Keva’s aim as a responsible employer is that each and every employee knows what is expected of them. Besides the goals in their own work, expectations arise from management and how we work together with colleagues.
Keva’s vision is to be innovative, service-minded and effective – Finland’s best earnings-related pension provider at the end of 2027. The cornerstones of leadership and expert work explain what is required of Keva employees to achieve the vision.
The cornerstones help us to put into words and develop the desired operating culture, which includes successful and effective teamwork. Besides this, the cornerstones open up Keva’s employer pledge in practice.
- We are now organising coaching and training based on the cornerstones. On top of this, the wording will also be visible in setting work targets and in assessing performance. The cornerstones are also part of onboarding and tell new Keva employees how we are managed and how we work together, lists HR Specialist Laura Sundqvist.
What is good leadership?
Keva began working on the cornerstones of good leadership because we wanted to make supervisory work visible and to clarify expectations both for supervisors themselves and for the entire organisation. In addition, the results of employee surveys provided indications of the variation in the quality of leadership and supervisory work. The cornerstones of leadership include the manager promise: what is at the core of leadership at Keva and what everyone can expect from their own manager. Cornerstones are used to find guidelines and to make visible what a manager’s work is.
- Of course, as in all work with people, there is and must be room for people’s differences and different ways of working also in leadership, says Mika Gylén, HR Director.
The cornerstones of leadership help managers to build their own role. The cornerstones can be used to help managers think what their own strengths are and the direction in which they need to develop as managers. The key questions in this approach are ”what is my goal in my own management work?, What is expected of me? and What can I be like?.”
What do we expect of ourselves and our colleagues?
The cornerstones of expert work tell you what you can expect of colleagues and what yourself you can be. The cornerstones help us to identify and develop our own skills in a common direction. The cornerstones increase everyone’s self-awareness and self-esteem, both as a person and as an employee.
- We believe that basically everyone wants to do good work and to succeed in their work. And because ways of working change, we need continuous learning. Learning goals can be small or big, but you can’t entirely avoid learning in working life, says Laura Sundqvist as she explains the background for her thoughts.
Mika Gylén raises one cornerstone: - Expert work includes curiosity and an openness to embrace new things, and engagement both in developing your own and common work. Everyone’s job also includes helping colleagues in their work.
Putting things into words makes them visible
The cornerstones increase openness and transparency since they put into words the kind of work community that Keva wants to be, what is expected of leaders, managers and Keva employees as well as the way of working that is encouraged in the workplace and what ways of working are valued.
- The cornerstones provide a mirror against which everyone’s approach to work and ways of working can be evaluated. This can lead to discussion on work and ways of working. Besides which, the cornerstones include themes of openness and transparency, Gylén points out.
Delightful insights from the process
Laura Sundqvist highlights the process in which the cornerstone of leadership were summarised in 2021 and the cornerstones of expert work in 2022. All Keva employees were involved in formulating the cornerstones.
In practice, participation took place digitally. The expectations of Keva employees for good leadership were collected in a pulse survey and the results of employee surveys were used for the cornerstones. The cornerstones of expert work were brainstormed with the help of Viima idea management software. In Viima, we came up with ideas about what good expert work is like in a revitalising work community and what kind of expectations colleagues have.
- Each Keva employee had a chance, if they wished, to be involved in formulating the cornerstones, which were not just cascaded down by management or HR, for example. A working group of Keva employees summarised both cornerstones on the basis of joint brainstorming. This really provided an insight and gave the working group a good basis on which to work on ideas.
- When working, it quite soon became clear that we were dealing with very concrete things, innovating everyday practices and ways of working: how does my everyday life revolve best with others? How do I expect to be managed? The ordinariness of things “just” need to be made clear to everyone, Laura Sundqvist sums up experiences of working on the cornerstones.
More information from
Mika Gylén, HR Director, tel. 040 8368122, mika.gylen (at) keva.fi
Laura Sundqvist, HR Specialist, tel. 040 9225415, laura.sundqvist (at) keva.fi
Read more about responsibility
Read more about responsibility at Keva in the online publication ”Keva’s responsibility KPIs 2022”. This responsibility report compiles Keva’s most important responsibility actions and indicators concerning customers, investment operations, the personnel and how we work