Survey: Employers increasingly supportive of staff taking part in military service
Employers' attitudes toward their employees' participation in national defense activities have been getting more positive in recent years. 2025 was no exception, according to a Ministry of Defense-commissioned survey.
The proportion of employers who reported problems relating to employees being away on military service has continued to fall. More and more employers are reporting benefits from military service translating into gains in the workplace too.
This is also reflected in a growth in the proportion of employers who provide pay or other compensation for periods when a staff member is engaged in military exercises.
A total of 54 percent of employers surveyed said they supported their employees' taking part in Estonian Defense Forces (EDF) or Defense League (Kaitseliit) training musters. This is a significant rise on the 37 percent of employers who said they did so in 2024.
Speaking at a press conference, Tauno Õunapuu of LevelLab OÜ, who conducted the survey on behalf of the ministry, said employers had responded to the survey quite enthusiastically. This is evidence of a positive attitude toward national defense activities.
Speaking at the same press conference, Markus Rosin, head of the Ministry of Defense's department for defense will and human resources policy, agreed.
"There is an increasingly clear understanding in society that national defense is not only the task of the state or the Defense Forces, but a shared effort to which employers must also contribute," Rosin said.
"The results of the study send a clear signal that although the number of training assemblies has increased significantly in recent years, employers' support too has grown," he added.
There has also been a fall in the number of company-reported problems relating to military service.
Whereas in 2023, 51 percent of respondents to a survey then said they had not experienced significant problems, in 2024 this figure had risen to 71 percent, and in the year just ended, further still, to 78 percent.
Similarly, the proportion of respondents who reported "some problems" relating to employees' military service fell from 41 percent in 2023 to 24 percent in 2024 and to 19 percent in 2025.
Likewise, while 8 percent said in 2023 they had faced "no major problems" in this area, in 2024 this figure had fallen to 5 percent, and to 3 percent last year.
Overall, the study results, Rosin noted, also reflect employers' heightened sense of social responsibility. They demonstrate overall that action is being taken jointly, and that Estonia's reservist and citizenry military doctrine is working out.
Difference between public- and private-sector employers
This doesn't mean there is no room for improvement. For instance, the survey revealed differences between public- and private-sector employers. Whereas a reported 60 percent of managers in the public sector supported their employees' participation in EDF and Defense League activities, the figure in the private sector was lower, at 53 percent.
The figure for employers who reported no problems relating to employees taking part in military training last year was significantly higher among public sector respondents (at 91 percent) compared with private sector ones (77 percent).
The proportion of employers willing to compensate employees for time missed at work due to military service has also increased. This happens, for example, by continuing to pay wages during exercises or by granting paid additional leave for the duration of the exercises.
In 2025, 30 percent of employers said they would definitely do this, up from 29 percent in 2024 and 24 percent in 2023.
A total of 51 percent said they would "probably" do so, again a rise from 41 percent in 2024.
Õunapuu also drew attention to the growing perception among employers of the benefits of their employees' participation in defense forces activities.
As to the question of whether experience gained from conscription could be useful in their organization/company in terms of work performance, while only 8 percent answered "definitely yes" to this question in 2023, this had risen to 23 percent in 2025.
In 2023, 21 percent answered "definitely not" to the same question. In 2025, that figure had fallen to just 3 percent.
Employers' assessments of the usefulness of skills and experience acquired during conscription have also shown an overall increase. Whereas in 2024, 69 percent saw benefits for teamwork, last year this rose to 80 percent, according to the survey.
Similarly, while a positive effect on employee discipline was reported by 69 percent of respondents in 2024, this rose to 75 percent last year.
About half of respondents in both 2024 and 2025 saw a positive impact on employees' technical skills, such as medical skills, driving, or weapons handling. More than a third also rated employees' increased stress tolerance positively, and nearly one sixth noted the development of leadership skills.
A total of 587 employer representatives responded to the survey conducted by LevelLab, with the sample weighted by sector and field of activity, size of the employer, and region. Undecided responses were excluded when presenting the results.
Former conscripts are retained on reservist lists and liable for service at large-scale military exercises such as Spring Storm. This is separate to the volunteer Defense League, which recruits regionally, though both organizations take part in the same exercises.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte, Mait Ots
