Inclusion and diversity
We work to create a culture that is inclusive, diverse and empowering.
Inclusiveness sits at the heart of Nokia’s value creation and is core to the way we do business, innovate and partner with our customers. We love and embrace the uniqueness of our people and want to make sure everyone feels safe and at home.
We work hard for increased team inclusiveness because we know that such teams show higher collective intelligence. Inclusive teams make better decisions, crack problems easier, and are creative and innovative.
All employment decisions at Nokia are made without regard to gender, race, religion, color, nationality, ethnic origin, citizenship, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, characteristics or expression, marital status, membership or non-membership in a trade union, or any other protected class. No one should be treated less favorably on the grounds of such characteristics.
At Nokia, our purpose is to create technology that helps the world act together.
We know that a diverse team will help us best answer the future challenges faced by the very technology we are developing and deploying.
Inclusion & Diversity - what we do
Inclusion & diversity strategy
Our Inclusion & Diversity strategy differentiates Nokia from other industry players. For us, it’s important that everyone can feel valued and has equal opportunities to progress in the company. We invest in I&D, set targets and measure our progress.
We are focusing on these specific areas:
- Diversifying Nokia’s talent pool. We have set ourselves ambitious women hiring and retention targets.
- Creating a culture of high inclusion. We want every business group and function to log year-on-year improvements in their employee inclusion experience.
- Being the preferred choice for customers & investors by role modelling best inclusion and diversity practices. Scoring above the industry average in external benchmarks such as Workplace Pride and Bloomberg and making the outcome available for our key stakeholders.
Employee resource groups
Our employee resource groups (ERG) form an essential building block in our company’s inclusion and diversity culture. These groups embody the essence of community, where employees come together voluntarily to promote common goals and interests and to make our company a better workplace for everyone.
Allyship Program and I&D Networks Community
Through an extensive allyship program, everyone at Nokia can become an ally. This program offers various development paths for employees to get well-versed in inclusion & supporting others. We offer individual paths identified to support a specific group such as women, ethnically diverse groups of people, LGBT+, people with disabilities and a broader Inclusion Ally path.
While allyship fulfils the purpose of enabling our employees to be inclusive, our I&D Networks’ Community has a wider purpose. It connects all I&D ambassadors and volunteers and facilitates learning with weekly webinars on topics varying from strategic topics to abusive micro behaviors to insights shared by Nokia employee resource groups. Currently, we have more than 300 allies and over 1000 community members.
Our current Inclusion & Diversity initiatives
Interview with Deutsche Telecom around the UN Woman - Action for Leadership program
Women’s Equality Day
Gender Balance and Unexplained Pay Gap
Our ambition is to have a workplace where both men and women have equal opportunities to succeed in every function and at every level. Hence, we are aspiring for a minimum of 27% female hires in global external recruits by the end of 2023.
We annually monitor pay equity and should it have opened we address it. But we do not stop there. We review and consistently address decisions and practices which might cause the gap to reopen. For example, we implement measures that aim to avoid inheriting the former pay gap of new hires, and we ensure objectivity by using graduate offer matrices globally.
Jenni Lukander: Nokia's approach to gender equality
Inclusion of people with disabilities
As a concrete step to support disability inclusion, we have entered a partnership with Disibility:IN to develop an explicit approach for Nokia and we have developed an eBook for our People Managers to tune their mindset and the mindset of their teams towards inclusion, improved accessibility and shared services and tools to help. This eBook serves as global guidance for Nokia People Managers and their teams on how to hire, onboard and engage team members with disabilities. Read more about it on the blog.
We are one of the founding members of the @talentEqal association. It was founded in 2010 to address the challenges of students with disabilities to finalize their studies and find employment. It supports students with disabilities from high school, college to their very first job. @talentEgal consists of 8 different partner schools and 4 companies.
Generational inclusion
At Nokia, we have all generations working side-by-side simultaneously which creates strong, innovative teams rich with diverse thoughts, experience, and expertise. The range of skills, increased creativity, enhanced knowledge combined with collaboration and teamwork contribute to our innovation, superior organizational performance and excellent customer service.
While we focus on young graduates and students with the Early Careers Program, we also work towards supporting an aging workforce. Nokia’s Leading an Aging Workforce eBook is a toolkit that helps people managers, HR representatives and teams in tuning their inclusive mindset towards Baby Boomers and Gen X. This eBook serves as global guidance on how to hire, onboard, and inspire and develop an aging workforce. More information can be found on the blog.
LGBT+
Consistent with our support for the United Nations Standards of Conduct for Business (a framework for businesses to prevent discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity), we continue to expand our OUT Leaders program. With the participation of employees from five of our seven markets, as well as senior leaders who are engaging with these emerging talents, we aim to provide further visibility and career development opportunities to these leaders while providing role models to LGBT+ colleagues who may not be out yet. Read more about the program on EQUAL! page.
Nokia delivers a series of company-tailored training programs
Every year Nokia people take a mandatory eLearning to foster a common understanding of what inclusion and diversity mean in Nokia, to counteract bias, and to help establish a growth mindset. In 2019 we focused on mitigation of bias, followed by understanding inclusive and exclusive team behaviors. In 2022, we addressed bullying and abusive micro behaviours as part of Workplace Inclusion and Ethics Mandatory Training. By the end of the year, 97% of our employees had completed the training.
Besides mandatory trainings, we also systematically ensure our technology, customer documentation, and training content uses inclusive language. We have moved to use inclusive pronouns throughout Nokia's internal communications and brand. Also, Nokia suppliers are trained on I&D and labor practices. We will continue to deliver I&D trainings in 2023 and beyond on a yearly basis.
External recognition awards for I&D
Bloomberg included Nokia for the fifth time in a row in its Gender Equality Index 2023. Our score in the GEI 2023 index was 83% compared to an average score of 72% for the 47 technology companies included in the index.
Nokia scored 100% in Corporate Equality Index’s “Best Places to Work for LGBTQ Equality” in 2021 and 2022.
For the fourth time, Nokia was assessed for its GLT and Board of Directors diversity across gender, age, nationality and educational background. Nokia ranked second in the Helsinki Large Cap category.
For the eighth consecutive year, Ethisphere has recognized Nokia as one of the most ethical companies in the world. "World's Most Ethical Companies" and "Ethisphere" names and marks are registered trademarks of Ethisphere LLC.
First prize in the "Promoter of Diversity" category for concrete I&D strategy, target setting and commitment by top leadership.
In 2023, for the fourth consecutive year we were awarded Ambassador status by the Workplace Pride Global Benchmark alongside nine other companies and institutions.
