Pinja offers its staff dozens of benefits aimed at achieving a good work-life balance, building a sense of community, responsibility, and meaning in their work, as well as developing their skills. Over the years, staff benefits have evolved and expanded in line with changes in working patterns and staff preferences.
Technical Marketing Manager Pirita Kapanen, who has worked at Pinja for more than eight years, is the front person of the marketing team, responsible for the programming and development of Pinja’s website, search engine optimization and the marketing of digital platforms. Pirita says that she takes advantage of many of the benefits offered by her employer, and that she finds the benefits offered by Pinja quite varied. They also take good account of people working in different locations, as well as teleworkers.
- Some of the benefits are easily available to everyone, regardless of location; for example, you can get a massage from your nearest partner masseur anywhere in Finland. Others are location-specific, such as floorball games in Jyväskylä or Padel sessions in Tampere, Pirita says.
While some of the benefits are similar to those offered by many other employers, Kapanen has found that many of Pinja’s benefits are exceptionally extensive.
- For example, the health and insurance benefits are truly comprehensive, and have a real monetary value. In addition, there are good opportunities to continuously develop your own skills, as everyone can spend ten working days a year on training, Pirita says.
One employee benefit that Pirita particularly likes is the small reward, which allows managers and employees to give tangible thanks for a job well done, a new idea, a great attitude or even helping a colleague.
- I have both received and given such gifts of gratitude myself. They are, for example, movie tickets, coffee, treat tickets, or candy surprises. A thank you like this feels really nice and significant to an employee, Pirita says.Antti Nevala, a Solution Architect based in Jyväskylä, leads the development work of the Gema team at Pinja, participates in client projects, and also performs DevOps-related tasks. Antti works mostly at Pinja’s Jyväskylä office, and keeps in touch with his team members living all over Finland, both via computer and occasionally face-to-face, most recently with a larger group at Pinja’s summer days.
One of the staff benefits that Antti values is the fact that Pinja supports events such as LAN parties and team days, which are created and run by the staff. Team days at Pinja are spent in the form of sauna nights, nature trail walks, cooking together or renting a cabin, among other things.
For Antti, good staff benefits are an important part of the whole, although the most important thing in the workplace is the people and the smoothness of everyday work.
- For me, the most important things at work are nice colleagues and the daily work. These things have been so good that I’ve enjoyed working at Pinja for over 11 years now. I also value the ability to influence the work I do at any given time, Antti says.
Antti takes advantage of many of the staff benefits offered by Pinja, including lunch vouchers, sports and culture vouchers, and volleyball sessions. Antti has also particularly enjoyed the benefit of developing his own skills for 10 working days a year. Antti has not only taken advantage of this opportunity by independently exploring the literature, watching training videos and participating in joint workshops, but also by travelling to conferences abroad on several occasions.
- Over the years, I have visited SymphonyCon in Portugal, Romania and the Netherlands. They give you the chance to hear expert speakers from different countries and network at the same time. Conference proposals have always been welcomed by the employer when there are sound reasons and a budget proposal for participation. We have sometimes attended events in Finland with a larger group of people, Antti says.Pinja’s staff benefits are a comprehensive package, for which we have also asked employees directly about their wishes and actively listened to their feedback. For example, in the spring of 2022, the company implemented a massage benefit and a commuting benefit, which were raised and requested by employees. Overall, Pinja is very open to staff requests for improvement.
- We offer our employees dozens of different employee benefits, aimed first and foremost at everyone’s well-being and a good work-life balance. We also support the building of community for those who want it. Other important themes are developing personal skills and making work responsible and meaningful, says Johannes Nikula, CHRO at Pinja.We place particular emphasis on accountability towards both clients and staff, and for us these are not two separate issues, but the same thing.
With more than 500 people, Pinja’s staff includes a wide range of personalities, juniors and seniors, many nationalities, and people who value different things. The employees live in dozens of different locations, some working locally, some working remotely, and some combining the two. It has therefore been important to take into account the diversity of the workforce.
- Another important theme in recent years has been the rapid internationalization of our staff. That’s why our communication has long been in Finnish and English in parallel. We also support teleworking and the hybrid model of working in many ways – something we were already familiar with before the Coronavirus, says Johannes.
Johannes Nikula also highlights the fact that the basis for working is in order, and that employees enjoy their work, which is the most important aspect of staff benefits. Even the best staff benefits are not good enough if the work itself is not going well.
- We place particular emphasis on accountability towards both clients and staff, and for us these are not two separate issues, but the same thing. Working at Pinja is also truly meaningful, as we build a more sustainable tomorrow in areas such as improving work efficiency, reducing waste, and supporting smooth medical care.
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LAN party – a social gathering and playing with friends