Herold has turned 76 and is the owner and board member of the MPS recruitment company. Nevalainen is 80 and runs a hardware store in Helsinki city centre. Their stories from a long working life illustrate large changes in society and working life.
A hardware retailer offering a lot
Helge Nevalainen has been running his hardware shop for 30 years. Now, he has to move out because the old house is being renovated.
Read this article in Swedish on Arbeidsliv i Norden
Nevalainen has mixed emotions as he is sorting out the shelves in the little builder’s merchant. Some items are for throwing out, some will be sold on. Some he wants to keep for his own building projects.
If you run a hardware store, you ought to be able to offer everything needed for construction, renovation and maintenance. 20 per cent of the stock is very sought after, 80 per cent of the goods he sells less often.
But the customers still like to find everything in the same place, explains Helge Navalainen. That means he needs storage space and enough financial resources to keep the products on hand for the customers.
He has not given up hope of finding a new retail space, but the rent has to be low. He is emptying his current shop before closing it down in February. It is a little hard right now, he admits.
A lot of visitors come in during our short chat, but nobody buys a lot. One is looking for bags for an old vacuum cleaner, one needs something to stop a door from hitting the wall. Others only want to thank him for all the years he has been there.
Nevalainen is clearly a popular figure in the Tölö neighbourhoods. Many local shops offering personal service have been forced to close in the district that stretches out behind the Parliament House.
The recruiter and the coach
In Helsinki’s neighbouring city of Espoo, Marcus Herold is sitting in a modern office block with a view to the sea, which is currently covered in snow and ice.
For a long time, he was the CEO at the recruitment company MPS, and now he is chairman of the board. MPS has 130 employees and recently celebrated its 50th anniversary.
Herold founded the company with his American colleague, and it now operates both in Finland and internationally.
It recruits people on an executive and expert level and offers leadership development. The right men, and increasingly women, in the right place. Choosing the wrong person can become expensive for a company.
A lot of English terminology is being bandied about: Executive search, business coaching, assessment and leadership development.
The inspiration comes from the USA, where Marcus Herold also gained his experience to become one of Finland’s first “head hunters”.
His contact list, with thousands of names, is legendary, but it has now been replaced with databases that can match candidates with employers.
His mobile contains 6,200 names and numbers, but he admits that perhaps not all of them are that relevant to the labour market now.
Networks and friends are crucial. They are also important for a good life as a retiree. And it is hard to find new friends once you have passed 60, Marcus Herold points out.
Changed leadership
Like the rest of the world, Herold is following developments in the US with interest and astonishment. Events in the US affect all areas of society. A country that has served as a model is eroding democratic values.
“We’re living in a disruptive world, the situation impacts the world of business too with threats of sanctions and trade wars,” Herold says.
The situation also impacts predictability with ever-shorter strategy cycles. This creates uncertainty in the labour market, although Herold does not believe the autocratic leadership on the highest level will spread to workplaces, where democracy has strong roots.
Marcus Herold believes in professional leaders with a balanced, strong sense of self-worth and that European democracy will hold, that leaders will not lean towards dictatorship. It is easy to tear things down, but hard to build them back up.
Not just golf
Marcus Herold is the chairman of the board and an advisor at MPS. But he is also a retiree. The Finnish system does not allow you to accumulate more pension after you are 68, but several changes are coming.
“Only 15 years ago, people retired at 59 on average. Now, Finns have a longer working career while the pensionable age is rising and life expectancy is increasing.
“We are in better physical shape, so if you are healthy and are doing well, there should be no reason not to continue working – especially in knowledge-based jobs.
“There are plenty of examples of people who move south at the end of their working lives when they retire at age 65. Then they can play golf for 30 years.
“Yet there is increased interest in working for longer, at least part-time. Many want to keep working for financial reasons too. There should be an opportunity to do this. But today’s system imposes higher income taxes on Finnish pensioners,” complains Marcus Herold.
The Nordic pension systems are structured slightly differently, and it can be difficult to compare them. Finland, for instance, does not have the same system as Sweden, where you can influence your own pension through investments.
Retirement ages also vary between the Nordic countries, but it is being raised in many of them.
Planning for life, not just your career
Herold points to another aspect – increased loneliness and the feeling of not being needed.
“Loneliness is a major problem for many older people. But it can improve if you have a sense of community, a feeling that someone needs you and believes you can add value and meaning.”
Marcus Herold wants to talk about more than planning your career. It is also important to plan your life. He has seen executives who have put everything into their jobs.
When that life is over, because of retirement or redundancy, they are completely without any network and might not even know how to apply for a new job or other employment.
Harder to keep up
Some question whether older workers are able to keep up. This may involve occupational health, phased retirement, new technology and finding new tasks for them, if the old ones become too demanding.
While there used to be talk about the risk of exploitation and workplace accidents, the focus might have shifted to stress-related health problems and uncertainty about the future of the workplace.
Now there is talk about age-aware leadership that takes into account health and well-being in order to keep older employees capable and motivated to carry on working even beyond the retirement age.
Herold does not agree with those who argue that older workers block opportunities for younger employees.
“When we recruit, age never plays a decisive role in whether you are hired or not. We consider a person’s overall personality and skills. Being young or older might bring different added values.”
Finland’s retirement age depends on when people were born. The lowest retirement age is soon to be raised from 63 and a half to 65. The highest is gradually being raised from 68 to 70.
The retirement age for people born in 1965 or later is decided according to that age group’s life expectancy.
Unemployment
In November 2025, Finland topped Europe’s unemployment statistics with 10.6 per cent, according to Eurostat. Spain was number two, Sweden third, with a 9.1 per cent unemployment rate and Denmark was exactly on the EU average with 6.1 per cent.
Among the causes cited for Finland’s unemployment rate is increased immigration and reduced support for the unemployed, which increases the number of jobseekers and labour market activity.
Unemployment can also be a hindrance for many pensioners who are willing to work, and this worries Marcus Herold.
“Yes, Finland has high unemployment. But as soon as we can see some optimism and a growth of one to two per cent, I believe we will see unemployment fall.”
Meanwhile, more foreign labour is being sought, which is also met with protests.
“But Finland needs skilled labour from outside. We will be needing this because of our demographics, despite the current unemployment rate,” says Herold.
He believes it is possible to create employment for people. It is then largely a question of what kind of education and skills are needed.
AI makes everything easier – including being fired?
“My only question is the impact of artificial intelligence when we also have high unemployment,” says Herold.
AI has caused major changes in recent years, not only in industry but across the labour market. He used to consider technological advances as being positive, because they helped save time and effort.
But today, many people talk more about the risk that, as technology develops, different professions and tasks will disappear. This is also something that concerns Marcus Herold.
One problem, he says, is that Finnish companies receive enormous numbers of applications, all produced using AI.
“It’s absolutely frustrating. It becomes extremely difficult to shortlist and recruit. At the same time, you can say that AI helps in the process, but there are also many downsides.”
A meaningful job
Marcus Herold seems happy to carry on working at his recruitment firm and underlines the importance of staying fit and healthy. As a business owner, he also has far more control over his own work, as long as his finances allow.
Helge Nevalainen has worked at his hardware store since he was 15. He actually wanted to become a farmer, but could not afford to pursue it.
Now, he hopes to find a cheap location to continue selling at least the most valuable machines and tools, but chances look slim.
Helge Nevalainen does not want to admit to being worried or disappointed. He will agree to cut down on his hours too, he says.
But there is a lot to be done, with fixing houses and cars over the coming summer. There is also perhaps some consolation in the fact that the business has not been profitable for a while, and more like a hobby, says Helge Nevalainen.
The hard-working people – and the talkative ones
We also have time to talk about emigration from Finland to Sweden, where Finns became known as hard-working but quiet people. Unlike their bosses, the Swedes.
Marcus Herold also confirms the image of the Swedes’ more deliberate leadership, in contrast to the Finns’ more direct commando style.
But “management by perkele” (a shouting management style) no longer works in either Sweden or Finland, says Marcus Herold.
AI as the major labour market disruptor is also being felt in Helge’s hardware store. Entire professions have disappeared, and that affects his customer base.
In the past, every residential building had a caretaker. They handled maintenance, cleaning and oversight, and they lived on-site. Today, maintenance is handled by large companies covering entire districts. Right now, they are busy with snow clearance.
They purchase all the tools and equipment centrally and have no use for a small local shop.
Most people also used to be able to do minor renovations and installations in their homes themselves. The DIY craftsmen have disappeared, and along with them, Helge’s customers. The professionals have taken over. A lot of things disappear with the pensioners.
