Employees’ wellbeing is an important part of Fintraffic’s responsibility efforts, with continuous development in several areas. Responsible practices are also applied in the recruitment of new talent. Hanna Hovi, who is responsible for human resources and staff development at Fintraffic, explains how important staff satisfaction is for Fintraffic and what the company does to support it.
Fintraffic works persistently to implement the principles of a responsible workplace. These efforts are guided by legislation and best practices as well as the company’s internal values and ethical principles. This is how to build a work community where employees feel valued and are given space to express their thoughts and development ideas.
“Responsibility efforts have high societal significance. I also believe that profound responsibility efforts increase Fintraffic’s attractiveness as an employer and create trust and appreciation in our work with customers and stakeholders”, says Hanna Hovi, Chief Human Resources Officer at Fintraffic.
Together with the Fintraffic HR team, Hovi is responsible for tasks such as recruitment, employment relationship affairs, wellbeing at work, competence development and strengthening the employer image. She says that responsibility efforts have an important role in the company’s capacity to renew as well as a positive impact on leadership and corporate culture.
“We have committed to doing our part in the improvement of employment and industry by developing seven key principles, which are non-discrimination, wellbeing and a good work-life balance, investing in supervisory work, sustainable development, meaningful work and self-development, appropriate remuneration, and a good applicant experience”, Hovi lists.
Responsible recruitment reaches a wider range of new talent
Hovi says that responsibility in recruitment is all about being even-handed with all applicants and basing recruitment choices on relevant factors. In addition, applicants are treated with respect in the recruitment process, including the fact that they are informed openly about the stages and results of the process. The recruitment process is also under active development, where feedback collected from applicants plays an important role.
“In the application processes, we want to ensure that we reach as diverse group of applicants as possible. This is something we also include in our communications: for example, our aim is that the images on our future recruitment ads will represent people in a more diverse way. We also use language that reflects our values and avoid gendered terms. We are constantly striving to find different recruitment channels so that we can better reach more diverse applicants with all kinds of backgrounds”, Hovi explains.
To support responsibility work, Fintraffic has carefully determined indicators and targets that are used to regularly follow up on the efforts. In addition, staff members are being trained on responsibility and its dimensions.
“The most typical challenges of responsibility efforts are related to measuring and reporting on responsibility. It is essential to succeed in integrating responsibility as part of business, avoiding a situation where it is just tacked on or a separate element. We don’t want to give in to greenwashing. We additionally need to expand our understanding of responsibility and to ensure competence in all personnel groups”, says Hovi.
Employees’ wellbeing and professional development supported in many ways
Fintraffic has taken measures to promote employees’ physical and mental wellbeing, for example by training supervisors in the practices of early intervention and investing in close cooperation with occupational health care. Employees are also offered several benefits, such as sports and cultural vouchers totalling EUR 400 and a commuting and parking benefit.
For example, more than 250 employees at Fintraffic have already taken the opportunity to get a company bicycle, which are offered as an employee benefit and have significantly increased bike commuting among staff members. Employees’ professional development of is also supported in different ways.
“We help our staff members advance in their careers by offering training for employees who have recently switched from traffic control tasks to expert duties. In addition, we support employees’ development with systems such as mentoring and peer mentoring and by offering opportunities to learn about our other functions in our internal ‘exchange student programme’, which has proven to be very popular”, Hovi says.
Hovi points out that, in the future, there will be a need to develop new operating models alongside current practices, as regulation concerning responsibility is expected to increase and its requirements to become stricter. Company values and ethics are more and more important to employees, and many people want to do genuinely meaningful work. Hovi thinks that this is one of Fintraffic’s clear strengths.
“Our operations are very responsible, and I believe that responsibility efforts are also a factor that will support the development and production of traffic services. We already have a history of investing in the safety, environmental friendliness and good flow of traffic by means of traffic control, and these themes are important for our staff. It will be interesting to see how new technologies, such as artificial intelligence and blockchains, will also shape responsibility efforts in the future”, she says.
Factors of responsible recruitment
- The planning and implementation of recruitment is open, fair and equitable for all applicants.
- Recruitment choices between applicants are founded on objective and relevant criteria based on the requirements and competence needs of the position.
- Applicants are treated respectfully and kindly throughout the recruitment process.
- Applicants are informed of the stages, timetable and results of the recruitment process.
- Applicants are asked for feedback, and their development proposals are taken into account.
- The implementation of recruitment is documented and the process is continuously evaluated and developed.
