There was a decisive change in the international security situation in 2022. The Russian invasion of Ukraine and the uncertainty that followed affected the Finnish economy and civic society.
Increasing economic uncertainty was also reflected in the activities and income of the Finnish Patent and Registration Office (PRH).
The number of notifications and applications, which had remained relatively stable during the coronavirus pandemic, decreased, which also reduced our income. However, our financial situation remained good because of appropriations saved over the past few years.
As in the previous years, customer satisfaction remained high. In particular, the service orientation and professionalism of our personnel receive extremely high marks year after year.
The PRH launched the overhaul of its strategy during the year. The new strategy and the related action programmes will be finalised in the spring of 2023. In the new strategy, there will be more emphasis on the creation of customer value, knowledge management, employer image, corporate responsibility and a network-based approach.
Our corporate responsibility work continued during 2022. The PRH published its first corporate responsibility report, which covers the year 2021. The PRH also appointed a corporate responsibility team, which is tasked with coordinating and developing our corporate responsibility work and to communicate on it.
The PRH set out the following six corporate responsibility goals for its activities:
- Diverse staff
- A coveted and responsible employer
- Greatest societal impact
- PRH’s carbon footprint is at a sustainable level
- Stakeholder work is target-oriented and effective
- PRH creates excellent customer value.
In 2023, we will prepare a timetable and map out the path to achieve these goals.
The experience gained from remote work during the coronavirus pandemic was so positive that most of our employees continued to work outside PRH premises during 2022. Flexible working practices helped to keep job satisfaction and wellbeing at work at high levels. To boost communality, the PRH introduced a range of new measures during the year.
Communality was also key consideration in the project to develop the PRH’s work culture and communications at work launched in 2021 and successfully completed during the year in review.
The first full year of the Real-Time Economy project coordinated by the PRH progressed as planned. Progress was achieved in the use of online invoices and other digital documents, and descriptions of the real-time economy ecosystem were also prepared.