References

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.”