Helsingin Energia - Annual Report 2008

Human resources

Success through skills and courage

In order to implement the revised personnel strategy, an action plan was drawn up for 2008 and carried out in co-operation with the business operations. The objective of the personnel strategy and the action plan included in it is to ensure availability and retention of skilled employees, and to secure Helsingin Energia's position as a desired employer. To emphasise this position, new recruitment channels were introduced, and excursions by schoolchildren and the number of summer jobbers and trainees were increased during the year under review. The focus of personnel development is still on future expertise, in line with the personnel strategy.

In early 2008, Helen Group's values were reviewed. The project was launched with a survey aimed at the entire personnel, on the basis of which the working group were able to revise the company values. The new values are: responsibility for sustainable development, skills and courage to succeed, and openness and mutual trust. The rolling out of the values to the personnel started in 2008 and will continue in the forthcoming year.

Along with the revision of the Act on Co-operation within Undertakings, the co-operation committee was superseded by a personnel committee, with members consisting of employee and employer representatives. The personnel committee will start its actual operations from the beginning of 2009.

Development applies to all

During the operating year, personnel development was systematic and extensive. All employees were offered a wide range of training, from managerial to hot work card training. Overall, the employees spent a total of 6,000 days in training in 2008, over half of which was in-house training (a total of 3,800 days).

To continue previous leadership training, we launched a training programme entitled Tähtäimessä 2015 (Setting Sight on 2015), in which almost 130 managers and experts from the Helen Group will participate over the next two years. The programme motto is 'A unified Helen puts strategies into practice'.

Especially managerial work and its assessment were focused on by implementing a 360 assessment of managers and partly of the experts. Helsingin Energia also launched manager coaching, which will contribute to the unification of management practices in line with the adopted Investors in People (IIP) development model. The model outlines the targets for human resources management and personnel development. As in the previous years, the development of managerial work was maintained by Exemplary Manager events.

Members of the MBA group, selected from Helsingin Energia and its subsidiaries, completed their studies and obtained their degree from the University of Lancaster in the United Kingdom. Customer service skills and knowledge were developed with an intra-Group training programme leading to a qualification, Expert Customer Service, which was launched in 2008. Well over a hundred Helen employees from throughout the Group are taking part in the training programme.

Strong investment in workplace orientation for all new employees supports their commitment to Helen Group's goals and operations. Studia Energalia lectures open to all employees were organised, with themes on promoting well-being at work. In accordance with the targets set in performance reviews, our employees have undergone diverse self-development and work improvement.

Towards zero accidents

Occupational health and safety in the Helen Group is based on continuous development of operations. The goal is to prevent all occupational accidents and diseases in accordance with the zero accidents model. The entire personnel strives to reduce the number of accidents and occupational diseases to the zero level by joint efforts, by developing working methods, tools and protective equipment and, above all, with the right attitude.

In the year under review, the lost time incident rate per million working hours (LT1) was used as the development meter for Group-level occupational safety. In 2008, the rate was 19, while the figure for 2007 was higher at 24. The corresponding figure for commuting accidents in 2008 was 3.6 (5.8 in 2007). Occupational and commuting accident means an accident resulting in at least one day of incapacity for work. The accident frequency figures have clearly fallen as a result of active prevention work. We are heading in the right direction towards our target of zero level.

The positive trend in occupational safety has been supported by many actions during the year. Activities with occupational safety and health partners were launched, occupational safety issues were emphasised in the meetings of management groups, a notification campaign on hazardous and near-miss cases was organised throughout the company, and safety-related information was distributed at HelenService. Systematic assessment, monitoring and reporting of work safety, as well as constant observation and occupational safety rounds developed and established themselves during the year as an integral part of the safety practices in the Helen Group. Risk assessment of tasks, occupational safety card training, and annual outage and project-specific safety training was continued, as in the previous years.

Well-being at work means active co-operation

Everyone working in the Group is responsible for well-being at work. The managers have the main responsibility for maintaining work motivation and creating operating conditions in the organisation. At Helsingin Energia, the composition of the well-being at work team was revised and its activities were outlined once again to contribute to the support of management and well-being at work. Investment in well-being at work produced excellent results: the number of sickness days among the personnel continued to fall in 2008.

Well-being at work was also contributed to by the personnel club with more than 40 different activities. The pensioners' club celebrated its 40-year anniversary in December.