Our aim is to ensure that as many employees as possible contribute to the development of our shared work through their competence and views. In developing our operations, we have for years made use, for example, of strategy groups, whose members represent different functions of the organisation, with varying roles and backgrounds and work experience ranging from a few months to decades. Each and every Veritas employee thus has an opportunity to influence and contribute with their competence and personality.

Every quarter, we conduct a Pulse survey that we use to stay up-to-date on our employee well-being, but also to hear their thoughts and opinions on topical questions. This allows each and every employee to make an impact and to participate in decision-making. This year, in the Pulse surveys we have inquired employees’ opinions, inter alia, on company bicycles and hybrid work, as well as their preferences concerning vocational training.

At Veritas, we have also actively applied various virtual involvement and communality tools. In the spring of 2021, we introduced a simulation tool with the aid of which we have striven to highlight the strengths of our teams, to reinforce our mutual understanding and trust as well as improve co-operation. Alongside these distance simulations, we have also had the pleasure of enjoying the environmentally-themed pop quizzes arranged by our Green Office project team, VeriGreen, that have not only provided us with new information, but also served as virtual pick-me-ups building the team spirit amidst our hectic everyday work.

We have also found our regular 15-minute team sessions organised with different team set-ups to be very useful, as these have involved the reinforcement of our internal co-operation and our common view of the working situation. These 15-minute sessions have additionally sometimes involved, for instance, the resolution of problematic cases together.

Cross-organisational co-operation is developed, for instance, in the Veritas Future training programme, the second round of which was completed in the fall of 2021. The training programme is open to all Veritas employees regardless of their role, and it aims to build networks, provide an increasingly profound understanding of the way Veritas and the pension system operate, as well as to afford opportunities to influence the implementation of Veritas’ strategy.

The (future) competences management model aligned with our strategy has been drafted together with managers. The future competences identified in 2020 and the functioning of the practical determinations of same were tested in a round of performance appraisals. Managers shared their experiences and pondered together on the types of tools they needed and were hoping to obtain for the purposes of competence management. The management model was refined further based on these wishes.

Goal 8: We co-operate and involve our employees

90%

In an employee survey conducted in 2021, a total of 90 per cent of Veritas employees agreed fully or almost fully with the questions concerning their ability to influence their own work and matters related to their work community, and their willingness to work for the shared goals.*

*We will continue to adhere to co-operation and involvement in the future (target ≥ 90%) and, in particular, endeavour to develop co-operation across organisational borders.

Everyone is entitled to good leadership

Every employee is entitled to good leadership. Leadership and managerial work have a great impact on motivation and work ability and, thereby, on the well-being of all employees, also outside the workplace. At Veritas, all managers are close to the everyday lives of Veritas employees. This lays a sound foundation for an atmosphere of trust.

The exceptional year of 2020 was followed by an equally exceptional 2021. This has required managers to pay particular attention to the way they lead and to developing flexible solutions in co-operation with the team members. This ensures work ability and functioning everyday work.

We consider it important that managers are able to focus on good leadership and are also sufficiently supported in this most essential task of theirs. In 2021, we launched peer support groups, in which managers are able to support one another in topical matters and practices. The induction of new managers always includes coaching in leadership skills, and all our managers participate in managerial training on a regular basis. During 2021, coaching work was conducted especially with occupational health. In addition to the more traditional coaching and training, we support managers in their work through regular meetings so as to facilitate open discussion on topical leadership themes while also seeking solutions to everyday issues. Moreover, we continually consider new ways to develop management work.

Goal 9: Everyone is entitled to good leadership

8.6

In the employee surveys conducted in 2021, managerial work received high average scores (average 8.5 on the scale 1–10), which is the result of several years of development work.**

**In the future, our goal is to keep up the high scores (average ≥ 8.5) and, most of all, to reduce the standard deviation of the scores (current SD 1.2; target ≤ 1).