Long-term and goal-oriented development is one of the cornerstones of Kiilto’s business culture and leadership. Over the past year, the development work has focussed on developing skills, wellbeing at work, and promoting a bold experimental culture that transforms the operations of the entire group.
The staff survey is conducted annually across the entire Kiilto Family group, and the results of the latest survey show that personnel are quite optimistic about the company’s future. The survey was conducted in January and February, in all nine countries where the group operates. The response rate was a staggering 93.8% of all staff.
“We are particularly pleased that our employees are so eager to participate in developing their company, and their own work”, says Kiilto’s HR Manager Minna Huru.
The staff surveys are always carried out by an impartial research firm, Corporate Spirit Oy. This ensures that the results can also be used to shed light on prevailing trends and averages. Although the results were good across the board, areas for further development were also found.
New means to make a difference
The desire of staff to participate in developing the company is also reflected in the finding that more needs to be done to improve staff involvement and opportunities for having a voice within the company.
“Everyone will benefit if we can draw on the full potential of our staff and create opportunities for everyone to have a say in things within the group. And we have already taken measures to improve matters in this regard. Last year we piloted two different development programs, which also help in fostering a more flexible experimental culture”, Huru says.
“The development programmes have been well received, they have inspired ideas and new ways of doings that staff have found useful. The programmes have also helped in other ways, for example, with the practical work of supervisors and with time management and organisation of one’s work”.
In addition to personnel development, the group is working to increase staff empowerment through the Kiilto Up programme, which is aimed at innovation and development of new business ideas. The programme is a fast lane for ideas that is carried out in six-week sprints, and has proved popular among staff. It will run again this year, and will also be launched in other countries the group operates in.
From results to development tools
According to Minna Huru, continuous improvement and reform are part of a shared business culture that is based on a customer-oriented strategy that guides all the group’s operations.
“Staff survey results are a useful guide in developing our operations, and we also use them for planning and implementing ongoing and future staff development programs”, says Huru.
Based on the results of the latest staff survey, an experimental workshop will be carried out in the spring of 2018 for all company activities. The experimental workshop will address recent performance in each area of activity, and the will work together to develop at least one experiment for developing working practices in that area.
More success in improving wellbeing at work
According to the personnel survey, staff are generally optimistic about the group’s future, and feel that the group has a positive, forward-looking spirit and does well in communicating its goals and vision to the staff. Employees consider wellbeing at work to be an area where Kiilto does especially well, and this year was no exception.
“Our wellbeing at work programme is comprehensive, but what is most decisive for its outcomes is that our employees place a high value on wellbeing. It is encouraging that we have succeeded in this area, as it further improves our employees’ mental wellbeing, physical capacity, enjoyment of working life and overall wellbeing”, says Huru.
“Employees particularly value the sports opportunities the company offers. However, we approach the issue of wellbeing at work holistically, and as such it also includes development of management and supervisory work.
With regard to physical wellbeing, among the issues we highlighted throughout last year were recovering from exertion and wellbeing of the brain. In addition, this year all of the group’s companies in Finland will become smoke-free”, Huru says. “As part of the long-term development of wellbeing in the workplace, we are taking steps this year to further expand our wellbeing programme to our companies abroad”.