Social responsibility

A year of new beginnings

Berner had a busy year in terms of personnel news and new appointments. Our successful recruitment efforts brought a lot of new expertise into the organization. Over 50 new employment relationships were established during the year.

The Berner Pro business, in particular, welcomed several new employees. One of the new recruits is Jere Kujanpää. As an expert in Berner Pro’s laboratory equipment sales unit, his wide-ranging and diverse duties include sales work as well as preparing customer analyses and future investments for customers in the bio and food industry. He also maintains contact with principals.

“I didn’t know much about the job in the early stages of the recruitment process, but the fact that this was a job at Berner was enough to pique my interest. Berner is a wonderful family company with an impressive history, and it is able to offer just the kinds of opportunities I want for my future career. As a diversified company, it can provide extensive opportunities for training and development as well as excellent tools, such as the demo laboratory at our office, which makes my work and customer meetings a lot easier,” Jere says, summarizing his first impressions of Berner.

Jussi Petäjä was appointed as Category Manager in Berner’s consumer brand business in the first half of 2018. He is responsible for brands in the gardening product category, ranging from fertilizers to insect and rodent control solutions. Jussi felt the job was a good fit with his entrepreneurial character. His decision was also influenced by Berner’s values and background as a family company. Jussi appreciates Berner’s open-minded and future-oriented attitude, which he says is reflected in the development of new circular economy products and the continuous pursuit of innovative solutions, for example.

Both men are enthusiastic about their new roles and they believe the work community is a significant factor in job satisfaction:

“I came in with high expectations, but they have actually been exceeded in the first few months. What I like best are the positive atmosphere and work community. This is an organization full of professionals,” Jere says. Jussi shares his view of Berner’s positive and open atmosphere: “Our work community is characterized by an open and dialogue-oriented culture. We develop things together and everyone’s ideas are welcomed. I am frankly amazed by how active the discussions are in our internal training events, for example!”

We got on our bikes to improve our fitness and help people in Syria

In 2018, we again participated in the Kilometrikisa cycling challenge and made a related donation to the Chain Reaction charity campaign. As part of the Chain Reaction campaign, which operates under the light-hearted cycling competition, we promised to donate one euro to the Red Cross for every 25 kilometers of bicycle riding by our employees The funds were allocated to medical aid and health promotion for victims of the war in Syria.  Our total cycling distance in 2018 was 13,719 kilometers.

Berner’s fourth JET training program began

In 2018, we started our fourth Specialist Qualification in Management (JET) training program, which improves skills related to the management and development of personnel, customer relationships, networks and production. We implement the training program in cooperation with the training service provider Verutum and the training program is managed by Berner’s steering group. We have previously implemented JET training programs in 2007–2008, 2012–2013 and 2015–2017.

The key theme of Berner’s customized JET training in 2018 was customer relationship management. The training also covered other management themes, such as personnel management, network management, project management and process management. The training program consisted of classroom instruction days, in addition to which the JET students produced interim assignments and a more extensive development project. Their work was guided by internal mentors and the assignments and the progress of the development project were evaluated by appraisers designated for each participant. The 18-month training program will be completed in early 2020.

Inno training continued

We continued to work with the Helsinki Apprenticeship Office and the training service provider Verutum to organize innovation training geared towards a specialist qualification in service and product development. The focus of the training program was on the creation of new business opportunities, commercialization and process development. In 2018, about twenty enthusiastic Berner employees continued to work on their Inno projects using customer-driven product and service methods. The participants got together to celebrate the end of the training program in early 2019.

– “For me, the biggest takeaway from the Inno training program was the courage to voice my thoughts and ideas and the ability to refine them based on feedback from others. I also really enjoyed working with Berner employees representing various job roles, and I have continued to collaborate with these colleagues after the end of the training program. Having shared goals and working together on our studies created a very strong team spirit in the training group,” says Marketing Coordinator Heidi Selin, describing her experience of the innovation training program.

Berner joined the Work Does Not Discriminate campaign

We joined Work Does Not Discriminate, a campaign by the Confederation of Finnish Industries aimed at promoting open and non-discriminatory workplace culture. The purpose of the campaign was to invite Finns to think about their attitudes and make equality in working life self-evident. Along with Berner, the campaign was joined by a wide range of companies of different sizes, representing various industries. We wanted to play a part in highlighting equality as an important theme in working life and in Finnish work communities.

“Our core values of work, integrity and humanity have been part of Berner since the company was first established. To us, these values mean that all of our employees are valuable and equal as people, regardless of their position or background, and they must be given equal opportunities to perform well in their work,” says HR Manager Heli Rissanen.

Engaging employees in innovation

One of our most important development projects in 2018 was innovation, and we implemented several innovation-promoting operating methods during the year.

Launched in the first half of the year, Ideabox is a tool that allows all employees to submit ideas for further development. The power of our internal idea incubator lies in its transparency and openness: anyone can react to, comment on and develop other people’s ideas. This ensures that the ideas stay alive after they have been submitted. Every idea entered in Ideabox is also reviewed by an evaluation group on a quarterly basis. Ideabox enables us to make agile use of the potential within our highly competent employees in the development of new ideas.

We also gave out Idea of the Year and Innovation of the Year awards for the first time in 2018. Launched in late 2017, the competition is open to employees and aimed at identifying the best idea and best innovation of the year. Berner’s Executive Board evaluates the proposals and decides the winners. In each of the two categories, the winning team wins a prize of EUR 1,500 to spend together. The winning teams are also awarded trophies that are passed on from one year to the next.

– “The competition is a good way to highlight the competence of our employees and partners. Good ideas and innovations are created through close collaboration. A culture of innovation and entrepreneurial spirit are important themes for us,” says Head of Department Maria Svinhufvud, who is responsible for the implementation of the competition.

Berner again took part in the Innovate or Die competition

We also accelerated innovation through cooperation with students late in the year by participating in the Innovate or Die competition for students in higher education. Started by young entrepreneurs studying in Jyväskylä, the competition invites student teams representing various fields to take on assignments related to the business challenges of real-life companies. Originally built on the foundations laid by its predecessor, the Idis-kisa competition, Innovate or Die has been organized since 2013, and Berner took part for the second time in 2018.

The competition invites students to use entrepreneurial and innovative thinking and provides the participating businesses with an effective way of sourcing new solutions for their current challenges based on the insights from students from various fields of study.

– “We were again satisfied with what we got from the event. An event like this, organized in an environment that promotes creativity, brings students and businesses together for a couple of days in a very fun way,” says HR Generalist Anne Kesänen, who was responsible for Berner’s assignment in the competition.

The competition was held at Himos Arena in the form of an intensive two-day event. Berner’s assignment was related to employer branding. Before the actual event, the students were provided with information on Berner as a company along with background material for the assignment.