Societal preparedness is about society's ability to handle crises that affect all of Norway, from pandemics and extreme weather to digital attacks and security policy incidents.
Many associate preparedness with the military or the police, but all parts of the public sector are equally important. Bureaucrats in the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration (NAV), the Norwegian Tax Administration, health authorities, and other state agencies ensure that the wheels of society keep turning both in everyday life and during crises.
Norway is facing an increasing number of more complex crises. Extreme weather, cyberattacks, pandemics, and geopolitical tensions make the need for robust and broad preparedness clear.
The Norwegian Directorate for Civil Protection (DSB) has sent brochures to all Norwegian households regarding individual preparedness. If a crisis were to occur, each and every one of us must be as well prepared as possible. At the same time, we must ensure a comprehensive societal preparedness that is not fragmented or left to individuals and chance. This requires a strong public sector.
The government's new white paper on societal preparedness (Meld. St. 9, 2024–2025) sets a clear direction for how Norway will strengthen societal security moving forward. It is based on the premise that the risk and threat landscape has changed, with increasing geopolitical tension, more extreme weather, greater digital vulnerability, and the lessons learned from the pandemic. Therefore, Norway needs a more coordinated, comprehensive, and robust preparedness.
The white paper emphasizes clear lines of governance and the distribution of responsibility between the state, municipalities, directorates, and enterprises. More sectors must cooperate more closely to secure critical societal functions, including health, transport, and energy.
Digital security and the protection of critical infrastructure are highlighted as crucial, as societal functions are increasingly digital. The experiences from the COVID-19 pandemic show that the ability to scale services rapidly and maintain supplies is central.
Competence and staffing are also central. Several sectors currently face capacity shortages and a need for professionals, and the white paper emphasizes that this must be strengthened to meet future crises.
The white paper on societal preparedness emphasizes that preparedness cannot be solved by the emergency services alone. The entire public sector, from NAV and the Tax Administration to universities, the health service, digital administration, and technical services, must contribute actively so that society is well-equipped to handle crises.
For employees, this entails more systematic work with preparedness plans, clearer expectations for crisis management, and greater emphasis on interdisciplinary cooperation. In addition, the white paper emphasizes digital security and the handling of cyber incidents, so that critical societal functions can be maintained even under digital threats.
In other words, the white paper shows that societal preparedness is not just about plans and procedures at a political level, but also about ensuring that enterprises and employees have the resources, competence, and authority to put these plans into practice.
Through three reports published in collaboration with the think tank Agenda, NTL has taken a closer look at how Norwegian societal preparedness actually functions. The latest report from 2025 examines how major political preparedness initiatives affect everyday life in state enterprises. The report shows that even though Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has led to a sharp increase in awareness regarding cyberattacks and hybrid threats, the extent to which employees and their union representatives are actually included in the work varies greatly.
The main findings point out that a lack of involvement of the union representative apparatus can weaken both the legitimacy and the quality of preparedness measures. At the same time, we see a gap between increasing expectations and the actual resources available in a complex public sector. The report therefore emphasizes that real preparedness requires local anchoring, where employees and union representatives are given both the competence, authority, and resources to translate plans into practical action.
Read the three reports here:
Effective societal preparedness requires competent employees, clear roles, and sufficient resources, and must be a part of daily work. In the National Security Strategy, it is stated that the entire society shall be involved in preparedness and security work, and through the principle of responsibility, the enterprise that has responsibility in a normal situation also has responsibility for crisis preparedness within the same area.
Employees and union representatives must be involved for preparedness measures to work in practice. Union representatives contribute knowledge about resources and vulnerabilities, support management in information, and ensure a fair distribution of burdens. Experiences from NAV during the COVID-19 pandemic show that close cooperation provides rapid and effective crisis management with clear procedures and distinct roles.
The report «Preparedness in the workplace» from the think tank Agenda simultaneously shows that many enterprises still have room for improvement. Co-determination strengthens situational awareness, legitimacy, and coordination, and makes it possible to translate preparedness plans into practice.
Members of NTL work in the state and in enterprises with public affiliation, and are an indispensable part of preparedness. They ensure that the wheels of society keep turning, both in everyday life and in crises.
NTL works to ensure that our members are well prepared for crises and know their role in societal preparedness work. Since we organize members throughout the state, preparedness work concerns the vast majority of our members in one way or another. For NTL's members in the northern regions, large distances, few emergency services, and demanding weather conditions place extra demands on planning, logistics, and coordination. Critical infrastructure requires close cooperation between public and private actors to maintain continuity.
NTL promotes co-determination by encouraging union representatives to be involved in preparedness work and to have real influence on decisions that concern the employees.
In addition, NTL participates in societal preparedness work in several concrete ways: through hearings and consultation papers in the process of the national budget, through dialogue with politicians, and by contributing to reports such as those from the think tank Agenda. In everything we do, we are committed to ensuring that the members' experiences and needs are taken into account.
Read also: National Convention Statement: What kind of preparedness is needed?
Solutions:
Societal preparedness is about how society manages crises and secures critical functions, from health and fire services to police, digital infrastructure, and transport. The goal is to have competent employees, clear roles, and sufficient resources that make it possible to handle both small and large crises.
The White Paper on Societal Preparedness sets the direction for comprehensive preparedness in Norway. It emphasizes the need for coordination between sectors, clear lines of responsibility and governance, strengthened digital security, and a focus on competence and staffing.
Employees must know their roles and participate in societal preparedness work. Co-determination through employee representatives ensures better situational awareness, legitimacy, and implementation of measures. Preparedness may involve additional tasks, reallocation of resources, and demands for flexibility during crises.
NTL participates in hearings on the national budget, influences political decisions, and contributes to research reports. This ensures that the members' experiences and needs are included in societal preparedness planning.
Read the notes from Agenda above, and check out the resources for risk, vulnerability and societal preparedness at the Norwegian Directorate for Civil Protection.
The most important thing you can do is to bring the topic into the co-determination apparatus and member meetings. If you are a union representative, you should demand that employees are involved in the organization's risk and vulnerability analyses. It is often those who perform the daily tasks who best see where the critical vulnerabilities lie.
In practice, this means having a plan for how you ensure that the most important tasks are completed, even if the power goes out, IT systems fail, or a road is taken out by a landslide. By discussing such concrete scenarios at member meetings, you build a shared sense of security. Good societal preparedness is fundamentally about us being able to fulfill our social mission even under pressure, and that requires preparedness to become a part of the organizational culture and daily HSE work.