At Veritas, equal treatment and equal opportunities are a standard in our daily operations: we welcome everyone to boldly be who they truly are. This is particularly reflected in gender and age equality, but also in our strong bilingualism. In a personnel survey conducted in 2021, 86 per cent of the personnel stated they felt they were being treated equally and equitably. The corresponding figure for 2019 was 80 per cent.
One of the most crucial factors underlying the experience of equality and equal opportunities are our efforts towards open communication and concrete co-operation and engagement throughout the organisation. Based on this same survey, we have, together with personnel representatives, devised an equality and equal opportunities plan for the years to come.
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We strive to ensure that the remuneration we offer is fair through basing the pay of all our employees on the demands of the relevant task as well as on the competence of the employee and their performance. We apply the Hay Job Evaluation System in classifying the demand level of tasks. Our low-hierarchy organisation ensures that there is no unnecessary hierarchy. Going forward, we intend to particularly focus on all employees possessing sufficient information on remuneration-related matters and for managers to be genuinely able to review remuneration-related matters with the employees, along with the reasoning for same.
The foundation for the employee experience is laid already at recruitment
We lay the foundations for a positive employee experience already when recruiting a new employee. We treat all applicants respectfully and fairly, and keep them constantly informed about the progress of the recruitment process. We communicate openly about the various phases of recruitment and the factors underlying our decisions. All applicants are personally informed about the recruitment process, and no one is left in uncertainty. We strive for interviews to be as relaxed and human-centric as possible. We believe that a positive applicant experience creates a solid foundation for the new employee’s commitment to Veritas.
In order to constantly improve our applicant experience, we conduct an applicant experience survey at the end of each recruitment, sent to be filled in by every applicant who has applied for the position. This allows us to obtain valuable feedback on our recruitment process and employer image.
Comprehensive onboarding as the basis of competence
At Veritas, an individual induction plan is devised and a personal onboarding trainer appointed for each new employee. In addition to the on-boarding training concerning the employee’s own job, the plan also includes an introduction to Veritas’ other functions, as well as the sector of earnings-related pension insurance as a whole. A personal onboarding plan is also devised for those who move on to new tasks or return to work from a longer period of absence from work. The scope of the plan depends on the employee’s work experience and duration of absence.
The onboarding plan draws on the courses offered within our online training environment. It is particularly important for us that both new and more experienced Veritas employees are always up to date about the regulations governing the field. During the onboarding phase, new employees have at least one follow-up discussion with their managers and, following the onboarding phase, a concluding discussion.
Because of the broad and diversified job descriptions, we can offer comprehensive and holistic customer service, which is an essential aspect for us. Continual development is an integral part of our way of operating. At Veritas, every employee has the opportunity to influence one’s own work, learn new and develop themselves so as to achieve the common goals. In addition to their expertise and competence, all employees are expected to uphold their service approach and technical skills.
Every year, each employee meets with their manager for a motivation and competence discussion to consider future competence demands and the employee’s preferences for individual development. The discussion serves as a basis for devising a personal development plan to ensure the adequate competence and development of the employee. A range of development methods are available, including a substitute system, job expansion and enrichment, job rotation and cross-training, as well as modern virtual training platforms.
The ever-changing operational environment, technological advancements and modern ways of working all call for new types of competence. We ensure the development of future-proof capabilities.
The building blocks of occupational well-being
Veritas prioritises employee well-being very high. In 2021, we focused particularly on genuine caring, listening to our employees, ensuring our actions are aligned with our values, along with the continuous theme of communications culture and flexible working life.
In the spring of 2021, Veritas conducted a more extensive personnel survey, the results of which we reviewed in more detail in each department in separately arranged debriefing workshops. The workshops involved open discussions about development areas both at the department and company level, and each department devised a plan of their future development action points. Furthermore, each department was given the opportunity to send their regards to the management and to relay their own wishes and thoughts for improving Veritas’ operations. The Executive Group has reviewed these messages regularly and contemplated measures to develop matters as well as openly commented also on the wishes that for one reason or another cannot currently be implemented.
In regards to the debriefing workshops, we have in the fall of 2021 launched an initiative to reward the Valuable of the Month in connection with our communications event Veritas Café. The intention is to bring forth everyday actions, successes, acts of courage, survival stories and, of course, even blunders that have resulted in valuable lessons and to each month thank one Veritas employee for upholding our values in their actions. Thus far, this has been a well-liked concept and employees have actively nominated their valuable colleagues, along with wonderful grounds for same.
Our employees have also expressed their wishes for more open communications and improved sharing of information across department boundaries, as well as increased transparency in the operations of the different departments. Indeed, in the spring of 2021, we launched a department presentation challenge in our intranet. Each department will produce a free-form video presentation and then challenge the next department to join. Once all the presentations are ready, our employees get to vote on the title of the best department presentation. In 2021, we additionally exerted efforts towards achieving more up-to-date project communications concerning internal projects.
We also seek to actively facilitate the work and life balance through flexible working hours and remote working possibilities, and being family-oriented is a daily reality for us; even paternity leaves are paid leaves. It is a significant part of the work of every manager to support the work ability of their team members and to jointly identify flexible solutions, for instance, to challenges entailed by different life stages.
A new hybrid work normal
The coronavirus pandemic compelled us to work more or less remotely, and that has taught us innovative practices that facilitate everyday life. We should hold on to these good practices, but we must also consider the challenges entailed by the long pandemic era, such as the effect of the lack of communality on decreased work ability, the difficulties in sharing competences and the deceleration of innovation. For this reason, also the new normal for Veritas employees is hybrid, we work together both virtually and face-to-face.
The new working model has been designed together with the aid of surveys and workshops, as well as availing ourselves of the expertise of occupational healthcare. The jointly created model contains guidelines, some of which pertain to all employees, but there are many matters that can be agreed on within each sector, department or team. This allows us to ensure that different units are able to identify the working methods that suit them the best. The model requires everyone to get actively involved, to adapt and to assume responsibility.
Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS) is a method for measuring employees’ commitment and willingness to recommend their employer. The eNPS survey asks how likely an employee is to recommend Veritas as an employer. The eNPS score is calculated by deducting the percentage share of critics (ratings 0–6) from the share of promoters (ratings 9–10). The lowest possible eNPS score is thus -100 and the highest is 100. An eNPS score of higher than 0 can be considered a good outcome. If the eNPS score is over 20, the outcome is excellent.