Susanna Rantanen

🗺 How to tackle vacation policies in a multi-cultural company? We celebrate the myriad of cultural and religious diversity within our team at Moder.app. We cherish the value that diversity brings to our team dynamics and creativity. While Finnish law provides certain holidays, we recognize the importance of accommodating the diverse needs of our employees. Recently, I came across an inspiring example from If Insurance, who addressed a similar challenge through comprehensive research and collaboration with trade unions. While we may not yet have the same level of influence, we are committed to finding meaningful solutions within our capacity. Putting our money where our mouth is, we announced a new approach to vacation policies. In addition to our standard six weeks of vacation, we encourage all employees to utilize their vacation days to observe and celebrate important cultural and religious holidays. We will prioritize these requests to ensure that every team member feels empowered to honor their traditions and beliefs without hesitation. I believe this is just the beginning of our journey toward greater inclusivity. I'd love to hear from you about how your organization promotes inclusivity in its vacation policies? #Inclusion #Diversity #EmployeeWellness

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🔹Psychological safety and reflection 🔹 Just came out of another great workshop lead by Maria Stigell-Warnström around psychological safety and this time with focus on reflection in practice. Practicing in depth reflection from an article and a meta reflection together with the group. My three reflections from today: 1️⃣ Reflection is key for growth and learning 2️⃣ The power and joy in Co-Creation 3️⃣ Increased level of self management creates higher motivation What do you think can be possible with reflection❓ #reflection #psycologicalsafety #leadership

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🎉 Introducing T.I.E.: Talent Integration Ecosystem - A New Way Forward! ✨ At Team Growth, we're excited to share our latest innovation: the T.I.E. (Talent Integration Ecosystem) framework, designed to transform how we think about workplace integration in Finland. Core Elements of T.I.E.: 🤝 Beyond Adaptation: Finnish work culture (direct communication, work-life balance) meets international talent (global mindset, diverse perspectives) 🌱 Creating Together: Not choosing between cultures, but building something new 🚀 Sustainable Integration: Where Finnish efficiency and global innovation create tomorrow's workplace What T.I.E. Reveals: 💫 Modern Leadership Direct Finnish communication + diverse global perspectives = transparent, inclusive leadership style. 🎯 Dynamic Teams Finnish low hierarchy + international collaboration = agile, innovative team structures. 🌍 Future-Ready Culture Finnish work-life balance + global digital mindset = flexible, high-performing workplace. T.I.E. shows us that integration isn't about compromise - it's about creation. When Finnish and international practices merge, we pioneer new ways of working. Through T.I.E., Team Growth is actively working to create spaces where sustainable integration happens naturally. This framework helps organizations move beyond traditional integration approaches to build truly innovative workplace cultures. #TalentIntegration #WorkplaceCulture #TeamGrowth #FinlandInnovation #Teamcoach #Dialogue #TeamCurlture

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Passion and enjoying the moment are not the same thing. Enjoyment is only temporary; passion is an everyday attitude to life. Insight shared from Find Your Passion by Headway app https://lnkd.in/dVtZV9Sh

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🚀Employer branding date kick-off! Emil Stighäll, Employer Branding Manager at Grant Thornton Sweden 💜and I met over some ramen 🍜 (premiere for me, loved it!) yesterday, and wow, not only is his happy energy contagious, but he also generously shared so much of his experiences, knowledge and tips. Super greateful, especially for insights into how you work with recruitment marketing! Thanks Emil! 💭What has stayed on my mind since yesterday is.. 💭 ⚡️ the importance of getting clarity on budget and mandate - and making sure those are aligned with the expectations the organization will have on you ⚡️it helps to decide what your focus is - awareness? attraction? employee engagement? etc. You cannot do it all alone ⚡️it (also) makes sense to report into marketing - it doesn't have to be HR ⚡️it doesn't have to start with strategy, it could also (should??) start with activation, but it will require having mandate and budget ⚡️on-stage / off-stage when talking about corporate brand vs. employer brand Also, we discussed two thought-provoking questions: 🧐Are we focusing too much on too many ways of how to measure success in employer branding? (instead of taking action and measuring just a few KPIs) (is it because organizations still don't understand what EB is, so coming up with a bunch of KPIs creates that sense of security?) 🧐Are we putting too much emphasis on the importance of Employer Value Propositions? Are EVPs obsolete? (in the context of fast changes in society and in companies, global companies with local sites and multiple employee groups, and increased demands of authenticity) 🎧If you're a Swedish speaker, Emil also has a podcast! Attrahera Rekrytera Podden 🥳 Now, continuing my journey with 🧡Fiskars Group from a sunny Stockholm. #fiskarsgroup #employerbranding #digitalmarketing

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AI era and HR Just had an inspiring AI workshop for HR with Petri Lattu who is truly an AI genius. We explored how Siili can lead the way as Finland's first AI-driven People & Talent function. The excitement and energy in the room were palpable! The agentic age is upon us, and we are ready to explore it. Imagine an HR function that is not just reactive but proactive, data-driven, and continuously adaptive — personalized AI agents supporting employees from recruitment to career growth and well-being. Next step: building a roadmap to bring this vision to life. We're aiming for a seamless employee journey, the best human experience, and an HR function that is always on, always improving. The future is here, and we're ready to take those first steps. #siiliHR #AI

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We are 250+ Peple now at #IgnitisRenewables and still keep actively joining All Employees Town Hall as when we were 50 🤩 This time sharing about the business and strategy updates, engineering competence center, community benefits and organisational culture shifts. And yet, People like People the most - Everyone was cheering when Emilija Musteikytė carried us away with the stories happened in the communities next to our project sites 💚 ⁉️ Is town hall format an old school? Oh, I don't this so 😉 #internalcommunication #peoplefirst #energysmart #sharingiscaring #organisationalculture #organisationaldevelopment

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Check out our latest Sauna blog post! 😎 💡

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🚀 Building a Resilient Company: Plan.Net Nordics's Journey with Talogy 🚀 In our latest #TeamDevelopment series, we explore Plan.Net Nordics’ journey. This #startup knew the communication industry could be stressful, but the steering group was determined to create a sustainable, healthy work environment. That’s where Talogy came in. 🎙️ Johanna Borgström, what was the company like before connecting with Talogy? As a start-up, we were juggling everything—building the business and managing clients, which led to high stress. We knew we wanted to create a more stable foundation for growth but didn’t know where to start. That’s when we talked to Talogy. 🎯 How did the journey with Talogy begin? In our initial meetings, we were in a period that made us a bit overwhelmed, but Talogy truly listened, understood our vision, and made an agile plan that would help put us on the right track. 🛠️ What services did Talogy provide? Our focus was was creating a sustainable workplace. Talogy designed a year-long team development program for us, starting with a #Resilience questionnaire, followed by workshops and #coaching. The content was tailored to our evolving needs—a must for a fast-paced start-up. ⏳ One year – isn’t that too long for a company needing immediate change? Implementing change takes time, and spreading it out helped us integrate new hires into the process. It wasn’t just about quick fixes; it was about lasting change. 💬 How did Talogy’s services help you? Talogy gave us a common language to address tough topics and tools to build resilience. This investment sent a strong message: We won’t normalize stress—we’re committed to a sustainable workplace. 🔧 Were there challenges along the way? The biggest challenge was keeping pace with the insights. Stress can make it easy to overlook these lessons, but the team’s participation kept us accountable. We remind each other of the lessons and strive for a sustainable work environment. 🌟 Results and Recommendations? The experience deepened our trust and set the foundation for growth. I’d highly recommend Talogy to any company, especially those in early stages. Their tailored approach was exactly what we needed. 👤 Johanna Borgström is Content Lead at Plan.Net Nordics. She joined the company as part of the steering group just 4 months after it launched. #TeamDevelopment #Resilience #Leadership #StartupGrowth #SustainableBusiness #talogy The team at Plan.Net Nordics: Johanna Borgström, Frida Ohlander Danielsson, Hanna Pripp, Niklas Lamberg, Camilla Oksa, Sanne Lopez, Zarko Lindkvist, Adam Leindahl, Jessica Risberg, Amanda Fog, Mia Berg, Christoffer Wikloew, Cecilia Westman, Carin Höglund, Marcus Larsson

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Testing in recruitment, still such a hot topic! Last week, a well-known Swedish psychiatrist took to national TV to absolutely roast the use of tests in hiring. My reaction? Grab the popcorn, LinkedIn fam! This is about to get interesting. The debate has been on fire since then. I’ve seen posts from people cheering it on and others passionately defending their stance. And you know what? I’m here for it. I wish every HR topic got this much attention - so many opinions, so many real-life examples being shared. Why? Because challenging what we think we know, no matter how experienced we are, is how we grow. It helps us sharpen our arguments and figure out if testing (in this case) really makes sense for our organizations. So, what’s next? Any other HR topics we should get a non-HR-super-expert-in-something-else to weigh in on? Let’s keep the debates rolling!

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Preparing for the evening shift. Soon, 5 and a half hours online coaching session will start worldwide. I love my job🙏 Coaches coach😊 #esiintymistaidonakatemia #performanceskillsacademy #coaching

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𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗚𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗣𝗮𝘆 𝗚𝗮𝗽 𝗶𝗻 𝗧𝗲𝗰𝗵 𝗶𝗻 𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗱 – 𝗦𝘁𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗮 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 According to TEK’s latest survey, women in tech in Finland earn significantly less than men. In October 2023, the median monthly salary for women was €𝟱,𝟬𝟳𝟲, while men earned €𝟱,𝟲𝟲𝟱 (noting that statistics take a while to gather, and I know it's already October 2024). While part of this gap can be explained by differences in roles, with more women working in 𝗲𝗱𝘂𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 and 𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗽𝗮𝗹 sectors where salaries are generally lower, there remains an 𝘂𝗻𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗲𝗱 𝟱.𝟱% 𝗽𝗮𝘆 𝗴𝗮𝗽 even after controlling for experience, role, and industry. More women tend to work in expert roles, whereas men are more likely to be in 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁, further contributing to the gap. But the unexplained portion shows that societal and structural issues still persist. 𝗠𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀: I think that men tend to ask for higher salaries and bargain more due to the traditional expectation for men to be the main providers in the family. Additionally, men are often more likely to apply for higher positions, even if their skill set doesn’t fully match the role—I've heard the ratio can be around 50%. They are generally more confident in promoting themselves, while women may experience self-doubt or imposter syndrome, leading them to apply only when their skills closely match 90-100% of the role requirements. Addressing these ingrained expectations and 𝗳𝗼𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗳𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗶𝗻 𝘄𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗻 is crucial for closing the pay gap and promoting equity in salary negotiations. What do you think? How can we address these issues and close the gap? Read the full article here - https://lnkd.in/dmjt5KNc

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7 traits of people who do well at Nansen | Part 2/3 Alex Svanevik, our CEO, recently shared an internal blog post of what a good fit looks like at Nansen. "Today I’d like to highlight what I think are 7 traits (+1 bonus) that are characteristic of people who do really well here. This is an exercise in #transparency, to make it very clear what I value in our people. Let’s go through each trait one by one. 3. You’re passionate about our mission. Our mission is to surface the signal and create winners in the future of finance. We really want the future of finance to become reality, and we believe we play an important role in making that happen. The vast majority of us are #crypto-natives and (very) excited about our space. Some of us are more curious and still learning. But this mission resonates with us, and we feel it’s worthwhile spending our time on. Lacking this trait is one reason some folks have voluntarily left the company. They thought they’d develop an interest in crypto, but our mission ultimately did not resonate with them. 4. You’re a clear and structured communicator Communication is about leverage. If you can communicate clearly, you have high positive leverage. If you do not communicate clearly, you can create negative leverage - causing confusion. To me, this dimension is not just about language: it’s also about other pieces of work like your coding, your Notion pages, your spreadsheets, etc. It may sound trivial to you, but clarity and structure are incredibly important in artifacts that others around you will use. Interestingly, I’ve seen people overcome their own shortcomings by using #AI to improve their communication. And I think this is a great idea. Instead of going full stream-of-consciousness with typos and poor grammar - let AI polish your message first. You shouldn’t be ashamed to let AI level up your communication. 5. You value #transparency and #speed over hierarchy and constant alignment. Imagine two companies: One which is hierarchical and punishes people for taking actions without aligning with everyone all the time. Another which allows people to run ahead and communicate transparently across the org, creating some noise and misalignment as a result. One isn’t better than the other. But they are clearly very different. Nansen is company number 2, and we’re not ashamed about this. We’ll take more actions and make more decisions. We’ll likely also make a few more errors than company number 1, but that’s OK. This doesn’t mean that we don’t make use of hierarchies and reporting lines, or that we don’t spend time aligning on certain things. Of course we do. But our natural instinct is to optimize for speed and transparency." For traits 1 and 2, read https://lnkd.in/gUZH6gCs For traits 6, 7 & bonus, read https://lnkd.in/gbyHKTmj Photo credit: DALL-E

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7 traits of people who do well at Nansen | Part 3/3 Alex Svanevik, our CEO, recently shared an internal blog post of what a good fit looks like at Nansen. "Today I’d like to highlight what I think are 7 traits (+1 bonus) that are characteristic of people who do really well here. This is an exercise in #transparency, to make it very clear what I value in our people. Let’s go through each trait one by one. 6. You stick to our strategy There are a lot of good ideas out there. That doesn’t mean Nansen should do them all. People who really succeed at Nansen - perhaps especially managers - have awareness of what our #mission is, where we play, how we believe we’ll win, and what our #capabilities actually are. Challenging our #strategy is welcome - on the right occasions (for example when we review our strategy, during quarterly planning, etc). But it’s also important to disagree and commit, and actually just go ahead and execute, on a day-to-day basis. 7. You love feedback This is another point I learned from my first workplace. Constructive #feedback is a gift. I will admit that I’ve been puzzled that on a few occasions I’ve given people constructive feedback in private, and they’ve become extremely defensive and even hurt by it! I can think of at least one example where a person actually left the company after I gave them some harsh - but necessary - feedback. Candidly, it was best for us, and them, that they left. “Feedback is a gift” is the cliché, but it is really true. It’s very easy for me to recognize when someone is genuinely grateful and eager to receive feedback - even when it’s harsh. Again, these are people who are set up for success at Nansen - and in life. Bonus: You’re #resilient. When Fridtjof Nansen’s crew set out to make it to the North Pole, there was no going back. Same thing when Christopher Columbus and his 85 crew members traveled across the Atlantic for the first time. The analogy of a startup-as-an-expedition is not bad, but it breaks down in this aspect. In a startup, you can get off the ship. On an expedition across the Atlantic, you can’t. In a sense, this means that resilience becomes even more important in a startup! You always have the option to give up. We’ve gone through a lot at Nansen in a short period of time. I believe this has helped us become more resilient as individuals. And I have a lot of respect for people who are tough enough to go through adversity and overcome one challenge after the other. It’s not always easy, and we need to encourage each other to carry on. We can only reassure each other that we will eventually make it to land." For traits #1 and #2, read https://lnkd.in/gUZH6gCs For traits #3, #4 and #5, read https://lnkd.in/gYHBkjwt Photo credit: DALL-E

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The weekend got me thinking about healthy and sustainable habits to separate work life from personal life. The ever-connected nature of modern work means we are one button press away from email and other work-related communications. If this does not sound like your dream way to spend the weekend, my recommendation is to try implementing a “Shut Down Ritual”. This concept, taken from Cal Newport's influential book "Deep Work," involves a series of steps to close out your workday. It’s not just about finishing tasks, but also preparing your mind to leave work behind. This ensures that you're not carrying the mental burden of tomorrow's to-do list into your personal time. How does a "Shut Down Ritual" look, step by step: 1. Review and Plan: Spend the last 10-15 minutes of your workday reviewing completed tasks and planning for the next day. This allows you to mentally close the open loops of today's work. 2. Organise Your Workspace: A tidy workspace, closed tabs and shut down devices signals the end of work. I challenge you to try this one, friends who never close tabs nor shut down the laptop! If you work from home, you may want to find a safe place out of sight for your laptop. 3. Verbal or Mental Cue: Finish with a verbal or mental cue like saying "Shutdown complete" or any phrase that signifies the end of your workday. This might feel a bit silly, but it's a powerful psychological tool to signal your brain that work is over. 4. Engage in a Transition Activity like a short walk, a hobby, a glass of wine. Consistency is key. By making your “Shut Down Ritual” a part of your daily routine, you'll find that your ability to disconnect improves, leading to a more relaxed evening and a fresher start to the following day. I emphasize the "your" part because I feel it's important to experiment and personalize this ritual. Make it enjoyable, stay consistent and the results will be visible. 💭 💭 If you already have such a ritual, how does it look for you?

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I had the pleasure to participate in Finnish universities’ coaching network (Yliopistojen Coaching-verkosto) meeting in May and give a speech about my experiences of using team coaching. This virtual event was very well organized and used coaching elements – it was a safe environment for shared learning and development. I was, once again, positively surprised what a powerful tool peer discussion can be. In the short amount of time, when we had a warmup discussion in a group of three people, we were able to redefine perceptions of ourselves as coaches, find strengths and focus on them. That is so empowering and energizing. Planning my speech and answering questions afterwards also helped me to find new perspectives and become more aware of the ways how I use coaching. The following week, when I was coaching a team, I noticed I was able to observe myself even better and make conscious choices on how to take the coaching session forward based on the cornerstones of my way of coaching. And what’s with the unicorn picture? That is the animal picture I chose to describe me as a coach 😊. #coaching

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These slides are form the key note speaker Rihards Garančs, MD of Executive Education of Stockholm School of Economics in Riga. This approach appealed to me – I am for sure not thinking AI could take over my role as VP HR and Communications. However, 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐨𝐥𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐛𝐫𝐨𝐤𝐞𝐧 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐚𝐬𝐤𝐬, 𝐈 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐠𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐚𝐬𝐤𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐜𝐡 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐝𝐨- matters that cannot be delegated to AI other otherwise. So it works kind of like a 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐭, indeed. I have started to do this in practice already: for me, it worked with “𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐝𝐨 𝐢𝐭” 𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐝 – I started to use ChatGPT. It helped to have the support - to be able to ask the stupid questions mostly from ChatGPT itself or my son (felt like a dinosaur🦖 honestly 🙈) and sometimes our IT Director. It was useful to have the AI piloting team at my workplace Viking Malt to share experiences. I listened to podcasts and read articles about the topic and after about half a year of using ChatGPT I also participated in a training: and noticed that I was already familiar with the basics. – what a great feeling! 💪😊 The motivation to continue is there, because of the 𝐞𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐲 𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐮𝐬𝐞, it is my 𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐠𝐨𝐨𝐠𝐥𝐞 that I consult with all kinds of issues: finding information, translations, expressions in different languages, spell checks. I use it to make power point presentations and summaries of big documents. I am curious to learn more and hope in the future to use AI for more complicated things like analyzing useful big data for HR, using excel and statistics and maybe even have a bot that could be consulted for company personnel policies. Sometimes I wonder how to achieve this step to next level, though.

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For those who haven't had a chance to participate yet, there is still time to join our research on strategy deployment. The questionnaire will remain open until JUNE 7. Your input is highly valuable, and we appreciate your time and insights. Of course you can forward the link to your colleagues as well. Thank you in advance! ❓ How effective is Strategy Deployment in your organization? Are company goals and breakthrough initiatives seamlessly developed and deployed at all levels, ensuring alignment with the mission and vision? Or is there a disconnect between management and the workfloor? "Getting things done" is a challenge in all companies, particularly in achieving medium- and long-term ambitions. Toyota utilizes Hoshin Kanri ('compass management') for this purpose, but other approaches exist as well and are also in our scope. This research is a collaborative effort between Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU Amsterdam) and Jannes Slomp from the HAN Lean-QRM Centre and aims to study critical success factors for developing and executing effective strategy deployment . Toine Voeten, my graduate student, is exploring this topic for his master thesis. I invite you to contribute to Toine's research by completing a brief survey (link in the first comment). Participation is open to professionals from any sector, organization size, and country, aiming for a comprehensive study. ✍ Your input, taking just 10 minutes, will provide you with individual feedback and a compilation of best practices. Rest assured, all information is confidential. Your time and contribution are greatly appreciated! Feel free to share your experiences and thoughts also as a comment to this post! #ResearchStudy #StrategyExecution #CompassManagement #SurveyParticipation #Lean #TPS #HoshinKanri (Source of Image: Lean Enterprise Institute)

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