Intro­ducing the Hermes app – a new advocacy tool

The Hermes mobile applica­tion has been deve­lo­ped for foreign seaso­nal workers and their emplo­yers. The applica­tion provi­des infor­ma­tion in five langua­ges on terms of emplo­y­ment, emplo­y­ment law and living in Finland.

Industrial Union will perma­nently adopt the app, which was pilo­ted in the agricul­ture and fore­stry sectors and deve­lo­ped in 2022 as part of the TYÖ2030 programme, once the project is completed.

“We are now consi­de­ring how the basis of the Hermes project can be used to build an advocacy tool and what approach is the most sensible and cost-effec­tive in terms of imple­men­ta­tion,” Jyrki Virta­nen, the Labour Market Direc­tor at the Industrial Union, says.

We want the applica­tion to become an advocacy tool for all the sectors repre­sen­ted by the Industrial Union.

The plan at the first stage is to intro­duce the applica­tion to the tech­no­logy industry. At the same time, the language options provi­ded by the app will also be reviewed. At the moment, the Hermes app is avai­lable in Finnish, Swedish, English, Ukrai­nian and Russian.

“We want the applica­tion to become an advocacy tool for all the sectors repre­sen­ted by the Industrial Union. It will be anot­her tool that supports the other tools in our arse­nal,” Virta­nen says about the longer-term plans.

UNIQUE APP

The idea for the Hermes applica­tion was crea­ted in spring 2021 by the Research Unit of the Industrial Union toget­her with agricul­ture and fore­stry industry experts,” Anu-Hanna Anttila, Research Mana­ger at the Industrial Union who led the Hermes project, explains.

The project was launc­hed in February 2022. The project team worked toget­her with part­ners such as emplo­yers’ associa­tions, immi­grant associa­tions and authorities.

“It has been a plea­sure to lead this project and to be a part of it. After all, everyt­hing happe­ned rather quickly, in just over a year,” Anttila says.

Accor­ding to a survey conduc­ted before applying for project funding, there were no simi­lar applications.

“Hermes is a unique inno­va­tion in working life,” Anttila says.

User-friend­li­ness is the app’s key principle. Free to use, the app even works on older smartp­ho­nes and does not collect any infor­ma­tion about its users.

“Despite the tight sche­dule, we had the patience to test the applica­tion with users and improve it through feed­back on user expe­rience,” Anttila says.

In the future, the Hermes applica­tion will be made avai­lable for other unions, free of charge and on the condi­tion that the purpose of the applica­tion will not be chan­ged and the applica­tion will not be used for commercial purposes.

“All in all, I am very plea­sed with the Hermes applica­tion, which conti­nues to deve­lop in our hands,” Anttila says.

OVERCOMING THE LANGUAGE BARRIER

In agricul­ture and fore­stry industries, where the app was pilo­ted, foreign workers may account for up to 90% of all seaso­nal workers.

Riikka Vasama, Bargai­ning Specia­list at the Industrial Union, specia­li­ses in foreign-born labour force and labour mobility.

“In the tech­no­logy industry, too, there are many workplaces with a signi­ficant propor­tion of foreign workers,” Vasama says.

Commu­nica­tion can be difficult even if the chief shop steward wants to help.

Emplo­yee repre­sen­ta­ti­ves have repor­ted that some workplaces struggle with overco­ming the language barrier. As such, there is a need for a tool that can be used to inform all emplo­yees about terms of emplo­y­ment and union membership.

“Commu­nica­tion can be difficult even if the chief shop steward wants to help,” Vasama says.

The work is just begin­ning, but Jukka Savi­luoto, Bargai­ning and Financial Specia­list for tech­no­logy industries at the Industrial Union, belie­ves that Hermes has great potential.

“This is a great tool for explai­ning the provi­sions of collec­tive agree­ments,” Savi­luoto says.

FOR WIDER USE

The strength of the Hermes app lies in the use of plain language. Collec­tive agree­ments some­ti­mes feature complex phra­sing, but in the app, the infor­ma­tion is presen­ted in an easy-to-unders­tand format.

Editing the texts on collec­tive agree­ments of diffe­rent sectors into plain language, crea­ting diffe­rent language versions and keeping the mate­rials up to date require resources, but there is no other way in sight.

“Every industry we repre­sent has its own unique collec­tive agree­ment, so it is not possible to provide infor­ma­tion that would apply to all sectors,” Vasama says.

The tried and tested applica­tion must now be widely adop­ted by both emplo­yees and emplo­yers in order to spread infor­ma­tion on working life. As of March, the app had been down­loa­ded more than 2,500 times.

Project Coor­di­na­tor Henri von Adlerk­rone from the Industrial Union says that the app is at the moment being marke­ted to young people.

“Students are looking for a summer job so we want to spread the word about the app to educa­tio­nal insti­tu­tions, guidance coun­sel­lors and student unions,” von Adlerk­rone says.

He also talks about Hermes at events orga­ni­sed by the union and local branc­hes, as well as on cour­ses at the Murikka Institute.

Down­load the Hermes app: www.hermesapp.fi/en