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“Creativity is inspired by the possibility to influence the content of one’s work,” says Carolina Mansikkala, HR Manager at Scandic hotels.
In the hotel and restaurant industry, creativity requires no miracles as it can be expressed in a myriad of ways in small things. It is all about showing consideration to people — for example, by making a ketchup smiley on a child customer’s meal. You can hide a friendly greeting in the customer’s napkin or wish them a good day on the receipt.
If a large meeting is on the agenda, the team can work together to find ways of surprising the customers. In this case, ideas are bounced around with the supervisor.
Of course, not all ideas can be good, but that is part of the process. When there is trust in the team, people dare to come up with ideas freely and consider the possibilities for implementation.
Creativity has room to grow when people can influence the content of their work. The possibilities to influence also make work more meaningful, because it is important for people to see that they can influence their work.
Trust is another important element in nurturing creativity –when employees feel that they are trusted, the opportunity to be creative opens up for them. Trust means, for example, that permission is not needed for everything and everyone’s ideas are taken into account.
Our team members get to use their creativity also by participating in the Energy Team activities. These teams plan and implement various small and large events during working hours, on a voluntary basis, to enhance wellbeing at work, show consideration to customers and implement social responsibility.
For example, Energy Teams can organise a yoga class or a delicious lunch for staff members, a surprise for a customer group or a senior dance session for pensioners – just to name a few examples. They can also arrange a joint movie night for the team or introduce new summer workers to the rest of the staff.
Encouraging creativity helps with recruitment in the hotel and restaurant industry, which suffers from a shortage of labour. We have many new employees who are not familiar with the industry or have not even found it attractive before, but have still wanted to stay and work for us.
One of the goals of leadership at Scandic is to build a meaningful and trusting work community. Our means to do that include building trust, an inspiring and supportive community spirit and allocating responsibilities.
These things are always emphasised and results are measured – our aim is to be the best possible employer.
Schools are shared workplaces with employees from several employers. People at Havukoski School are constantly thinking about how to develop safety and ensure that messages are transferred effectively even in dangerous situations.
Improving occupational safety at a shared workplace requires cooperation, clear operating models and continuous monitoring.
Improving safety requires continuous risk assessment and effective communication. Monitoring by occupational safety and health authorities has revealed significant shortcomings in occupational safety and health at shared workplaces.
At the Meyer Turku shipyard, approximately 80 per cent of the production of cruise ships is subcontracted. Matti Tuimala, Safety Manager at the shipyard, explains how safety is ensured at the huge shared workplace.
