The key to our success? Our people.
People usually think that creating a company’s image or employer branding is something handled by the marketing department with big budget campaigns or an active presence in the media. When, in fact, whatever role we have in the company, we all have an impact on its culture and image.
Building the employer brand begins with in-depth strategic work. The company needs to define its mission, vision and values. And the more thorough the planning you do, the clearer the path and the means to get there are. At iLOQ, the present strategic work began about three years ago where we defined who we are, where we want to go, what we want to accomplish and how.
There are lots of interesting points in our strategy, but growth is a very clear objective. Growth comes from attracting and retaining the best possible employees. And this is the domain of the human resources department. I am proud and happy to say that we, at iLOQ, have succeeded in defining the core competences, finding the right kind of people, educating them, creating the company culture and team spirit and building an interesting employer image. We want the recruitment process to be a success story for both the company and for our employees. We have excellent applicants in every open position due to the clear definition of roles and preferred qualities, and our onboarding process begins immediately. When you find the right match, both the company and the employee get to improve and grow and, I would say, become happier in our lives in general.
As proof of our success, I would like to share with you my story. iLOQ Days, an essential part of our onboarding process, is a 3-day event held about once every four months to welcome our new employees. As the new HR Specialist and the owner of our onboarding process, I started to organize the most recent event together with our Executive Assistant – one of the most energetic and organized people I have met. This time, there were about twenty new ‘iLOQians’. As the organizer, host, participant and educator, I was a little concerned that everything would go well, and that people would feel welcome in Oulu (even though it was going to be -20˚C outside!). My worries were soon over. From the very beginning the iLOQ family feeling was there, and people from different countries and with different responsibilities bonded immediately and felt like we all had an important role.
The training was interesting, and every educator taught us something new and exciting. I would like to mention a few highlights. Our operations’ employees showed and explained to us about their daily work with the lock cylinders with such enthusiasm. Every educator spoke about our values: how we are changing the game in the locking industry thanks to our unique digital technology, how we challenge convention, and how we believe in people and base everything on sustainability, respect and results. And the presentation of our potential market share showed how are we going to conquer the world. But, perhaps the most memorable highlight, was the team building event in the evening where we prepared many different pastas and sauces ourselves. I can’t remember a time when I have laughed so much.
These wonderful memories, the team spirit and the feeling of belonging to the iLOQ family will carry us forward in our daily working lives and ensure that we have a long and successful career with iLOQ.
