The road to good employee understanding and values-based leadership begins with a personnel survey
At Secto, an employee survey is carried out every year. That tells us, among other things, what elements in their work people find meaningful and how issues that they perceive as important come true every day. In the 2024 employee survey, the employee net promoter score of the financial team improved to the best in the company, reaching 57. Only a year earlier it was 22. Employee net promoter score, or eNPS, is a metric that assesses employees' job satisfaction by measuring their readiness to recommend their company to others.
“The employee surveys, as well as the discussions held in connection with them, have been a key to such fast development, so soon”, says Elina Karlsson. Elina has been working as the team manager since 2023. She points out that combined effort by the entire team was the biggest contributor to this achievement. Everyone pulled magnificently together for the common goal. At the same time, they learned a lot from each other. “The discussions have helped me dig deeper into the thoughts of my team members. To be able to talk through values the right way requires understanding which issues people value and which ones they find most important”, Elina Karlsson says.
Transforming values into daily tools
A significant project to crystallise the company values was carried out at Secto in 2023. As a result, new values “Empathy is our superpower”, “We are trailblazers” and “Sustainability is at the centre of everything” were launched in 2024. The managers were trained to bring the new values to daily work. The values were discussed and analysed both at workshops and one-to-one meetings with the People & Culture Director. “Maaret Jokinen has been very persistent in reminding us of the meaning of values – even in such tangible way that now those values are at every screensaver”, Elina Karlsson says.
Karlsson adds that clearly defined values have helped her make decisions and lead the team in a new way. “Now that the values have been put to words, it is easier to recognise what kind of behaviour aligns with Secto’s world of values – and what kind does not. There is no longer need to count on sheer gut feeling of something being wrong, without grounds to justify it.”
Responsible leadership comes down to trust and understanding
”I have experience in leading through empathy, and Secto’s crystallised values strengthen my thinking. I believe that with us financial people, responsibility and willingness to do things by the book are built-in features. That is why implementing our new values-based operation model comes naturally to us.”
Karlsson believes that one of manager’s most important tasks is to help team members bring out the best version of themselves. “Responsible leadership is about creating the kind of atmosphere where everyone can be his or her own self. There should be no need to play any kind of a work role to become accepted.”
You can always get better in using values
According to Elina Karlsson, the new values have gradually become visible at daily work, without people having to continuously ponder what they mean. “I’d say that in our team, the values have been implemented at a 70-percent efficiency rate. Personally, I no longer need a check list to make sure which matters should be taken into account.” In Elina Karlsson’s opinion, the corporate culture of Secto has improved with the discussions that have been held to explain the values. At the same time, team spirit has gotten better. “In the financial team, we want to actively take part in introducing a new operation model to the organisation – the kind where teamwork is applied from the very beginning instead of a project staying in one department for a long time and then distributed to others unexpectedly. For example, the work related to last year’s VAT reform was carried out together. Thanks to that, it was easier for everyone to commit to the task at hand.” Karlsson believes that understanding company values and bringing them into daily work is a continuous process. You can always get better in applying the values. At Secto, value workshops have been held among managers – the next step is to organise team-level discussions about value themes. ”The values are not unambiguous. They should be addressed together so that everyone can understand each other. It is important to recognise that you can look at matters from more angles than one.”