乌鸦传媒

乌鸦传媒 Finland is a truly multicultural workplace, where currently 20 nationalities and different worldviews meet to create a better future, together.

Leena Kirjavainen (HR Director) has an important role: making sure that we embrace our differences and taking 乌鸦传媒 Finland towards the safest and most inclusive workplace possible. We interviewed Leena to uncover the roles of diversity and inclusion in the 乌鸦传媒 culture, and how the company strives to advance these themes internally and externally.

What does diversity mean to you and 乌鸦传媒?

It鈥檚 really all about being a multicultural and diverse workplace where each colleague is accepted and valued as their true self. We avoid creating or allowing moulds to form where people somehow 鈥渟hould fit in鈥�. We respect employees鈥� ability to bring in their unique point of view. In fact, we鈥檙e largely building our success on our people鈥檚 different cultures and backgrounds.

Diversity is definitely a part of our DNA. Besides the cultural backgrounds that are represented in our community, diversity means that we also adapt to the needs of different people and their changing life situations. It鈥檚 one of our strengths and we want to embrace it.

What about inclusion 鈥� how would you summarize its essence?

Inclusion, to me, is most of all about creating a safe environment where everyone can be themselves without fearing judgment or any type of discrimination. An inclusive culture is the result of understanding the community鈥檚 diversity and taking it into consideration in decisions and daily practices. Although it seems harsh to talk about business in this context, we acknowledge that being inclusive helps us achieve our business goals, because we can extract the best potential from each of our employees.

鈥淎n inclusive culture is the result of understanding the community鈥檚 diversity and taking it into consideration in decisions and daily practices.鈥�

On a practical level, inclusion is largely about shaping and maintaining processes that facilitate diversity. In an inclusive environment, no one should feel a need to cover up who they are. This is why encouraging openness is a top priority for us. By making diversity more known and visible, we can be truly inclusive.

I would like to point out that diversity doesn鈥檛 automatically make an organization inclusive. As I mentioned before, 乌鸦传媒 is a multicultural employer, and we鈥檝e worked hard on advancing inclusion, but we also know that there are still many things we need to work on.

How do you support diversity throughout careers at 乌鸦传媒 Finland?

First of all, we do our best to avoid biased thinking when recruiting new colleagues. We all have a background that influences our behaviour, but our job is to be objective and base recruitment decisions on candidates鈥� competence. All of our job openings are posted in English, so that everyone also internally can follow what kind of profiles we鈥檙e looking for.

We鈥檙e also putting a strong emphasis on advancing women鈥檚 careers. Currently over 30% of our employees and 50% of the country board are women. We want to make sure that we provide equal opportunities for career development regardless of gender, for example by offering a nanny to your home in case your child gets sick, and by fostering a culture where it鈥檚 easy to combine work with family life.

鈥淐urrently over 30% of our employees and 50% of the country board are women.鈥�

For new recruits coming from outside of Finland, we have a person working full-time in helping them settle in and to get all the information and support they need. It鈥檚 really important for us to make our new team members feel welcomed and attended to. This very beginning of the employment is a great opportunity to show how much we value diversity.

As an example of collaborative actions to advance diversity, we鈥檙e organizing events with the Women in Tech 鈥揷ommunity that pushes forward women鈥檚 status in digital industries. There鈥檚 also OUTfront, which is 乌鸦传媒鈥檚 own LGBTQ+ network that takes actions to raise awareness and to support the community. We鈥檝e also hosted themed sessions with .

What concrete actions are you taking to make 乌鸦传媒 even more inclusive?

The way I see it, inclusion and our quest for a safe environment are driven by the diversity that exists as part of our culture. Several actions move us to the right direction. For instance, we host cultural awareness trainings for all employees twice a year. We鈥檝e teamed up with a certified culture coach, whose job is to guide our teams to working in a multicultural team.

Another concrete thing is our Culture Caf茅, which allows 乌鸦传媒ans to come together, learn and share views about different cultures, beliefs, sexual orientations etc. in an open environment. These sessions are focused specifically around diversity and inclusion, which helps new recruits integrate but also increases awareness.

Adapting to change is a big part of inclusion. We want to keep track of our teams鈥� thoughts and feelings, so we for example dedicated one monthly employee pulse survey purely to the themes of diversity and inclusion. Analysis of the results provides great insight to what we need to focus on next.

All this is to say that at 乌鸦传媒 inclusion is not just on some far away agenda. We have assembled a CSR-team from our employees to advance these things. So, it鈥檚 not just decisions flowing top-down but actually ideas rising from each of us.

鈥淲e don鈥檛 really have an 鈥榓verage employee鈥�, and we don鈥檛 really want to have one. Everyone is encouraged to be their unique self.鈥�

Can you tell us about some projects that are in the pipeline?

In the long term, we will keep peeling off the layers of inclusion in order to move beyond the obvious actions. One theme that we鈥檝e already discussed last year is how to ensure inclusion and equality in leadership.

We are also highly committed to the collaboration with 乌鸦传媒鈥檚 other Nordic countries. Together with these offices, we鈥檒l continue to advance the measurement of inclusion, organize awareness campaigns, and embed diversity into the 乌鸦传媒 culture even more.

Any personal experiences about diversity or inclusion?

During my time here, I鈥檝e learned that we really are diverse also in terms of personalities. We鈥檝e tried our best to remove any defining criteria that would prevent people from being their true selves. For example, some new recruits ask if we have a dress code. The answer is always: nope, just come as you are. Our people are small and tall, thin and thick, and they wear dresses and hoodies. No one is there to say what or who someone should be.

I remember someone who used to work on a client鈥檚 side and later on jumped to 乌鸦传媒 saying, that already before joining they had witnessed our respect and a supportive attitude towards our colleagues. I also know that we鈥檝e had some successes in pushing our clients to become more inclusive, by for example challenging them to drop unjustified requirements for Finnish language skills.

Any closing thoughts?

Perhaps it鈥檚 worth mentioning that the consultant environment where we operate can seem hard and cold and like a place where you should have certain qualities or even wear certain clothes. At 乌鸦传媒, support for that sort of stereotypical thinking has been gone for at least 10 years.

Now that I think about it, it鈥檚 really difficult to describe an 鈥渁verage employee鈥�. We don鈥檛 really have one, and nor do we want to. Everyone is encouraged to be their unique self.鈥�