5 phrases workers use every day in Finland, the happiest country in the world
Framery has about 400 employees around the world, but its Finnish roots are ingrained in a work culture that promotes employee engagement and satisfaction.
After all, Finland is happiest country in the world in its seventh year of operation, according to the latest information World Happiness Report.
So it’s not surprising that open communication, teamwork, and perhaps most of all, employee well-being are top priorities at Framery, a headquartered manufacturing company. in Tampere, Finland, building soundproof booths for office spaces.
As head of people and culture at the company, Anni Hallila works to ensure that employees feel happy and fulfilled at work.
She says she and her team use some common ground Finnish sentences to create an environment where employees can thrive in the workplace:
1. The person who asks the question will not get lost.
Finnish workplaces tend to have flat hierarchies, where individual contributors feel empowered to express their thoughts about the business as do CEOs and other senior leaders. .
This phrase highlights this mindset and shows how a trusting environment, where people feel comfortable sharing their opinions, will benefit the organization as a whole.
“If there’s an open line of communication where people can ask questions, be it the CEO or anyone in the company, then there’s a path,” Hallila explains. front.”
Employees at Framery are encouraged to speak up about the issues they’re working on as well as the company’s overall goals.
“I can ask any questions I need to ask to be successful in my role or ask questions that are in the best interest of the company,” says Hallila. “So even if it’s not my job and I see something that needs to be addressed, I have a responsibility to ask questions so we don’t get off track as a company.”
2. Crazy people do many things; A smart person will get away with less.
In other words: Work smarter, not harder.
Leaders are encouraged to help their employees work with this mindset, Hallila says. Bosses should be clear in their expectations and management in a way that their employees can focus on the most important business priorities.
“You can work and work and work, but whether you actually achieve more is questionable,” she said.
In many cases, the end goal supports both meeting business needs and doing so in a manageable way.
“It’s not about being lazy,” Hallila said. “It’s about being smart about what you focus on and reducing what you need to do so you can have a healthy work-life balance.”
3. Place the cat on the table.
Hallila said the phrase is used in a similar way to addressing the elephant in the room – as in solving the business problem at hand instead of letting it pass.
“It’s a belief in a work culture where the cat is on the table and people can have an open and trusting discussion about any issue,” she says. ”.
More simply, “we believe things will be resolved when they are discussed,” she added.
4. Whatever you leave behind, you will find ahead.
On the other hand, this phrase suggests that leaving a problem alone will only become a problem later.
“If you leave your problems behind, you will see them right in front of you,” says Hallila. “So the only way to solve these problems is to actually address them when they are mentioned.”
5. Move your back to the tree first.
Hallila says: This phrase envisions what happens when you don’t plan ahead or think about the consequences of certain business decisions.
“If you don’t plan what you’re doing, you’re going to go back to the tree first and get hurt versus actually planning ahead and being smart in what you want to achieve,” she says. .
In the Finnish workplace, these conversations often involve people at all levels of the organization, she adds. A business’s strategic planning must ensure that “people feel they are heard, they have a say in our strategy or at least they understand what that strategy is”.
“We value smart planning [in a way] it’s also about respecting other people’s time,” she added.
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