Exactly a year ago I wrote a Christmas greeting with the title “what a year 2020”. I always try to think things in a positive way, and even at that time I was hopeful that the Covid-situation would ease and that life would return to “normal”. But here we are a year later – with similar feelings we start again in 2022. The only way is to accept that certain changes have come to stay. We just have to adapt to these changes to succeed and see these as more opportunities than threats to the business.
Exactly a year ago I wrote a Christmas greeting with the title “what a year 2020”. I always try to think things in a positive way, and even at that time I was hopeful that the Covid-situation would ease and that life would return to “normal”. But here we are a year later – with similar feelings we start again in 2022. The only way is to accept that certain changes have come to stay. We just have to adapt to these changes to succeed and see these as more opportunities than threats to the business.
Autumn at Anders has been rolling quite fast and the business always seems to be accelerating towards the end of the year. I am truly grateful for our great experts who do a really quality job for our clients’ services.
The events of 2021
Especially after the summer, it seems that the demand for various digital solutions has exploded and the market is currently pulling really hard in both the private and public sectors. The good side is that a strong demand creates a good foundation for starting the new year.
Remote work has been emphasized in our operations, and Anders is now represented not only in the Helsinki metropolitan area and Southwest Finland but also in central and eastern Finland. Finding the right experts has also been our main concern this year, and we are currently working to recruit professionals extensively, paying more attention to the personality, professional’s knowledge and quality rather than the background of the person.
I am annoyed when I still hear how many companies think of personnel and personnel development so Finland-centered. We have had (and will continue to have) an international mindset for a long time – all internal communication and documentation in the company are handled in English. We have the goal that every single employee has a genuine feel for being valued, respected and that we are investing in their development.
We have nurtured the sense of community by organizing company-wide events to which we invite employees from all our locations. Although in the year 2021 the restrictions have been waving back and forth, we have still been able to organize quarterly physical events either within teams or at a company level. Therefore I see, that the importance of these physical encounters has been enormous and important as a counterweight to remote work.
Our back-office team grew this year with a new Sales Director and an HR Business Partner. In the winter of 2021, Anna-Greta Marttila joined our forces, and she is currently responsible for recruitment and internal HR tasks. Anna is an absolutely brilliant person and with her experience, Anders’ HR development has already taken real leaps.
Our new sales director Jari Saari started in the autumn in the team and his decades of experience in the IT industry (combined with the Ostrobothnian mentality) fits really well into Anders’ organization. Jari has a genuine and practical understanding of the digital needs of companies as well as a strong technical background. This combination certainly allows for seamless collaboration with our customers and experts.
Employee well-being at the center
We have noticed that a remote worker gets easily alienated from the “employer bubble” when the day-to-day work is strongly within the customer interface. In order to fix the situation, we have developed our team structure to be clearer and more supportive to the employees, as we have also invested more in supporting and developing our team leaders. This development area is planned to continue next year, with the goal to invest even more in teamwork.
Transparency and openness in communication have been crucial focus points for years already and we have taken significant steps in the right direction. We have been supporting the transparency with open meeting notes, regular newsletters, monthly meetings, a hybrid work guide, continuous monitoring of project satisfaction, and measurement of customer satisfaction, among other things.
To support well-being in remote work, we also encourage employees to take breaks and we organize weekly coffee, yoga, and gaming sessions online. In the fall, we were able to enjoy the office atmosphere for a while, which was a really nice change comparing working alone from home. Hopefully, a partial return to the offices will be more permanent and longer lasting in 2022.
We had super fun at the pre-Christmas party and it was nice to see so many Andersians joining. I really enjoyed that strong sense of community – I feel that physical encounters are a really important part of the work culture.
I AM REALLY PROUD OF ALL THE ANDERSIANS WHO HAVE DONE A GREAT JOB FOR OUR COMPANY. I WISH EVERYONE A TRULY RELAXING CHRISTMAS AND A BUSY START TO THE YEAR!
– Mikko Kivistö, Country Manager of Finland
