SPIRIT Magazine by Corporate Spirit

SPIRIT

CORPORATE SPIRIT’S CUSTOMER MAGAZINE

HR Director Tomi salo shares

Valmet Automotive’s tips for improved employee engagement

WORLD NEEDS PIONEERS Success comes from determined development LEADING EXCELLENCE

for innovative business success

Global benchmarks put results into perspective

MODER REPOR N T SOLUT ING IONS p. 14

EDITORIAL

YOUR GLOBAL PARTNER Advanced communication methods and social media may be shrinking our world, but certain cultural variation still remains. Corporate Spirit is specializing in global organizational and leadership development, where cultural and territorial changes are taken into consideration, when helping our customers to improve their business success. Knowing these cultural differences, it is difficult to imagine that reliable information could be gained simply by comparing the proportion of favorable responses from one country to another. Conducting an international survey and comparing the results for absolute percentage averages of various items between countries will most likely lead to the wrong conclusions, bearing cultural variation in mind. A comprehensive collection of external benchmarks helps scaling results, as well as discovering the real strengths and areas of development. Let me give an example. If a survey states that 65 % of the staff dislike the information flow, would that be a good result or perhaps something we should worry about? Cultural differences and external benchmarks will help to determine the right development actions for your company to enable your business targets to be met. Combined with our experience of 30 years and over 4,000 employee surveys, we are able to provide any international organisation with highly reliable benchmarks as well as knowledge to utilise them for added value. We are your partner in engaging people for success!

CONTENTS 3 4 5 6 8 10 12 14 15

How turbulent times are experienced in different cultures Business planning helps organisations make better use of their resources AirPeopleâ&#x201E;¢ survey important for strategic planning Leading excellence for innovative business success COVER STORY: The world needs pioneers Top expertise adds momentum to inspiring cooperation Success comes from determined development and an uncompromising attitude Modern Reporting Solutions enhance business oriented improvement actions Global benchmarks put results from different cultural differences into perspective

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EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT IN DIFFERENT CULTURES

HOW TURBULENT TIMES ARE EXPERIENCED IN DIFFERENT CULTURES Little by little, the impact of challenging economic times on employee engagement may become negative. As individual employees start securing their own work, levels of performance and innovativeness decrease. The most engaged employees work with passion for their employer – while many staff members work with very little effort, as if waiting for better times. In white-collar intensive organisations in particular, some attitude groups regard their opportunities for participating in decision-making very limited. This is largely due to confusion about decisionmaking mechanisms. The same persons are also stressed by information overload and high levels of bureaucracy. Additionally, every organisation has underperformers who are critical of just about everything. Creating growth opportunities, even during difficult times, is a big challenge for management. Managers have to ensure sufficient communication, as well as staff members’ opportunities to have an influence. Furthermore, they have to ensure that staff will be cared for at all times. Feedback and recognition valued During nearly 30 years in the business, Corporate Spirit has surveyed employee engagement during economic upturns and downturns in various cultures. Depending on the economic cycle, there have been significant differences in engagement drivers, as well as variance. During challenging times, staff criticism is often directed at excessive amount of rumours and bureaucracy, as well as towards employer image – especially regarding recent development and future prospects.

On the other hand, rewards and feedback are clearly more positively evaluated during turbulent periods compared to prosperous times. Managers’ recognition for good work, their support for employee development opportunities and employee satisfaction with salaries are just a few examples. Understandably, willingness to change employers plummets during a recession, even though work is more stressful than normal. People are also more ready to take personal responsibility for their work. Increasing trust in future prospects During favourable times, people often feel that changes are well implemented in their prganisation – and that strategy and future prospects are well communicated. They also feel fairly and equally treated and listened to in decisions affecting them. During economic upswings, criticism is often targeted at prerequisites for work, such as the appropriateness of tools and systems. What do we need to develop in order to improve or maintain current engagement levels? In countries with positive economic development, staff need to believe in the future of their company, to trust their top management and to evaluate how well the management has communicated company strategy and future prospects. Increasing well-being and interest in own work In countries struggling with economic downturns, engagement is explained in terms of how interesting and challenging people perceive the content of their work to be, as well as whether they believe their employer emphasises staff wellbeing. In China and India, people emphasise the importance of working for an environmentally and socially responsible company. Indian employees also highlight the importance of being proud of their employer’s products and services. In Sweden, the possibilities of having an open discussion with the management and taking part in decision-making correlate with overall engagement. Danes and Norwegians emphasise the importance of their employer supporting the staff’s professional development, whereas in Finland it is very important that employees feel they are treated fairly and equally.

The writer Juha Ala-Lipasti is Partner Director and Head of International Operations of Corporate Spirit Ltd.

EFFECTIVE BUSINESS PLANNING TO IMPROVE SUCCESS

BUSINESS PLANNING HELPS ORGANISATIONS MAKE BETTER USE OF THEIR RESOURCES In today’s environment of complexity, challenge and competition, it’s only the consistent, focused and efficient organisations that can survive. Ensuring that the activities of everyone in the organisation are properly connected to the needs of the business is an important ingredient of success. Dr Richard Plenty has over 25 years of experience in examining the relationship between business planning and organisational performance. According to him the ability to connect HR to overall business strategy is in fact the key to both business success and successful people engagement. By adopting a systematic annual process, the link between what people do and what the overall business needs remains clear at all times. ”Business strategy is ultimately implemented through the efforts and knowhow of employees. An effective process ensures there is a clear ‘line of sight’ between what the business is trying to do and individual objectives”, Richard Plenty emphasises.

A learning organisation When the process is carried out on a regular, systematic basis, it creates the ideal environment for a learning organisation. Expectations are set and met, habits are formed, good performance recognized and rewarded. It’s about aligning employees so that they’re going to the same direction. An annual business planning cycle helps improve motivation and engagement as employees realise how they are able to contribute to the organisation’s goals. At the same time, development programmes can be efficiently aligned, creating opportunities for both sales increase and cost reduction. Any organisation that introduces such an annual performance management process in a systematic way is likely to see improvements in both productivity and profitability. Implementing the strategy As every employee is aware of both personal and organisational goals – as well as of the available means to achieve them – strategy can be efficiently executed. To ensure that everyone is pulling to the same direction, regular monitoring is required. This takes place in the context of overall business performance evaluation. Richard Plenty points out that successful performance evaluation depends on encouraging good dialogue between employees and their supervisors at all levels of the organisation. “Having meaningful and relevant targets in place helps these performance conversations to be more objective and useful as part of an effective performance management system.”

Dr Richard Plenty is Managing Director of This Is... Ltd. He is an experienced international organisation development consultant, human resources leader and business psychologist. In cooperation with This Is... Ltd, Corporate Spirit produces employee surveys tailored for airports according to the AirPeople ™ concept.

EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT AT AIRPORTS

Armando Brunini, Managing Director, Naples Airport

” AIRPEOPLE™ SURVEY IMPORTANT FOR STRATEGIC PLANNING” Aeroporto Internazionale di Napoli (Naples International Airport) is among the busiest of Italy. The airport will end the year with over 6 million passengers for the first time. The management of Naples airport is highly committed to business development. According to the CEO Armando Brunini, the AirPeople™ employee survey, which is targeted for the airport industry, is well suited to support the strategic planning and people management necessary to achieve this business objective. The airport sector is facing challenging times and the business environment is changing. In Italy the situation is similar to elsewhere in Europe. “We are back to growth. We now work in a competitive environment with demanding customers (both airlines and passengers) but, on the other hand, we are still regulated and, for various reasons, have new operational and cost burdens to deal with”, Brunini explains. Employee engagement survey fills a gap The AirPeople™ employee survey carried out by Corporate Spirit Ltd filled a gap for Naples Airport, as they needed a ‘human‘ but ‘airport’ tailored set of parameters to measure the readiness of their human capital. The survey helped their management to focus on the work that still needs to be done in the area of people management. “We have quite aggressive business targets and use a ”balanced scorecard” approach. We are aiming at growing passenger volumes through the development of international routes, improving the passenger experience/ASQ score and further enhancing our financial performance. The AirPeople™ survey was important to measure the capacity to deploy the

airport’s strategic plan and hence achieve our targets”, says Brunini. According to Mr. Brunini the survey results and follow up workshop helped Naples to plan their future targets and KPI’s. “It helps us complete our balanced scorecard indicators and from budget 2016, some managers will have either the ”engagement” or ”Airpeople” KPI in their MBO targets”. International benchmark for airport sector and national norms The survey includes two principal indices, providing comparative insight on organisational performance. The AirPeople™ Index provides a measure of an airport’s overall level of engagement and is benchmarked against national norms. The Airport Culture Indicator™ gives a business focused measure of organisation effectiveness compared with the airport benchmark. “These benchmarks are seen as very important. Without benchmarks the survey would have lost a lot of its ”power”, Brunini emphasises. Effective survey follow-up is the key for improvement The AirPeople™ survey consists of a high level executive report and an organisation-wide presentation on the overall survey results. In addition a ‘Follow Up’ Workshop for top management, conducted by Dr Richard Plenty of our partners This is…, is included in the development process. Effective follow up and utilisation of the survey results is crucial, when it comes to repayment of the investment made. At Naples airport the management was very committed to use the survey for business development. “We already had an Action plan on people and change management. The survey was the opportunity to evaluate the impact of the program. Honestly we needed only a few changes to the existing action plan. Most importantly we now have a ”measured” baseline and will monitor our performance periodically”, Brunini explains.

Armando Brunini is the Managing Director of Naples Airport which is the international airport serving Naples, Italy. The number of passengers arrving and departing each year is over 6 million. With over 3 million inhabitants, the Naples Metropolitan Area is the largest such area in Europe whose airport does not serve as either a hub or focus for any airline.

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT

LEADING EXCELLENCE FOR INNOVATIVE BUSINESS SUCCESS

SAPA is a world leader in aluminium solutions, headquartered in Oslo. The company strives for leadership excellence and works structured with internal succession management as well as employer branding to find candidates to high global positions. Sapa employs globally almost 23 000 employees in over 40 countries and strives for innovative business solutions.

“This requires a specific mindset with our managers not only to run for the big volumes. Running business across the globe also means to deal with a variety of business cultures in a proper way. The inner values and decency of our leaders are of outmost importance. We use the 360 assessments to align our lead teams with respect to such factors”, Lene Navestad says.

Sapa derives its power from its most valuable asset – its employees. The company’s values are built around customer excellence, trust, entrepreneurship, accountability and One Company mindset. “The values describe how the company aims to reach its goal of shaping a sustainable future through innovative aluminium solutions”, says Lene Navestad, VP Leadership & Talent Management.

“We are looking for people who have a global mindset and the ability to strengthen the One Company culture across the globe. Mobility of senior leaders outside own region is one of the challenges we face with international company culture”, Navestad explains.

Business excellence through customer benefits SAPA has many business targets, but one common to all geographic areas, as well as product areas, is to improve margins on their excellent products. This means that cost needs to be kept low, while offering something extra to the customers. The SAPA way of working offers the customer more added value rather than commodities.

Leadership development is a key for better results The company has a decentralized business structure, enabling to compete locally as well as having a global reach through all their locations in Europe, North and South America and Asia.

In Sapa a lot of emphasis has been put into combining leadership development with business targets. Together with Corporate Spirit we have developed a tailored model for 360 assessments for SAPA’s leaders. This has helped the company to develop leadership culture and mindset to enhance the future challenges. “360 assessments as leadership development tool have been a good “check-and-balance” tool to investigate impact of our leadership development concepts. We work with future

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT

scenarios and plan ahead our business targets and people assets. As we all know, business success is achieved together with highly engaged and committed employees that have great and inspiring managers”, Navestad emphasizes.

become stand-alone actions. Outcomes and actions from assessments or programs must be incorporated in the basic talent management processes, such as HiPo identification, succession planning and performance management. I suggest that companies should pick a few close partners that you can develop your business together.”

Clear concept for development and growth In Sapa a small portfolio of assessments for leadership development is used, including the 360. The company takes care not to have too many action lists outside what their leaders commit to through their development plans, in the performance dialogue and based on Employee Engagement surveys. In SAPA it is important to try to incorporate assessment results into all regular Talent Management processes. As an advice for other leaders Lene Navestad encourages to invest in a few good partners. “When planning organizational and leadership development in a global organization it’s important to make sure all tools and concepts you use are supporting each other and not Lene Navestad, VP Leadership & Talent Management, Sapa

SAPA is a world leader in aluminium solutions. The company employees globally almost 23 000 employees in over 40 countries. Sapa has its headquarters in Oslo, Norway and is a 50/50 joint venture owned equally by Orkla ASA and Hydro ASA.

EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

9 7

THE WORLD NEEDS PIONEERS Valmet Automotive has been a pioneer in its sector and a trusted partner in the automotive industry for nearly 50 years. The company’s strong growth strategy is based on mastering new technologies, producing the best quality in the world and continuously developing the industry’s best personnel. The company aims to be the best in the world. Valmet Automotive currently employs almost 2,000 people in Finland. The company’s operations are characterised by a strong project-oriented approach which is reflected in the personnel’s first-class project competence. Every stage of manufacturing a car is scheduled, meaning that work is performed with extreme precision and high customer orientation, always aiming for top quality. “We have long experience and strong project competence. This can be seen in all of our operations, even in our meeting procedures. We respect what has been agreed, and so our meetings, just like everything else, start on time or preferably even a couple of minutes early,” says Tomi Salo, HR Director at Valmet Automotive. Industry challenges Valmet Automotive to be the best in the world The automotive industry is a challenging sector. Operations have to be prepared and directed as well as possible in order to respond to market changes and future trends in the automotive industry. “We act as a contract manufacturer, meaning that we use our competence to manufacture our customers’ products. Therefore, it is extremely important to adapt to the needs of the customer. We are a flexible and agile partner to our customers. Our goal is to produce the best quality in the world,” Salo explains.

Remaining at the cutting edge of technological development, producing innovations and identifying competence needs are guiding forces in the operations of Valmet Automotive. Project competence is a sustaining force in the company, as the industry is mainly based on projects. The upcoming manufacturing of Mercedes-Benz GLC SUV has required a great deal of evidence of project competence and a wellfunctioning working community. The company recently started the largest recruitment drive of its history, seeking to reinforce its competence base through more than 1,000 new top professionals. Employee survey facilitates the development of daily work Valmet Automotive conducted its latest employee survey with Corporate Spirit. The large recruitment drives and starting new production posed some challenges for scheduling the surveys in a dynamic operating environment. “We have been very pleased with Corporate Spirit’s contribution as a partner. We got to lean on the insights of an experienced partner in terms of organisational development, and the effort required of us was minimal. As an experience, conducting the employee survey was effortless. We were able to trust our partner’s ability to perform better than we would have performed ourselves,” Salo says. According to the employee survey, the company has succeeded in communicating its strategy to the personnel, among other things, but there are some challenges in making every employee grasp the importance of the strategy in their daily work. HR Director Tomi Salo says the employee survey has provided the company with highly tangible development measures related to daily work. Supervisors involved in securing change Valmet Automotive saw the survey reporting as clear and purposeful. The company’s supervisors were very pleased with how effortless it was to process unit-specific action plans and enter them in the survey system. “We are particularly glad to see our supervisors feel that survey reporting is clear and have made great progress in implementing department-specific development measures. We carried out some major organisational changes in the

Valmet Automotive is one of the biggest contract manufacturers in the automotive industry. The company has operated in Finland for almost 50 years. Valmet Automotive provides versatile engineering, manufacturing and consulting services. Our special areas of expertise are premium cars, convertibles and their roof systems, and electric vehicles. We employ over 2,000 professionals in Finland, Germany and Poland.

middle of the survey. Regardless of this, the implementation of the survey was very smooth, which reinforced our opinion of Corporate Spirit as a leading partner in its industry,” Salo sums up. A well-utilised survey produces quick results and increases personnel participation At Valmet Automotive, the continuous development of operations is in the company’s DNA. Company-level development projects were selected from strategically important matters which were implemented throughout the organisation. Based on the employee survey, the units have already implemented almost 100 development measures that ensure the business-oriented development of operations. “We have established the employee survey as part of developing our operations and also provided our personnel with the reasons behind it. Under the leadership of a supervisor, each department selected from their own employee survey results one or two development projects and committed to them. Along the way, this has brought up a number of tangible ways to improve our ways of working,” Tomi Salo emphasises.

Tomi Salo, HR Director, Valmet Automotive

EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT AND COOPERATION SKILLS

TOP EXPERTISE ADDS MOMENTUM TO INSPIRING COOPERATION Fingrid Oyj is a Finnish company responsible for electricity transmission in Finland. The company aims to respond to changes in working life by developing the personnel’s cooperation skills, which correlate highly with engagement. Fingrid’s operating culture is characterised by responsibility, as the company’s duty is to monitor the Finnish electricity system and maintain a balance between the production and consumption of electricity. This is reflected in the company’s operations as the personnel’s desire to do things well, to act in a planned and efficient manner.

Good cooperation skills correlate with strong engagement In the spring of 2016, Corporate Spirit conducted an employee survey and 270 expert assessments for Fingrid with the aim of supporting the organisation and its expert work in diverse ways. The assessments helped the company see a clear connection between the personnel’s excellent cooperation skills and high engagement. “We were pleased with the approach used by Corporate Spirit, and we felt the ideology behind the employee survey was relevant. Assessing our employees’ perceptions of their work, unit and supervisor as well as the entire organisation fits our way of developing Fingrid as a whole. Comparing the results of the employee survey with other Finnish expert organisations was revolutionary for us,” Miettinen says.

“We are focused on achieving results and working genuinely together. Our leadership model is participatory and highlights the responsibility of individuals for their own work. Openness is reflected in our way of involving personnel in developing our operations early on in the preparation phase,” says Tiina Miettinen, Senior Vice President, HR and Communications at Fingrid Oyj. Strength from own strategy Fingrid ensures that the company’s vision is clear to all employees, so that they understand through their own work what the company is aiming for and what it requires of individuals. Fingrid has a model called “My Strategy”, which is based on the company’s strategy and guides how we operate in the working community on a daily basis. “The implementation of everybody’s own strategy is steered in performance appraisals in order to help them understand how their work is linked to the company’s overall strategy. Our core message is “Keeping the lights on in Finland”. We have partially tied our personnel’s bonuses to achieving this strategic goal,” Tiina Miettinen points out.

Fingrid Oyj is the enterprise which takes care of the functioning of the nation-wide high-voltage grid, the backbone of electricity transmission. We transmit electricity continuously from electricity generating companies to distribution network companies and industrial companies. We take care of the cross-border connections and promote the functioning of the electricity market. Fingrid employs more than 300 professionals in Finland.

“Correlation between the satisfaction and good cooperation skills of our personnel reinforces the approach we have selected. We have utilised surveys in developing operations at the level of individuals, the entire working community and the company. Cooperation skill measurements and common ground rules, which we call the criteria for being Fingrid employees, are a good way to assess an individual’s performance,” Miettinen says.

Based on the results of the employee survey, Fingrid aims to develop everyday prioritisation skills and personal workload management, both of which are important in expert work. Expert teams are supported in a variety of ways. In conflict situations, the company has used team coaching to solve problems with an external expert.

From satisfaction to engagement

Fingrid is delighted to receive the “Finland’s Most Inspiring Workplaces” recognition for the excellent AAA rating based on the overall results of the 2016 employee survey.

The employee survey demonstrated that satisfied personnel is no longer enough nowadays. Fingrid aims to reinforce the personnel’s engagement, which has been proven to promote success and enthusiasm. “We enjoyed the way Corporate Spirit determined the level of engagement in different personnel groups and illustrated the findings with a clear index report. Our executive management group noticed that our results were excellent, even at the company level. We also appreciated the method used in reviewing the results, as it was based on the company’s vision and goals, which is essential in developing our operations,” Miettinen says.

One of Finland’s most inspiring workplaces

“We are very happy to see that the underlying fundamentals are in place and the level of engagement among our employees is high. We cherish our strengths to ensure that our highly educated employees are able to meet the challenges posed by the markets in a changing world. We want to remain a workplace for inspired experts who develop themselves actively,” Miettinen concludes.

EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

SUCCESS COMES FROM DETERMINED DEV AND AN UNCOMPROMISING ATTITUDE The urban development of tomorrow requires sustainability, enthusiasm at work, courage in development, a results-driven approach and open collaboration. These are the values of SRV, a pioneering and innovative construction company providing end-to-end solutions. SRV encourages its personnel to participate in developing the company into a workplace of the future, where everyone is a top expert in their own work. For nearly 30 years, the company has called this common way to operate the SRV Approach, in which project development, design and engineering, and construction are combined into a functional whole. The implementation of various project phases is flexible and they may overlap. SRV assumes overall responsibility for the completion and management of the project. “Management is in the company’s DNA and it is what our employees get to do, as almost every role includes a management aspect. This means the ability to successfully manage not only one’s own work but also projects, design and engineering, and even a construction site. In our experience, it is very motivating to get to manage creative projects and participate in implementing them. This is one of the reasons SRV has such enthusiastic employees who enjoy their time at work,” says Pirjo Ahanen, SVP, Human Resources. Self-conducted survey no longer promoted development In 2015, under the leadership of the new President and CEO Juha Pekka Ojala, SRV started to update its strategy and build management and operating principles that would ensure the company’s right direction and success in the future as well. The employee survey model used by Corporate Spirit was more than suitable for the company in the new situation. “The surveys we had carried out ourselves no longer met our needs in terms of developing the company in a businessoriented way, and they were too laborious. We wanted to compare the results with other Finnish organisations. The

normative benchmarking data, in particular, has produced significant added value in terms of understanding and utilising the survey results. In addition, we now know for a fact that our development measures are targeted at the right things,” Ahanen says. Ambitious goals enable success The vision of SRV Group is to create the best customer experience as a constructor of urban town centres. This can be achieved by meeting three strategic objectives, which are the best customer experience, the best profitability and the most attractive employer in the industry. The HR department particularly wants to develop SRV into an attractive workplace, where even young talents enjoy themselves and want to participate in developing operations. “We also want to invest in young employees, as they are more demanding and expect genuine career development, new challenges and more interesting projects. We are planning a new perspective for developing our personnel’s competence and leading top experts. This can be seen in many daring and unprejudiced projects we have carried out, such as REDI (the centre of Kalasatama) in Helsinki and the Central Deck and Arena project in Tampere,” Ahanen sums up. Employee survey secures a sense of direction in development From the beginning, SRV had the need to utilise the employee survey as a development tool that would provide a strong link to monitoring and measuring the company’s strategy. “Measuring and developing the engagement of our personnel comes naturally to us. Cooperation with Corporate Spirit has met our needs through a new kind of research and development concept which we can make excellent use of in securing our strategic direction, among other things,” Ahanen says. “The excellent results of our employee survey and the Finland’s Most Inspiring Workplaces recognition took us completely by surprise. We knew we were an interesting company and successful in our industry, but it really sunk in when we saw the benchmarking data,” Ahanen says enthusiastically. The employee survey showed that SRV’s strengths include supervisory work, efficient decision-making and investing in well-being at work. SRV genuinely recognises the importance of each and every employee in achieving results. The survey is regarded as an important means of developing the company’s operations. The results were so good that even the

VELOPMENT

Pirjo Ahanen, SVP Human resources, SRV Group

more challenging areas were above the benchmark. The most significant of these were the smoothness of communication and cooperation in the working community. Employee survey results as part of the company’s growth story SRV has linked the overall results of the employee survey to the strategic objectives of the company’s management up to 2020. Furthermore, the results of the employee survey have already affected the performance-related pay of supervisors for a few years. This is a suitable incentive and has been received positively. “We have been very impressed with Corporate Spirit’s employee survey concept and its indicators that make operational monitoring and development a bit easier,” Ahanen sums up.

Going forward, SRV aims to continue solidifying the utilisation of employee survey results in units and support the development of supervisors. “We want to invest systematically in supporting supervisory work and training our personnel, as skills development is one of our key strategic development objectives,” Ahanen says. “Becoming one of Finland’s most inspiring workplaces has inspired us to develop our employer image even more. Success comes from determined development and an uncompromising attitude. We want to be the best at everything we do, and communicating that is not difficult for us. We are proud to tell people about our innovative, inspiring and dedicated working community,” Ahanen concludes.

SRV is an innovative construction company that provides end-to-end solutions and assumes customer-focused responsibility for the development, construction and commercialisation of projects. SRV operates in Finland in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area, as well as in the growth centres Turku, Tampere, Oulu, Jyväskylä, and Joensuu. SRV also operates in St. Petersburg and Moscow, and in Estonia. SRV Group had a revenue of EUR 719.1 million in 2015. The company has approximately 1,000 employees.

TOOLS FOR DEVELOPMENT

MODERN REPORTING SOLUTIONS ENHANCE BUSINESS ORIENTED IMPROVEMENT ACTIONS

The most important conditions for ensuring that survey results can be used are easy, clear and versatile reporting as well as the support that enables supervisors and managers to use the results in a solutions-oriented manner. Cixtranet® survey system developed by Corporate Spirit works via Internet connection and the results can be examined in over 40 languages whenever and wherever. Anyone who has the right to examine the results may access them by using their own username and password. The results of their area of responsibility are presented in colour graphics. The Cixtranet® survey system developed by Corporate Spirit provides a smart service for all user groups. •

The basic view provides easy, quick and illustrative access to the most important viewpoints. The basic view is especially suitable for busy basic users such as supervisors.

•

The advanced view describes the results through crosstabling and delves into details. The advanced view offers the possibility to examine the results in greater depth and is suitable for business managers, human resources administration and analysts.

Common understanding is also very important for being able to benefit from the results. When the participants can process the results in their native language, issues caused by language barriers can be kept to a minimum. For employee surveys, for example, there are currently over 40 languages available. Reporting on measures involves coordinating data to create the conditions for achieving results. Putting results to use is a common process highlighting efficiency, assertiveness and aptness. Monitoring ensures that measures are realised, and provides management, supervisors and employees with concrete support for development.

THE POWER OF INTERNATIONAL BENCHMARKS

GLOBAL BENCHMARKS PUT RESULTS FROM DIFFERENT CULTURAL DIFFERENCES INTO PERSPECTIVE Advanced communication methods and social media may be shrinking our world, but certain cultural variation still remains. Amongst the Nordic countries, Finns still rate their superiors’ performance higher than the rest. Austrians and the Swiss believe their superiors are keen on employees’ ideas, while the Spanish and French give lower ratings. In India, people tend to rate commitment to employers higher than anywhere else. In order to understand the variation of survey results and particularly to put them into perspective, certain benchmarks need to be established. Comprehensive experience and understanding about human behaviour in various cultures is obviously required to create this kind of toolkit for international organisations. Synchronizing countries and cultures Corporate Spirit’s benchmark norms are based on extensive global basic research as well as a database of our current surveys, updated annually. In addition to 30 country- and area-specific norms, we have designed precision norms for blue- and white-collar workers, managers and specialists in each country. Combined with our experience of 30 years and over 4000 employee surveys, we are able to provide any international organisation with highly reliable benchmarks as well as knowledge to utilise them for added value. Doing an international survey and comparing absolute percentage averages of various items between countries will most likely lead to the wrong conclusions, bearing cultural variation in mind. A comprehensive collection of external benchmarks helps scaling results, as well as discovering the real strengths and areas of development. Nature of work and getting feedback Besides culture, the nature of work plays a significant role in

job satisfaction and engagement variations. Criticism towards excessive information flooding is typical for modern managers. Work in general is perceived as quite demanding. On the other hand, bluecollar workers are more critical towards reward systems and would appreciate more feedback from their superiors. In general, top management’s evaluations are higher than with other respondent groups. Various stages at work are evaluated in very different ways. Rewarding and change management get clearly lower points than, for instance, awareness of expectations. Without relevant benchmark material, topic areas cannot be compared with one another. “Benchmarks enable seeing things in a new light” “Our normative benchmarks are based on one of the most extensive international databases of employee engagement surveys available”, says Juha Ala-Lipasti, Corporate Spirit’s Head of International Operations. “They form a reliable frame of reference when evaluating survey results from various countries. Having analysed altogether millions of responses, we’ve found some amazing differences in response styles in different countries – as well as some quite different meanings and values attached to individual questions.” Knowing these cultural differences, it is difficult to imagine that reliable information could be gained simply by comparing the proportion of favourable responses from one country to another. If in Spain, for example, half of the respondents tend to respond favourably towards a single question, it may be a very good result in Spanish terms. However, it might be that the same result in Denmark is quite poor compared to similar companies in Denmark. “An employee survey conducted without any proper normative benchmark could usually be regarded as quite questionable”, Juha Ala-Lipasti continues. “A standard finding would generally be that weaknesses in the employee survey are connected with unsatisfactory remuneration, poor information flow and too little feedback. This misinterpretation often takes place because almost every culture normally judges and values these types of questions more critically than other types of questions. If a survey states that 65 % of the staff dislike the information flow, would that be a good result or perhaps something we should worry about? Reliable benchmarks help determine that.”

ENGAGING PEOPLE FOR SUCCESS.

Your partners in developing

ORGANISATION AND LEADERSHIP This Is… Ltd is an organisation and leadership development company operating in London and Dublin. Its wide range of products and services helps organisations going through change. The This Is... Ltd team is comprised of top-level business management professionals, organisation and leadership experts and business psychology and coaching consultants. In cooperation with This Is... Ltd, Corporate Spirit produces employee surveys tailored for airports according to the AirPeopleTM concept.

Breitenstein Consulting offers a holistic, scientifically-based and solution-oriented approach to professional Change Management Consulting. The company provides expert support for the entire duration of a Change Process by means of customised employee workshops, assessments in addition to individual and group coaching sessions. In co-operation with Corporate Spirit Breitenstein Consulting markets consulting survey concepts to its existing and new clients in the German, Austrian and Swiss markets.

Impaktor, based in Oslo, is a Norwegian consulting company. Impaktor specialises in leadership development, employeeship and change management consulting. The company operates in public and private sector and has HR consultants with strong leadership experience. In co-operation with Corporate Spirit Impaktor markets consulting survey concepts to its existing and new clients in Norway.

CORPORATESPIRIT LTD ENGAGING PEOPLE FOR SUCCESS