Working locally all over Finland
Minna Visakorpi started as KVL’s human resources director a few months ago, and she has already noticed what serves as the glue between employees and the company.
“The significance of work is emphasised here – it is evident in absolutely everything. By its nature, the work manifests the result and one’s own action in a concrete way. Matters have a beginning and an end,” Visakorpi describes.
Also, work is not done alone but always as a team.
“We have a very diverse and multitalented group that is one of our strengths. No one is left alone, instead help is always close by. People feel responsible for their work, because everyone understands that what you do or don’t do affects the work your friend does,” Visakorpi states.
“People are trained and they have opportunities for advancement when they so wish.”
Local networks play an important role
KVL-Tekniikka operates on the national scale. This provides for efficient use of the company’s full competence potential, and it also balances the seasonal nature of the work. When snow covers the ground in northern Finland, work in southern Finland continues almost all year round.
“At our company, all employees can largely affect how mobile their own work is. We aim to take account of people’s situation in life as well as possible,” Visakorpi says.
The national scale does not mean that projects are led from a distance.
“For us it is important to know the local people, organisations and circumstances in every location where we operate. Having local supervisors of work helps with this,” Visakorpi mentions.
A local presence also promotes KVL-Tekniikka’s own evolution.
“Finland is a long country, and various regions may have their own ways of operation. We develop our operations in an agile way, generating ideas together. Through internal interaction we share habits that have been found tried and true. This way we learn new things and constantly develop our mutual ways of operation.”
Strength comes from a diverse group of experts
KVL-Tekniikka employs many kinds of specialists: supervisors, project managers, welders, earth-moving workers, drivers of lorries and excavators, district heating insulators and helpers.
Skilled employees are recruited from foreign countries when necessary. KVL-Tekniikka employs many international specialists of different sectors.
“From the employer’s perspective, all our employees are equal and their background is completely irrelevant for us. Competence and motivation are key,” Visakorpi emphasises.
In practice, this diversity means that KVL-Tekniikka is able to implement even large projects from beginning to end absolutely anywhere in Finland. There are experts for every stage of work.
“Since we work according to the turnkey principle, responsibility stays with us the whole time. This means that we do not drop the ‘baton’ between the seats at any point. We are personally responsible for transferring each stage of work to the next team,” Visakorpi says.
Good management and organisation of work are key
It is typical that both supervisors and workers move between multiple job sites in the same week – wherever their competence is needed precisely at that moment. Supervisors or project managers must master the big picture and, at the same time, be able to cut the tasks for the right experts at the right time.
“When you have multiple projects underway at the same time, management and organisation of work becomes a key aspect. Distributing the competence and resources to different projects in a timely manner requires extremely efficient cooperation from the teams,” Visakorpi emphasises.
KVL-Tekniikka has managed to retain a practical grip on the grassroots operation despite the company’s growth. The organisation has almost 200 employees but only seven of them work in administration. Most of the employees are on “field duty” – including management from time to time.
“Even our CEO Jukka visits job sites and is involved in everyday work. Management is not a faceless mass, instead executives are important when we build the culture of joint action,” Visakorpi explains.
Would you like to work at KVL-Tekniikka? You can submit an open application to us.
