During the next few years, Finavia will invest close to 900 million euros into developing Helsinki Airport. It goes without saying that employees’ ability to perform is essential in order to make that investment profitable.

At Finavia, employee engagement surveys and leadership assessments have been carried out for several years. According to HR Partner & HRD Manager Sami Laine, the results are monitored with a keen eye, even at board level.

“The surveys play a significant role, as Finavia is systematically building a high-performing culture. Based on the results of each survey, we choose our development areas for business units and corporate levels. The units are responsible for improving their respective areas while the HR department provides the required support.”

At Finavia, people generally take exceptional pride in their work. Aviation has always been a somewhat mysterious, intriguing area that naturally creates interest as a workplace. According to Sami Laine, this is also a factor that builds engagement and a willingness to contribute. Along with identifying areas that need improvement, employee and leadership

Sami Laine, HR Partner, Finavia Corporation

HR INTELLIGENCE TO SUPPORT BUSINESS SUCCESS.

42014

”ENGAGEMENT IS AN ESSENTIAL SUCCESS FACTOR”surveys play an important role in seeing how successfully important matters such as objectives and overall progress have been communicated.

“The latest AirPeople™ survey, conducted by Corporate Spirit Ltd, revealed that motivation levels are already at a very good level. As we prepare to take the next leap at Helsinki Airport, it is evident that further training is required. Special services and top-notch safety are essential success factors in our quest to make Helsinki Airport the most important hub between Europe and Asia.”

Building a high-performing airport culture takes time. Together with big investments, it goes without saying that Finavia is looking at a couple of exceptionally busy years ahead. In situations like this, Sami Laine is happy to be able to deal with committed employees that are interested in training and developing their skills further.

“Building a high-performing airport culture requires a lot of skill and engagement, but it also needs elements such as creativity and determination to get things done. The fact that Finavia’s people consider their work interesting and meaningful helps us in a remarkable way.”

Finavia provides airport, passenger and air navigation services to facilitate smooth air traffic. The company continuously maintains and develops its network of 25 airports and Finland’s air navigation system. Finavia’s customers include airlines, other operators in the aviation sector and passengers. Every year, over 19 million passengers fly via Finavia’s airports. In 2013, the company had EUR 352 million in revenue and 2,800 employees.

EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENTHIGH PERFORMANCE CULTUREEDITORIAL

The year 2014 has marked the 100th anniversary of commercial aviation. The impact has been phenomenal. Last year, just a century after the first commercial passenger caught the first flight, over 6.3 billion passengers passed through airports around the world. Over this period, airports have been going through a massive transformation. They have changed from small landing strips to complex businesses which have to operate as commercial enterprises and manage many diverse and demanding stakeholders. How can airports raise their game in the face of these rapid changes? Whilst airports differ in ownership structure, size and national culture, all airports have to perform the same basic functions. This provides a great opportunity for airports to learn from each other and develop a shared understanding of what works well. The development of shared metrics, for example passenger satisfaction data (the ASQ) and environmental measures (carbon accreditation), has been a major catalyst for sector wide change. Once a common language is established, benchmarking becomes a real possibility and best practices can be shared. This approach has now been extended in European airports to the measurement of organisation culture through the ACI Europe AirPeople™ survey, which has been designed together with Corporate Spirit to enable European airports to benchmark how they are doing in relation to other airports so they can gain a better understanding of what it takes to develop an engaged, motivated and committed high performance workforce. It’s a major step forward and one which we look forward to developing with the European airport sector and Corporate Spirit over the next few years. DR RICHARD PLENTY AND TERRI MORRISSEY Directors This Is… Ltd

CHANGE IN THE AIR

As the speed of change increases and challenges at work become more diverse, the influence of external factors on employee engagement becomes more significant. In the midst of political and economic turbulence, organisations face tougher requirements than ever. Predicting the future has become almost impossible.

Several research projects carried out by Corporate Spirit clearly indicate that when it comes to the airport industry, this development is as real as anywhere else. One of the biggest challenges, from both employer’s and employees’ points of view, is to maintain cost-efficiency while smartly investing in the future. Furthermore, working in an airport environment has several distinguishing characteristics that need to be recognised when making the most of critical issues such as employee engagement and performance.

Corporate Spirit has recently conducted a research investigation that has analysed airport personnel’s views and opinions about their work and organisation culture. At the same time, the critical issues for the organisation and work were examined. The survey was conducted in co-operation with the sector’s European trade body for airports ACI Europe and This Is… Ltd, a company specialising in organisation and leadership development in the airport sector.

A BETTER VIEW

Along with many other types of business, the airport sector is facing the challenge of finding the right balance between investing in capital infrastructure, streamlining operations and developing a high-performing culture that is able to adapt to changing needs and requirements.

OF THE AIRPORT

HIGH PERFORMANCE CULTURE

Six international airports from Europe and Asia participated in the research. ACI Europe’s AirPeople™ concept, developed by Corporate Spirit together with industry specialists This Is…, was utilised in gathering the data.

THE RESULTS REVEAL THE SPEED OF CHANGE

The research indicated that airport work is considered challenging and interesting. Respondents felt that their employers put significant efforts to the wellbeing of employees. At the same time, the regulated nature of the environment seems to be associated with a degree of process formality that can make change difficult to communicate and implement.

The results of the research confirm that a high performance culture is a goal worth striving for. After all, by enhancing employee engagement, developing leadership and creating opportunities for performance

excellence, organisations – together with committed employees – have better opportunities to build new kinds of competitive advantages.

THE INFLUENCE OF THE GLOBAL BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT AND CULTURAL DIFFERENCES

“The global airport sector is a good example of a workplace with cultural versatility. To draw the right conclusions and determine the right development methods, the research has, at all times, to both reflect the local culture and provide insights into the industry as a whole,” says Juha Ala-Lipasti, Corporate Spirit’s Head of International Operations. ”In addition to benchmarking survey results against the local culture, our clients can utilise our business line expertise in the form of international airport benchmark data.”

The detailed results of the research were presented at Airport Leadership and Change Management Summit, organised by ACI Europe in Munich 1.–3.12.2014

OF THE AIRPORT

Picture: Finavia

Valkjärventie 7 A, 02130 Espoo, Finland, ☎ +358 9 452 0730 Läntinen Pitkäkatu 33, 20100 Turku, Finland, ☎ +358 2 274 3100Birger Jarlsgatan 2, 5 tr, 114 34 Stockholm, Sweden, ☎ + 46 8 505 65 171Dronning Eufemias Gate 16, 0191 Oslo, Norway, ☎ +47 2 389 888020 Broadwick Street, Soho, W1F 8HT, London, UK, ☎ +44 870 366 93 35Av. Golf de Manquehue 9750, Lo Barnechea, Santiago, Chile, ☎ +56 9 5628 8292

EMPLOYEE SURVEYS

360 ° ASSESSMENTS

INTERNAL CO-OPERATION SURVEYS

SOLUTIONS FOR UTILISING THE SURVEYS

AND ASSESSMENTS

www.corporatespirit.eu

Editor-in-chief: Jukka Pohjola | Editor: Piia Aalto | Layout: Mainostoimisto Dynastia | Circulation: 7 200

Corporate Spirit

Ltd

Without proper talent management approach, companies have a hard time trying to be successful. Luckily, evidence shows that companies that invest in developing talent, leadership excellence and a high degree of employee engagement are most likely to perform best and understand the change that drives future success. An effective talent management system secures business continuity and at its best, offers the company a valuable strategic tool. Clear strategic choices, as well as knowing the business and the people, are key elements in building tomorrow’s business. A strategic development plan is necessary to tackle competence deficiencies that might, if not realised, prevent the company from reaching its vision. 360-degree evaluations are a well-known and widely used way to support the talent management process to improve leadership excellence. 360 Expert evaluations instead, are still an untapped opportunity. While being a useful tool to support the selection of high potentials it also helps organisations to find right focus in high potential programme design. In addition to developing talents, the evaluations might motivate and retain the high potentials and invite them to give their best to the company.

ANNUKKA VÄISÄNEN has worked for more than 10 yearsin HRD, developing leadership and organisations, and iscurrently a Senior Consultant at Corporate Spirit Ltd.

Corporate Spirit wishes all its clients, collaborators and readers of this newsletter a merry Christmas and a successful New Year! This year, we have donated a total of 8.000 euros to our favourite charities – WWF and Save the Children foundation.

UTILISE YOUR TALENT

SEASON’S GREETINGS!

»

28.1.2015 600 Min HR – Helsinki, Finland

12.5.2015 600 Min HR – Oslo, Norway

MEET US AT

www.corporatespirit.eu/page/tools_for_successThe entire “Talent Management as a Strategic Tool for Future Success” article can be read at