Maira Kettunen

The planning and management of the reorganisation will require the recruitment of new talent

Text: Maira Kettunen
Image: Roni Rekomaa

I startedworking at the Port of Helsinki in mid-May, and Kaija caught my attention right off the bat. The ‘oscars’ of magazine media are awarded at the annual Edit Gala in Helsinki, and this ceremony turned out to be during my first week. Kaija was nominated for Customer Media of the Year, and it just so happened that I ended up with a trophy in my hand. It’s quite rare to find yourself giving an acceptance speech when you’ve done nothing to earn the award in question. But what a great start!

Browsing through Kaija helps you to understand the port’s myriad connections. Those of us in the industry understand it, but a year ago, even I didn’t realise how significant ports are to our everyday lives in Finland – and I doubt I’m the only one.  People seem to have an interest in port operations, and that’s a good starting point for raising awareness. We receive a steady stream of requests to give presentations about the Port of Helsinki – to everyone from school groups to foreign ministers.

Our future employees are one important target group among whom we want to increase interest in the port. The City and Port of Helsinki’s joint development projects will really start getting up to speed this year, and the planning and management of the reorganisation of vessel traffic will also require the recruitment of new talent.

When it comes to recruitment, our most credible selling points are our current employees and how much they enjoy their work. We received gratifying recognition of this in November: the Port of Helsinki was awarded a Future Workplaces certificate for the second year in a row. A Siqni survey was used to measure our personnel experience for the 2024 Future Workplaces certificate. This survey determines what aspects of the workplace are most important for employees and how successful we have been in these areas.

According to the survey, the Port’s employees gave particularly high scores to cooperation with colleagues; their meaningful – and in some cases even exciting – tasks; and the professionalism of their colleagues. Those in supervisory roles were also pleased to hear that employees at the Port of Helsinki feel that their supervisors are competent and fair.

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