To be a preferred place to work is one of the four strategic objectives at Vaasan. As Human Resources Director Anja Kuparinen says, encouraging everyone to plan, comment, participate and evaluate the working conditions and the way of working is one of the most efficient ways to commit them to working towards common goals. HR Development Manager Taru Haveri agrees: “Continuous feedback from every organisational level is essential in reaching our strategic objectives. Our aim is to provide genuine channels for every employee to give feedback and participate in the development process.” At Vaasan, the Stella steering model guides people in their daily work, providing valuable insight into the Vaasan way of doing things. “All in all, hundreds of our own people have participated in putting Stella together”, Anja Kuparinen emphasises. “It provides a good overview of our culture and values, a clear picture of who we are. Thus it also provides a useful framework for action plans and continuous feedback.“ To support and complement Stella, an annual employee engagement survey has already been carried out twice in an identical way at every location of the group, which operates in six countries. Corporate Spirit was chosen as partner, largely because the survey model fitted the idea and thinking behind Stella so seamlessly. The ability to measure opinions about engagement from several angles was precisely what Stella requires. “Corporate Spirit takes care of the actual survey, prepares reports and provides initial analyses”, says Taru Haveri, explaining the process behind most of the results. “They train management and the HR department to interpret the results and to utilise the findings optimally.” Anja Kuparinen says that there was a significant increase in the response rate already in the second survey. That is a clear indication of two things: first, employees see the survey as a genuinely efficient way to get their opinions heard, and second, everyone is gradually learning to take responsibility themselves. A good workplace should not be something that is offered up on a silver platter. It is the people who make it as good as it can be. In the case of Vaasan, this is definitely the case. The survey carried out by Corporate Spirit plays a significant role. Taru Haveri mentions that people have already begun to ask about the next survey – because they want to further improve their working atmosphere and to get a chance to voice their opinions. Luckily for them, spring 2014 is just around the corner. HR INTELLIGENCE TO SUPPORT BUSINESS SUCCESS. IN CREATING A WINNING ATMOSPHERE” Anja Kuparinen, Human Resources Director, Vaasan Group 4 2013 WORKING VALUES Taru Haveri and Anja Kuparinen of Vaasan Group see engaged employees as strategic assets for business success. “ENGAGED EMPLOYEES ARE ESSENTIAL The Vaasan Group is one of the leading bakery operators in Northern Europe. Vaasan is the leading bakery company in Finland and the Baltic region. Vaasan is also the largest thin crisp and the second-largest crispbread producer in the world, and a leading bake-off player in the Nordic countries. In 2012, the group had about 2,800 employees and net sales of approximately EUR 412 million.
Transcript
To be a preferred place to work is one of the four strategic objectives at Vaasan. As Human Resources Director Anja Kuparinen says, encouraging everyone to plan, comment, participate and evaluate the working conditions and the way of working is one of the most efficient ways to commit them to working towards common goals.
HR Development Manager Taru Haveri agrees: “Continuous feedback from every organisational level is essential in reaching our strategic objectives. Our aim is to provide genuine channels for every employee to give feedback and participate in the development process.”
At Vaasan, the Stella steering model guides people in their daily work, providing valuable insight into the Vaasan way of doing things.
“All in all, hundreds of our own people have participated in putting Stella together”, Anja Kuparinen emphasises. “It provides a good overview of our culture and values, a clear picture of who we are. Thus it also provides a useful framework for action plans and continuous feedback.“
To support and complement Stella, an annual employee engagement survey has already been carried out twice in an identical way at every location of the group, which operates in six countries. Corporate Spirit was chosen as partner, largely because the survey model fitted the idea and thinking behind Stella so seamlessly. The ability to measure opinions about engagement from several angles was precisely what Stella requires.
“Corporate Spirit takes care of the actual survey, prepares reports and provides initial analyses”, says Taru Haveri, explaining the process behind most of the results. “They train management and the HR department to interpret the results and to utilise the findings optimally.”
Anja Kuparinen says that there was a significant increase in the response rate already in the second survey. That is a clear indication of two things: first, employees see the survey as a genuinely efficient way to get their opinions heard, and second, everyone is gradually learning to take responsibility themselves. A good workplace should not be something that is offered up on a silver platter. It is the people who make it as good as it can be.
In the case of Vaasan, this is definitely the case. The survey carried out by Corporate Spirit plays a significant role. Taru Haveri mentions that people have already begun to ask about the next survey – because they want to further improve their working atmosphere and to get a chance to voice their opinions. Luckily for them, spring 2014 is just around the corner.
HR InTellIgence To suppoRT busIness success.
in creating a winning atmosphere”
Anja Kuparinen, Human Resources Director, Vaasan Group
42013
Working valuesTaru Haveri and Anja Kuparinen of Vaasan Group see engaged employees as strategic
assets for business success.
“engaged employees are essential
the Vaasan group is one of the leading bakery operators in Northern Europe. Vaasan is the leading bakery company in Finland and the Baltic region. Vaasan is also the largest thin crisp and the second-largest crispbread producer in the world, and a leading bake-off player in the Nordic countries. In 2012, the group had about 2,800 employees and net sales of approximately EUR 412 million.
eMploYee engAgeMenTTools for developmenTedITorIAl
When there are financial uncertainties that force companies to re-organise their businesses and re-prioritise their focus areas – possibly leading to downsizing operations or having to enter into negotiations with work councils – it tends to be tempting to refer to “times like these” as an excuse not to invest in HR surveys. Other explanations could be that it’s a no-brainer that employees are not happy, so why investigate it; or that managers are busy with business efforts and don’t have the time to discuss HR survey results with their teams.
Based on my experience in business, over 25 years both in line management and in business consulting, I argue that NOW INDEED IS THE TIME!
I’ll tell you why:
For business success, it is vital to listen to employees and managers, to show that they do matter. When hard times are fresh in people’s memory, employees may be shy in voicing their opinions and ideas other than in anonymous HR surveys. Extra effort needs to be put into discussing results and deciding on the most urgent and important actions to be taken in order to regain or retain employee engagement and a high-performing culture.
Furthermore, we are more than happy to support you in having an efficient and effective process for making the most of your survey results, engaging your people in productive action planning, prioritising, and implementation. This clearly improves the alignment of your people performance with your business performance.
KATArIInA suomIHead of Consulting Business unit
why inVest your time and money in hr surVeys at times like these?
The three-day forum featured keynotes and panel discussions on leadership and sustainable growth, in particular the need for organisations to focus on performance and social responsibility. Juha Ala-lipasti, Head of International Operations at Corporate Spirit, enlightened the audience about the importance of employee surveys and the benefits of personnel engagement for business results.
Employee engagement surveys have recently come to replace simple job satisfaction surveys that mostly measure sentiments. The trend in HR is clearly towards using employee engagement surveys to identify success factors and measure performance in organisations.
sector-specific questions and benchmarking
AirPeople™ was designed and produced in co-operation with Corporate Spirit, This Is ... and the trade body for European airports, ACI EUROPE. It is a comprehensive toolkit for
performance development, comprising an engagement survey, tools for result utilisation and utilisation workshops.
”Up until now, airport organisations have received benchmark data on things like customer satisfaction – but benchmarking engagement against the airport sector has not been available to these organisations”, explains Juha Ala-Lipasti.
”Likewise, the ability to customise the employee survey content specifically to develop the high-performance culture at airports is a very welcome feature and has been well received.”
comprehensive toolbox for better engagement
The survey was launched in Bologna for a group of prominent airport HR professionals. Juha Ala-Lipasti also told the audience that the new concept was piloted in Dubrovnik in September and October and it received excellent feedback.
AirPeople™ Employee Survey launched
A giant leap for airport surveysAirPeople™, a new survey and development concept for airport organisations, was launched in October at the annual Airport Leadership and Change Management Forum in Bologna, Italy. The new survey was greeted with great enthusiasm by key airport HR influencers attending the event.
Tools for developmenT
AirPeople™ Employee Survey launched
www.airpeople.aero»
new snapshot™ express survey supports action plan trackingCorporate Spirit has launched a new service for observing interim results from development measures between employee surveys. SnapShot™ is an express survey that individual units within an organisation may use to track how action plans are implemented. This agile and cost-effective service complements employee surveys and contributes to the achievement of set targets at a unit level.
Based on the results of the PeoplePower™ employee survey, a manager or a supervisor together with their staff decides on future areas for development and chooses actions to support them. Development measures differ between units and they need to be viewed separately, yet they can also be compared to the original employee survey results.
easy tool for supervisor level
SnapShot™ is designed to support individual supervisors. Each supervisor may choose between 3 to 12 questions from the full-scale PeoplePower™ employee engagement survey questions. Individual comments are also encouraged. The chosen questions measure development targets within a specific team and how well these targets are being achieved.
It is a good idea to use interim results to track how development is progressing. As PeoplePower™ is usually conducted only annually or sometimes even bi-annually, intermediate results are more than handy.
SnapShot™ express surveys can be carried out as often as required, the frequency usually depending on the importance of the matter concerned and the impact of the measures. A quarterly schedule is most common, but check-ups can also be monthly or even more frequent.
The combination of international benchmark data, a wide variety of languages both for data collection and reporting, sector-specific content and a toolbox for implementing survey results together with locally organised utilisation workshops is what makes AirPeople™ the pre-eminent employee survey for airports.”
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JuHA AlA-lIpAsTICorporate spirit
Agile survey for independent units
SnapShot™ surveys may be taken for units of 5 to 99 respondents. It is ideal for individual team leaders and department heads in order to ensure that development measures are progressing in the focus areas chosen by the unit.
The results may be viewed already the day after the survey ends. SnapShot™ is available in 43 languages in our Cixtranet3® survey system, where the progress of measures can be tracked by comparing SnapShot™ results with one another and with the results of the full-scale PeoplePower™ survey.
SnapShot™ surveys are sold in bundles of 20. One bundle allows companies to carry out e.g. one interim survey in 20 units or two interim surveys in ten units.
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corporate spirit cs ltd
faces & places CorporATe spIrIT HAs AppoInTed THe followIng speCIAlIsTs:
Pauliina KamppuriResearcherEspoo
Katariina SuomiHead of Consulting Espoo
Malin AlmMarketing CoordinatorStockholm
Päivi KariResearch DirectorEspoo
It may be hard to believe, but the Grand Man of Research, Yrjänä lehti, is set to retire at the turn of the year! Yrjänä began his illustrious career back in 1971 at a company whose research operations were later acquired by Corporate Spirit, so in fact he has been with the same employer for his entire career!
Needless to say, a career spanning 42 years is bound to include plenty of milestones and highlights. Computers and the Internet have redefined the way we work, but human expertise has been essential as well. Yrjänä believes that smartphones and other technological breakthroughs will very much influence the way the research industry operates in the future. Innovative ways to utilise research data and ways to make it more relevant to the customer are examples of ideas that Yrjänä has worked with and that have taken the entire industry forward. The customer has always been in the centre, and so it should remain, Yrjänä emphasises.
As to what he plans to do in retirement – grandchildren, travelling and well-deserved relaxing at his summer cottage are bound to be part of it!
corporate spirit would like to say a big thank you to Yrjänä for his invaluable contribution and wonderful companionship – and wish him all the best in his new “career” as a pensioner!
WOULD yOU BELIEVE IT? yrjänä is retiring!
29.1.2014 600 Min HR - Helsinki, Finland “Work capacity management in relation to economic indicators” by HR director Antero Levänen from HOK-Elanto
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Corporate Spirit would like to wish all clients, collaborators,
research professionals and readers of this newsletter a very merry Christmas
