Nordic countries are known for being happy, with high incomes, robust welfare support and easy access to nature. Finland, Denmark, Iceland and Sweden are in fact the world’s four happiest countries according to the latest UN-sponsored World Happiness Report, with Norway coming in 7th.
It turns out, many people are happy at work there too. Nordic-headquartered businesses occupy ten spaces on Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For – Europe list, despite their countries constituting under 4% of the continent’s population.
Denmark and Norway each have three of the top 100—Novo Nordisk, Beierholm and JYSK for the former; Sector Alarm, Norgehus and Reitan Retail for the latter—while Sweden has four: Svea, Tre, Bengt Dahlgren and Sparbanken.
Is there something in the region’s glacial waters that firms in other parts of the world can learn from?
Erkko Autio, professor and chair in technology venturing and entrepreneurship at Imperial Business School, points to four distinguishing features. “Nordic businesses are much less hierarchical. That’s one thing. The second is that these are high-trust cultures that give employees a high level of autonomy. Work life balance is the third factor. Finally, there’s an emphasis on collaboration and consensus rather than dictation,” he explains.
