More than 40,000 people complete Well-being at Work Card training

Henri Piitulainen, a supervisor and occupational safety manager at Meidän IT ja Talous Oy, attended the Well-being at Work Card training organised by the North Karelia Municipal Education and Training Consortium Riveria this autumn. Piitulainen is studying for a vocational qualification in business administration at Riveria, and the card training can be included into his degree.

Piitulainen says that he is particularly interested in how high-quality management can improve employee well-being. The Well-being at Work Card training day gave him more tools to work with in this area.

“The training provided a more professional approach to promoting well-being in the work community,” says Piitulainen.

“I have been able to implement the things we discussed in the training for my own team, in my supervisory work and in the role of an occupational safety manager,” he says.

As far as management goes, his workplace is planning to invest in well-being at work through training related to work ability management, among other measures.

Piitulainen recommends undergoing the Well-being at Work Card training. In his opinion, the Well-being at Work Card training will benefit occupational safety and health personnel, HR and supervisors, and it is applicable to training personnel in the workplace more broadly, as well.

New ideas for work community well-being and management

Jarkko Luokkala works as a product development engineer at Sandvik, in the field of mining and quarrying. At his workplace, the Well-being at Work Card training was arranged for a group of about ten people after the COVID-19 pandemic as the employees returned to the workplace from remote work.

“We conducted a survey in our work community to find out how well our employees enjoy working for us, and there was room for improvement. The Well-being at Work Card training gave us new ideas for our development work.  During the discussions, we heard examples of how different problems have been handled and solved in other companies,” says Luokkala.

In the spring following the training, an information campaign was organised for the entire work community, covering issues related to both occupational safety and well-being at work.

“Among the themes of the campaign were the stress and resource factors that came up in the Well-being at Work Card training, and their significance for well-being at work. We, as a work community, got new ideas for identifying and taking these important factors into account.”

Strengthening the culture of speaking out

Kirsi Autonen-Honkonen works as a head nurse in oral health care at the wellbeing services county of Central Finland. She underwent Well-being at Work Card training even before the health care and social service reform, when she was still employed by the City of Jyväskylä. Back then, Autonen-Honkonen worked, among other things, as a supervisor of equipment maintenance personnel. Together with the occupational safety representative, she organised tailored card training for the personnel.

“Before the training, the team members answered a survey, and we took the results into account in the content of the training. For example, challenges in interaction had not been raised at joint meetings but, with the survey and training, the topic was addressed,” Autonen-Honkonen explains.

Her team of 20 people benefitted from the training in many ways.

“In the training, we reviewed factors affecting the functioning of the work community, recalled the responsibilities of employees, familiarised ourselves with the characteristics of effective co-operation and outlined the importance of good behaviour at work. We also considered conflict and harassment situations and bringing them up in order to put an end to the effects of inappropriate behaviour as early as possible.”

In the team’s everyday life, the training could be seen, for example, in the strengthening of the culture of speaking out; the employees dared to point out and deal with issues that had previously been dealt with through several intermediaries.

“The Central Finland wellbeing services county training plan also recommends Well-being at Work Card training for supervisors and those working in positions of responsibility. In my opinion, Well-being at Work Card training is suitable for everyone who has the opportunity to participate in it. It provides a good basis for doing work regardless of your role,” says Autonen-Honkonen.

Did you know?

Well-being at Work Card training sessions, open to all, are organised across Finland, as well as online.

You can also order the training for your own workplace!