Opportunities for versatile everyday life

Hansel strives for the work and leisure time of its employees to be as seamlessly integrated as possible, so that both support each other. Several of Hansel’s employees utilised the flexible working methods in 2018. Many of them opted for family leave or part-time work, which made them feel that they had a good opportunity to reconcile their work with the rest of their lives.

A total of five employees took family leave in 2018. The flexibility also enables the development of competence, and one employee took a study leave over the course of the year.

Sanna Viljamaa, who has been a Hansel employee for several years, came back to meet new challenges after her maternity leave.

“I expressed a wish to do system and development tasks after my maternity leave, and in the summer of 2018, I was offered a position involving the commissioning and coordination of the Handi service. In addition to my new job description, I wanted to do part-time work at the beginning. I calculated how many hours I could work, and the duties were planned based on that. In the autumn of 2018, I familiarised myself with my new duties at home and only physically came to the office for meetings. The return to work after my maternity leave went better than I expected,” Sanna Viljamaa says.

“I have been working full-time since the beginning of 2019. The position is new and I have plenty to learn, but the familiar working environment and colleagues have supported the transfer back to full-time work. Hansel’s flexible remote work practices are a great help to someone with children, as taking a remote work day saves you several hours. It has a huge impact on your mental wellbeing and coping at work.”

Room for your wishes

New parents were not the only ones who benefited from the opportunity to work flexibly. Anne Majalampi took a three-month unpaid leave from her procurement expert position, because she was needed elsewhere.

“One of my granddaughters went to school last autumn, and the other started third grade. As a grandmother, it was important to me to be able to help the family with their busy everyday life and spend more time with my grandchildren,” Anne Majalampi says.

“The employer was very positive and encouraging about my wishes. I have been at Hansel for almost forty years, and the years have been full of interesting duties and a great work community. My previous longer break from work was in 1981, at which time I was on maternity leave. The opportunity to take care of my grandchildren for three months was very important to me and gave me a great deal of satisfaction.”

Tero Lehtisaari, category manager, utilised a similar flexible working arrangement: he went to Washington D.C. for three months in the summer of 2018.

“My wife, who is a communications researcher, received a three-month scholarship to the Woodrow Wilson Center, and we went there as a family. We already had a similar experience in 2015, at which time I took a couple of months of child-care leave, while my wife worked as a researcher at the University of Oxford. These were great experiences; it’s true that travel is enlightening.”

“The employer’s attitude towards my absences has been accommodating and encouraging. I knew of the need for a longer leave already a year in advance, which meant that we could plan the work accordingly and schedule the times when I needed to be here. The reconciliation of work and the rest of my life has been very successful at Hansel,” Tero Lehtisaari says.