership principles together and they are now part of Teosto’s Code of Conduct.
Teosto’s Principles of Leadership
- Strategic Vision and Clarity of Goals: Set clear long-term objectives based on the strategy and prioritize actions as needed.
- Continuous improvement: Encourage growth and assist in challenging old ways of operating.
- Leading by Example and Building Trust: Be reliable and consistent, lead by example.
- Results Orientation: Be committed, open, inclusive, and supportive.
Leadership is monitored with a 360-degree supervisor feedback survey built around the new leadership principles. The survey also offers an opportunity to give open feedback.
In the Quality of Work Life (QWL) index, our employees found the quality of both supervisory work (index 74.5%) and leadership (index 72.8%) to be good.
At Teosto, genuine interaction between supervisors and subordinates is important. In addition to personal 1-2-1 discussions, there are three different dialogues for everyone: the goals discussion is where goals related to work performance are agreed, the performance appraisal covers personal development and the HR 1-2-1 discussion supports each employee’s wellbeing and coping at work. In 2023, discussions were held with all employees in line with our goals.
Our work at Teosto is becoming increasingly customer-oriented. Working as part of a network, working with partners and being international are key parts of the work. These themes are also emphasised in Teosto’s strategy, which outlines future competence needs.
To meet future competence needs, we have agilely addressed the competence development needs that arise during the strategy period. Training for the entire Teosto staff included the DEI training on understanding diversity and equality and preventing discrimination, the AsKo training on improving the customer experience and training on Teosto’s Code of Conduct and whistleblower channel.
Two strategy afternoon events were held for all employees, with a special focus on the impacts of the strategy on their own work and also on how the team can work together. Everyone working at Teosto has had the opportunity to participate in Teosto’s own Future Forum, which was held three times during 2023. In these Future Forums, we prepared for the future by imagining how different megatrends and critical uncertainties could influence our operations, how the conditions for working could change in different scenarios and how different skills will be used in Teosto in the future. During the year, brief information sessions were also held for all employees on topical themes, such as data protection and information security.
The Lupa Oppia! concept was implemented throughout the year. It emphasises everyday learning taking place alongside work. The concept involves a two-hour working hours reservation for every employee, during which the employee is allowed to focus on learning about things they find interesting or important. Based on good experiences, the decision was made to extend the Lupa Oppia! concept also to 2023–2024.