References

  • Pielispakari Oy, based in Nurmes, is a traditional bakery company and the largest producer of Karelian pasties in Finland. In smaller towns, it is important to take care of skilled labor. We have invested systematically in our operations, and the results are visible. Our key figures are better than the industry average, and the costs of sickness absences and poor work ability have decreased.

    Heli Kuvaja, Vice President - www.pielispakari.fi

  • "Comatec Group is an international engineering firm offering design, project management and expert services for mechanical engineering and industrial automation. Comatec has operations in Finland, Sweden, Estonia, Poland and Romania. We wanted to develop executive team’s co-operation and prepare for the leadership needs of the future. Based on the re-mapping, executives’ team work has gone in a better direction than before."

    Aulis Asikainen, CEO at Comatec Group - www.comatec.fi

  • "VR Group has a long tradition in work ability management. As we renewed the job descriptions of the supervisors in one of our business units, we wanted to strengthen the supervisors competence, attitude and skills towards the themes of work ability management. Together with Freia, we planned and implemented a training that contributed to other in-house courses. The training contained themes such as recognizing work ability risks in time, and leading people and emotions in a multicultural work environment. We were very satisfied with the cooperation. The concrete case examples worked well, and what was learned in the training was successfully put into practice. Our supervisors received tools for everyday work ability management, which supported the development of indicators describing wellbeing at work in a better direction."

    Sanna Yrttiaho, Head of Wellbeing, VR Group - www.vr.fi

  • "Our goal is to build a novel culture of leadership and well-being at work into our units. Freia’s experts have helped us with auditing the situation awareness of work ability management, negotiating about occupational health care, building internal work ability management models, as well as developing the leadership skills of our supervisors. Our collaboration has only just started, but already now we have systematically focused on what should be done and what not, in order to gain our business goals."

    Mikko Mäki-Tuuri, HR professional at Uponor - www.uponor.com

  • "The pressure to reform public sector services forces organizations to change their leadership and operating culture. Business orientation and agile decision making are needed more often. We wanted to speed up the change of leadership culture with executive coaching, for which Freia was selected as the planning and implementation partner. During the year, we faced big changes, but we didn't stop the training. Freia's coaches knew how to fine-tune the content in such a way that it offered immediate support for our supervisors. We succeeded together and the cooperation will continue."

    Miia Äkkinen, CEO at Mico Botnia - www.micobotnia.fi

  • "The well-being of our experts is strategically important to us as a key player in the electricity industry. We launched a physical and psychological well-being program together with Freia. The program combined leadership development, work ability management, personnel well-being and enhancing occupational health cooperation. Based on the results, there has been positive impact on the following areas leadership, internal motivation and personnel´s measured health. In addition, occupational health care services meet our needs better now. For me, as the new CEO it has been a privilege to join an organization where the direction is right. We will continue to invest in personnel in the future."

    Marko Utriainen, CEO at STUL - www.stul.fi

  • "Our goal is to strengthen our entire personnel and their transferable skills as part of our strategy. We started a multi-year health promotion program, because we want to take care of our capable work force and to decrease sickness absences. We also want to be our own responsible leader and an attractive place to work. Together with the Freia team, we defined our plan, goals, indicators and concrete procedures. Our collaboration has contained leadership development, ensuring of the processes of work ability management, as well as well-being services targeted for our personnel. Having one service provider and their model in use has brought clarity and efficiency in our project leadership. We have been able to choose the services that best suit our needs. In order to find solution, confidential collaboration is necessary."

    Maria-Liisa Korolainen, Personnel Manager at Tampere Adult Education Centre, TAKK - www.takk.fi

  • "Our goal is to be at the top of our industry in well-being and safety at work. The Freia team has helped us to plan and implement the new Kaikki kunnossa (All in Order) program. In addition, we became inspired about Freia’s playmaker idea, and as a result, we now have our own internal team of carers. The best thing about our collaboration with Freia has been the cooperative change of thoughts on how we can bounce from a good company into a great one. Together we have also created new procedures on getting the personnel to take part in developing well-being and safety at work."

    Nina Perttula, HR Manager at Kuusakoski - www.kuusakoski.com

  • "Leaders of public organizations face challenging situations regularly. We wanted to strengthen the competence, attitude and skills of supervisors in the themes of workability management. Together with Freia, we planned and implemented a training for all 120 managers of our organization in the spring of 2023. Our pension insurance company Keva supported the project. The themes of the training were e.g. how to lead work ability as a manager and the interaction of challenging situations. We were satisfied with the Freia cooperation, there was humor in the planning, competent trainers and concrete case examples. The best part was the sharing of experiences in mixed groups. We achieved the needed change of attitude."

    Petri Mattila, HR Director at City of Mikkeli - www.mikkeli.fi

  • Our strategy is to create a growing, successful and attractive Hämeenlinna. For our personnel, we foster an operating culture of working with joy and create the conditions for sustainable careers. The audit carried out by Freia's experts helped us clarify the current situation of work ability management, taking into account the different stages of careers. We received a handy summary report and concrete recommendations for action. Even though many indicators are at good level in our organization, now things are no longer hidden and we know what to do to reach the next level. Together with Freia, we will continue with the development of occupational health cooperation processes and indicators.

    Anne Iijalainen, Director of Human Resources and Preparedness, Hämeenlinnan kaupunki - www.hameenlinna.fi

CASE – FOREST INDUSTRY

A multiyear personnel health promotion program was carried out in 2010–2018. During these nine years, 128 services were executed around Finland. As a result, sickness absences declined 39%, and the personnel health percentage grew from below 50% to over 80%. A dissertation about the effectiveness of the intervention is in the making, and its published articles can be downloaded from our Materials site.

 

Customer comment:
“We are very pleased with the results. The long-term tool has supported our personnel’s satisfaction, work atmosphere and engagement. Operating preventively brings savings and competitive advantage in the long run.”

CASE – WELLBEING SERVICES COUNTY

 

The wellbeing services county of Päijät-Häme, Education Center Salpaus and municipalities Asikkala, Hartola, Heinola, Hollola, Iitti, Kärkölä, Lahti, Myrskylä, Orimattila, Padasjoki, Pukkila and Sysmä prepared and implemented the public bidding for occupational health care services in 2022-2023.

 

The goal of the procurement was to find an occupational health care partner that would be able to offer effective and high-quality health services to more than 15,000 employees. In addition, the bidding included the sale of the separate in-house company.

 

Freia’s experts participated in the preparation of the bidding documents, the determination of the specific needs of the ordering organizations and the writing of the final request for three private providers.

 

The public bidding was carried out with a negotiation procedure. The discussions were held until the end from the needs of the ordering organizations. However, no offers were received by the deadline and the bidding was cancelled.

 

Customer comment: “The procurement can be considered successful, even though we did not find a private partner. We are able to utilize the materials and documents in the future and in the development of current occupational health care.”

 

“As a bidding, this was a demanding and extensive entity that required stretching. The cooperation with Freia was competent, flexible and smooth.”

 

“Expert help enabled high-quality bidding material. For us order representatives, this was a great learning experience about the market.“

CASE – CHANGE MANAGEMENT

The health care, social welfare and regional government reform is one of the largest structural changes in recent Finnish history. We trained the regional management, personnel representatives, and essential stakeholders in a broad planning project of change management in southern Savo in 2018–2019. In the project, change management was approached from individual, communal, structural and environmental views. Participation was encouraged in carrying out the planning group, the change training groups Virta and Koski, the seminar day, and the digital toolbox. You can order the 36-page final report of the project (in Finnish) from info@freialife.com.

 

Customer comment:
“In order to succeed in large changes, the personnel needs to be committed, the work culture and ways of thinking need to be renewed, and we need to invest in a humane way of managing the company. The project trainers were reliable and goal-oriented experts in their field.”

CASE – HEALTH CARE

In 2018–2019, we carried out a broad working life development project in five different Finnish health care and social welfare units. The target group of the project consisted over 2,200 health care professionals. The number of sickness absences in all municipal units together stayed at the same level, but there were developmental differences in organizational levels.

 

The process indicators of the project showed changes, which – according compared to earlier studies – would have been enough in generating positive impact in the target group. The best success was achieved in informing the participants and in targeting the services cost-effectively.

 

Evaluating the conventions of work ability management showed that conventions had been agreed upon, but their execution varied. The biggest deficiencies were in the structures of work ability management and in taking preventive actions.

 

According to the observations made in the research project, 15 separate conclusions were formed. All parties and organizations in health care and social welfare can utilize these conclusions in improving their employees’ well-being at work, and their ability to work and to cope in working life. The research report (in Finnish) can be found and downloaded under our Materials site.

 

Customer comment:
“Seeing and managing the bigger picture made the most difference. All the planned services were executed professionally and very well. The health care personnel evaluated that the NPS of the training services was more than 60%.”

CASE – WORK ABILITY MANAGEMENT

The future of Finland and its national economy depend on export. For companies specialized in logistics, stevedoring, port and forwarding services, it is essentially important to take care of their customer base’s cargo transport from Finnish ports to all over the world. It all comes down to employees who know their business. Their ability to work is looked after by being preventive at the right time.

 

Because of the special features of ports and the great variation in cargo traffic, the organizational structure of the case company is very different from that of many other companies. Therefore, the work ability management models used by other companies cannot be exploited as such in the logistics field. The management models need to modulate into the business in question, not the other way around.

 

In the implemented solutions, we invested in personal conversations about work ability, in improving collaboration with occupational health care, and in renewing the plan of strategic work ability management as well as its goals and indicators.

 

Customer comment:
”We previously tried to do everything ourselves, but there was just not enough time. Now, in only a short period of time, we have succeeded in making work ability management more preventive, and improved our collaboration with occupational health care. We have also received help in finding solutions to challenging situations.”

CASE – ENERGY

Electricity, heating and online businesses have gone through severe changes. Organizational structures, partnerships, and business models have changed. Since 2018, we have carried out several leadership development trainings for a Finnish energy company in southern Savo, as well as services that support their personnel well-being.

 

In the trainings, we focused on developing managerial work as part of the change process. We worked in management groups, carried out 360-degree appraisals, arranged contact periods for managers, and concentrated on communal support for the managerial path.

 

Customer comment:
“The trainings launched our long-time project of managerial development. There’s no going back to the old models of random implementations. After our second year of collaboration, the management indicators started showing positive impact.“

CASE – DESIGN

Working life strains mental health more than before. We carried out a piloting project together with the personnel management of a Finnish professional corporation of national real estate and construction. The project was implemented in 2019–2020, and its support was directed to the managers who were under a load of mental stress. We utilized the JobFit evaluation method, small training groups, and the framework of a complex operational environment. We implemented the trainings so that it was easy to participate in them alongside the everyday management work, project leadership, and customer collaboration.

 

Customer comment:
”We have recognized the mental demands of our work and want to support our managers preventively. The project also gave us valuable information on which tools are just right for us.”