The Liideri Business, Productivity and Joy at Work Programme in a Nutshell

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The Liideri – Business, Productivity and

Joy at Work Programme in a Nutshell

Tuomo Alasoini

Tekes – Finnish Funding Agency for Innovation

tuomo.alasoini[at]tekes.fi

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Developing working life high on the political

agenda in Finland

 In 2011, Prime Minister Katainen’s government decided to draw up a

National Working Life Development Strategy for Finland.

 The drafting of this strategy, which was prepared in cooperation with other ministries and the labour market partners, was led by the Ministry of

Employment and the Economy.

 The strategy was completed in spring 2012 and is now implemented under the title Working Life 2020. The vision of the strategy is that Finland will have the best working life in Europe in 2020.

 As part of the implementation of the strategy, Tekes launched a new

programme, entitled Liideri – Business, Productivity and Joy at Work.

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Examples of Finnish (national-level) programmes

to develop working life

 National Productivity Programme (1993–2003)

 National Workplace Development Programme TYKE (1996–99), Workplace Development Programme TYKE (1999–2003) and Workplace Development Programme TYKES (2004–10)

 Well-Being at Work Programme (2000–03)

 National Programme for Ageing Workers (1998–2002)  Veto Programme (2003–07)

 KESTO programme (2004–07)  Noste Programme (2003–09)

 European Social Fund programmes (1995–)

 Liideri – Business, Productivity and Joy at Work programme (2012 –18)  In addition: programmes in the municipality and central government sector,

industry-wise programmes by labour market organisations, programme-like activities funded by Finnish Work Environment Fund, etc.

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Towards broad-based innovation policy since

2008

 The Finnish Government assigned in 2007 the Ministry of Trade and Industry to appoint a high-level group with the task of drawing up a proposal for a new national innovation strategy.

 The group, chaired by former Prime Minister Aho, submitted a proposal for a new kind of “broad-based innovation policy”.

 The central idea of the proposal involved further expanding the target of innovation policy to give more significance to non-technological innovations and increasing the positive joint impacts of technological and non-technological innovations.

 The proposal also placed greater emphasis on the role of customers, users, ordinary employees and communities of different kinds in innovation.

 The Government approved the central recommendations of the strategy proposal in October 2008.

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Innovation?

Product innovations Process and workplace innovations Service innovations Innovative business concepts

Knowledge or competence used in a manner

that brings new benefits for economy or society

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Funding for work organization development in Tekes

General principles

 Funding promotes workplace innovations in Finnish workplaces  Workplace innovations refer to changes jointly implemented by management and staff in work, organization and management practices of the company.  They must result in measurable improvements in productivity (performance) and quality of working life.  Funding can be applied for by enterprises of different sizes, public administration organizations and other organizations of different sectors.  Funding is directly primarily to SMEs seeking growth and other companies and organizations reforming their business or service activities or work organization thus acting as an example to others.  Funding can be granted as de minimis funding (work organization development constitutes at least 50% of the project), or R&D funding (less than 50% of the project).

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Funding of work organization development and research

on working life in Tekes, 2010–13 (€ million)

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Work organization development WO development integrated with R&D

Working life research 2010 (12,351 m€) 2011 (14,488 m€)

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The Tekes Liideri programme (2012–18) in a

nutshell

http://www.tekes.fi/programmes/Liideri

 Liideri was prepared between October 2011 and June 2012, in cooperation with researchers, developers, workplaces, labour market organizations and policy-makers.

 Liideri is a Finnish twist of an English word “Leader”, referring here to a forerunner.

 Liideri is a programme for the development of business, in which companies renew their operations through developing management and forms of working and actively utilising skills and competencies of their personnel.

 The purpose of Liideri is to be a “next-generation” workplace development programme that represents an approach in keeping with a broad-based innovation policy

• at the project level, an interconnecting link between traditional objectives and targets in the development of working life, such as work productivity, QWL and well-being at

work, and a link between them and corresponding objectives and targets in traditional innovation policy, such as renewals of products, services and business models.

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Three focus areas in the Liideri programme

 Management 2.0 refers to management principles, processes and

practices, which help an organization to promote initiative, creativity

and innovation potential of personnel, with a view to achieving

competitive edge based on them.

 Employee-driven innovation refers to active and systematic

participation of employees in ideation, innovating and renewing of

products and services and ways of producing them, with a view to

creating new solutions that add value to customers

 New ways of working refer to work, which transcend the

boundaries of time-honoured temporal, spatial and organizational

patterns and forms of work OR which in some other recognised way

embody principles of management 2.0.

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Role of different workplaces in the programme

 The primary target group consists of SMEs, which pursue growth from innovation-derived competitive edge of their business activities. They

employ, on the average, from 20 to 500 employees, and utilize and develop preconditions for active and systematic participation of their personnel in ideation, innovating, renewal of business activities and subsequent creation of value to customers.

 Other companies and public-sector organizations can also receive funding to projects, which show high innovative value and which can act as

important sources of ideation and inspiration for other organizations. The projects should aim at extensive renewal of their modes of operation, build on extensive networking with other organizations and permit other

organisations to utilize the results.

 The programme covers all industries and sectors of the economy, with the exception of the social welfare and health care sector (Tekes has another major programme currently ongoing in this sector).

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Coverage of the Liideri programme among

companies

 The aim is to get at least 200 companies of the programme’s primary

target group to participate in the programme’s development or

research projects.

 The aim is to have at least 300 companies or other organizations to

launch a programme-funded projects, of which at least 70% should

bring about clear and measurable improvements.

 The aim is that at least 500 companies of the programme’s primary

target group and at least 1000 companies or organizations altogether

make use of services of the programme or gets concrete benefits

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Main instruments of the Liideri programme to

achieve its goals

 Work organization development projects (companies and other

organisations can apply funding on a continuous basis): 68 projects funded so far.

 Three research calls (funding is applied by universities, research institutes and universities of applied sciences): 8 projects funded so far.

 Web sites, social media, challenge campaign, case descriptions, articles, reports, seminars, workshops, building of a network of experts in Tekes and in regional development centres (e.g. Tekes’ own regional offices, ELY centres)

 Programme management group, programme advisory group, programme team, theme-based action groups, international benchmarking board, participation in the European Workplace Innovation Network EUWIN.

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Hydroline:

From eastern Finland

to a global success

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The death of industrial production in Finland has been predicted for a long time, but Hydroline, located in the eastern Finnish region of Savo, refuses to hear any of it. When business operations and internal procedures are trimmed to be efficient and flexible, an industrial company can operate in Northern Europe as much as anywhere else. Hydroline has already

modernised its production lines. Now the company looks to make full use of these renewals. Hydroline's Liideri project aims to create procedures that enable the company to truly make use of technology and people's expertise without compromising

anyone's well-being.

Do you want to know more?

Jukka Laakkonen, CEO, [email protected], +358 40 709 6117

HYDROLINE

• Designs and manufactures heavy-duty hydraulic cylinders • Turnover: € 30 million (2012)

• Personnel: 200

• CEO: Jukka Laakkonen • Tekes project: 2013-2016

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Vincit: A leap of faith

will bring success

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Traditional and decades-old ways of organising staff no longer work in modern professional settings where a fast, dynamic approach and the ability to cope with the ever-changing world is required. Vincit believes that the traditional model where the management prepares matters among themselves and then brings them to the staff as a ready-made package no longer works. Instead, In Vincit, the management brings out any ideas in progress and encourages the staff to take the ideas further. When everyone is in charge of their own work and can genuinely influence the commonly used tools, the result is a happy workforce – which translates into happy clients. The Vincit Liideri project has three elements: career models based on the wishes of the staff, a fair pay model created in

cooperation with the staff and a well-being pilot bringing solutions to the hustle and bustle of professional work.

Do you want to know more?

Johanna Pystynen, HR Director,

[email protected], +358 50 441 2126

VINCIT OY

• Software development (network services and information systems,

mobile applications, embedded systems, conseptualisation and UI design)

• Turnover: € 5,9 million (2013)

• Personnel 75

• CEO: Mikko Kuitunen