Sakari Kiiskinen started his career at Transval as a forklift driver. Jenni Ailio started as a trainee. Today, they lead Transval on the basis of a human resources management model that respects core values.
If you had to pick one main message from the positive communication style of Sakari Kiiskinen, Transval's new Director appointed in May, and deliver it to readers, the choice would be easy.
"The most important asset of a logistics company is motivated, competent and committed staff. Only this provides the basis for satisfied customer relationships and long-term success," says Sakari Kiiskinen.
Kiiskinen, 46, is well-liked and respected, who has risen the traditional way, step by step, to become a leader. "I started here in 1999 as a summer job as a forklift driver. Transval is practically my only employer. For 20 years, I've done just about every job you can think of in the logistics industry. In the last few years, I have been Vice President," says Kiiskinen. Kiiskinen understands that in the logistics sector, employees are motivated by the compensation they receive for their work. "The second most important factor is flexibility, which must also be found on the employer's side."
Confidence, commitment and new ways of thinking are being weighed in challenging times
One of Kiiskinen's strengths is communicating to Transval's nearly 5 000 employees in a very down-to-earth way that gets to the heart of the poodle. "When we can quickly arrange extra hours for a warehouse collector to buy a new washing machine to replace a broken one, he can skip a night at the gym with a friend and go to work as a team player when a customer urgently needs more merchandise for sale." Transval has plenty of work for employees to do as solution partners for satisfied customers.
"Through us, the employee has one employer and plenty of work, even if the location may change from time to time. We train people with a wide range of skills in the field of in-house logistics. Our company has a huge wealth of logistics knowledge and experience, and we are happy to share our insights to help our customers improve their operations."
Putting customer employees to work - avoiding redundancies
Jenni Ailio, currently Transval's HR Director, who joined Transval as an intern in 2007, also emphasises the company's ability to adapt to change, "As a reliable logistics partner, we work with our customers to find solutions and are flexible enough to adapt to their rapidly changing situations." One solution is to employ the customer's staff at Transval. Over the years, thousands of customer employees have become Transval employees.
"When a customer decides to outsource logistics work to us, we very often also employ the customer's staff. This way, people are not unemployed, but can work and develop at Transval as professionals in their field and continue to work as Transval employees, either at the premises of their former employer or at the premises of other Transval customers. We welcome people with open arms, yes."
Transval's flexible attitude is also well illustrated by a new way of thinking outside the box. "Our customers can outsource their logistics as much as they want. Even when a company hires part of its extra staff from a staffing company, we can provide them with crucial, experienced logistics professionals to ensure operational reliability. Of course, you can outsource your entire production logistics or warehouse to us," says Ailio.
Kiiskinen and Ailio both say that the most important thing for Transval is that the customer has the right number of professionals at the right location every day and does not pay unnecessarily.
DID YOU KNOW THIS ABOUT TRANSVAL?
- Serves around 500 customers in Finland and the Baltic countries at customer-owned premises; for example, warehouses, terminals, industry and stores.
- The company has been operating for 25 years, with around 5 000 employees.
- The service covers supply chain solutions from transportation to warehousing, as well as in-house logistics solutions and staffing services by logistics professionals.
- Operating throughout the country, headquartered in Helsinki.
- Converting customers' fixed costs of in-house logistics into variable costs.
- Finland's market leader in outsourcing logistics.
- Does what it promises.
The article was published in Talouselämä on 22.5.2020.
Want to discuss flexible staffing solutions? Contact us and we will explore possible solutions for your business together
