Hankkija supports the implementation of its strategy with Academy of Brain’s soft skills tutorials. With the current strategy period entering its final year, soft skills have been approached in a professional and structured way. Read more about how the collaboration has developed, what it has brought to Hankkija, and what the future holds.

Strategy implementation requires continuous learning

At Hankkija, continuous learning is recognized as a prerequisite for strategy implementation. Each business area strengthens the capabilities that are essential to the strategy and makes them visible in everyday work. To support this work, Hankkija has developed and introduced various practices and models that support strategy implementation. For example, together with the business areas, Hankkija developed the Learning Hankkija concept, which brings together different ways of learning at the individual, team and organizational levels, as well as guidelines for the forums where skills and learning topics can be addressed.

“Strategy implementation requires continuous learning. We ensure that we reach our strategic goals by strengthening capabilities.” – Päivi Niskanen, HR Director, Hankkija

Strategic priorities define the required capabilities, themes and content

Hankkija’s strategic priorities focus on renewal, strong internal collaboration, and continuous learning. To strengthen these ways of working that support the strategy, Hankkija identified what the strategic capabilities mean at different levels of the organization – across the organization as a whole and within individual business areas.

“We identified strong internal collaboration as one of our strategic capabilities. It requires good collaboration skills, but also the ability to acknowledge different perspectives and, despite them, find common ground.” – Päivi Niskanen, HR Director, Hankkija

The next step was to identify themes that support these strategic capabilities. Together with Learning Success Manager Iines Vuorjoki, a set of themes was identified that could be used to develop strategic capabilities at different levels of the organization. After defining the themes, suitable Academy of Brain learning content was mapped to them. The mapping also revealed a need for a few Academy of Brain content pieces focused on developing general workplace skills.

“You can’t learn everything. Training content always requires choices, and prioritization is particularly important in this work. We focused on the strategy and the actions and capabilities it requires.” – Piia Jansson, HRD Manager, Hankkija

Learning culture develops step by step

Hankkija operates at around 60 locations across Finland, with some employees working in multiple locations. Changing culture is slow and requires long-term effort. Significant steps have already been taken: learning is increasingly seen as a broader phenomenon, online learning has become an established and important learning method, and collaborative learning is being practiced. Work is underway to integrate it into existing structures, and the long journey towards established collaborative learning has already begun.

“At the individual level, online learning is still strongly seen as an individual responsibility. Alongside this, we are strengthening collaborative learning and introducing reflection as a learning method.” – Piia Jansson, HRD Manager, Hankkija

“We see collaborative learning as one way of implementing the strategy.” – Päivi Niskanen, HR Director, Hankkija

Modern, practical learning content

Being independent of time and place is a typical strength of online learning. At Hankkija, however, the compact length of Academy of Brain’s soft skill tutorials is seen as an important additional benefit. The microlearning content, each focused on a single topic, is perceived as practical, clearly presented, and well thought out. It is easy to find exactly the topic you want to develop.

“Academy of Brain’s content is very concrete, regardless of the topic.” – Piia Jansson, HRD Manager, Hankkija

Soft skill tutorials bring strategic goals closer

When the learning programs are directly connected to strategic capabilities, they help bring strategic goals closer to everyday work. At the same time, the strategy and the capabilities it requires become more concrete in everyday work. This supports better learning, the ability to renew, and strong collaboration across departmental boundaries.

Strong collaboration, coaching and the right amount of challenge

Piia and Päivi receive coaching, support, encouragement, tools and practical resources for developing learning at Hankkija. They regularly pause to focus on learning together with their Learning Success Manager and consider how the learning topics that matter to them can be advanced. At the same time, they gain insight into best practices and select the solutions that work best for them. They also value a broader understanding of how working life is changing and which topics are becoming important to different types of organizations.

“You (the Academy of Brain team) are experts in learning, and it’s valuable to be able to pick out the things that resonate with us and are important to us. We can then take those things forward.” – Piia & Päivi, Hankkija

“It’s wonderful that you have invested in the collaboration.” – Päivi Niskanen, HR Director, Hankkija

Insights gained along the way

Time allocated to learning is typically limited. Most working hours are spent on work-related tasks, and learning is often one of the things that gets pushed from one week to the next. During the collaboration, Hankkija realized that integrating learning into everyday work is not as difficult as one might think. It can happen surprisingly easily when you make time for it and plan it. Academy of Brain has supported Hankkija in this work.

The future requires ownership of learning, adaptability and collaboration skills

At Hankkija, it is recognized that rapid technological development emphasizes employees’ responsibility for their own learning. The employer provides the forums and stimuli for learning, but the initiative should come from the individual. For example, curiosity about technological development and sparking the desire to experiment are seen as increasingly important for the future. This is also closely connected to another important theme: adaptability. The ability to live with change, see opportunities in it and adapt to it sustainably are essential skills.

Hankkija will also continue developing collaboration and interaction skills. The increasingly important role of collaboration and the rise of diverse, distributed ways of working are making these skills even more important. The ability to communicate effectively both in writing and verbally, exchange ideas and engage in meaningful discussions are essential.

Academy of Brain will continue as Hankkija’s trusted partner in developing these capabilities.