How we develop employee experience at Arter – Personnel as the cornerstone of success

Arter’s Great Place to Work journey is not yet long, but all the more promising.

Arter’s journey towards an even better workplace began in 2018. With rapid growth, we recognized the need for a special focus in employee experience. At that time, we began to systematically monitor employee experience with quarterly job satisfaction surveys and worked on identified development targets one at a time.

In 2020, the results of the job satisfaction surveys showed that our development work done had paid off. Now we dared to set GPTW certification as a goal to achieve in the next few years.

After all, it would be great to receive external, internationally respected and well-known recognition given by a third-party, that would also send an important message to both current and future arterians on how we value employee experience.

The decision to apply for a Great Place to Work certificate

In late summer 2020, we met with Great Place to Work’s cultural development expert, whom we consulted on the implementation of values. Our goal to get GPTW certification also came up in our meetings.

In these discussions, we quickly realized that we already had a surprising number of good practices and would have time to apply for certification as early as 2020. We decided to jump in.

In addition to the external Great Place to Work recognition, our decision was influenced by the opportunity to obtain benchmark information from a global and decades-long survey of corporate culture. We could see how Arter relates to Finland’s Best Employers, where our employee experience is already good and what needs to be improved.

What did the Great Place to Work certification process look like in Arter’s eyes?

The Great Place to Work certification process required the involvement of all personnel: The Trust Index survey, which measures employee experience, should result in at least 7 out of 10 employees experiencing Arter as a good workplace.

During the fall of 2020, in addition to the Trust Index survey, Arter’s management team had to prepare a Culture Audit – a report describing Arter’s leadership culture. The report was sent out in early 2021 to Great Place to Work experts.

In the Culture Audit, we comprehensively described how the Covid-19 crisis has affected our personnel and through what kind of leadership we have met the challenge.

The Trust Index survey was conducted at Arter in January 2021 and the response time was two weeks. The results came in with a great 98% response rate and, as a slight surprise, the results also showed that our employee experience clearly exceeded the certification threshold.

Arterians feel that equality, management integrity, friendliness of the work environment and hospitality are at a particularly good level

Our Trust Index score was 80%, which means that 80% of Arter’s employees feel that this is a good workplace. We had achieved our goals ahead of time and got Great Place to Work certification right off the first try!

Particularly strong areas for us were the experiences of:

• the realization of equality,
• management integrity, e., straightforwardness, doing the right thing and honesty, as well as
• kindness and hospitality of the work environment.

The result illuminated the beliefs that we are on the right path and that our enthusiasm will take us even higher.

We make the best progress by leveraging and retaining our strengths as well as developing our weaknesses

The analysis of the results also raised some development targets for which we have initiated development measures.

We believe we are making the best progress by leveraging and retaining our strengths as well as developing weaker areas. We will definitely continue on this path, see progress and perhaps continue to rise to the list of Finland’s best employers!

Competent, committed and motivated personnel are our company’s most important resource. Arter’s success stands on three pillars – customers, products and personnel. Just as a chair needs three legs to stand, so does a software and expert company like Arter need these three cornerstones to succeed. Ultimately, however, it is the personnel that makes profit by developing products and acquiring and serving customers.

Arter, like other companies, competes to attract and retain talented employees, as well as maintain their commitment and motivation.

A good employee experience must be redeemed every day and it requires work to be done on a daily basis

Great Place to Work certification is a message to employees, job seekers and other stakeholders of the commitment to building a good workplace. This emphasizes factors such as self-development, the relevance of the work and the atmosphere of the work community.

The GPTW methodology and Arter’s People Performance Management practices both emphasize the importance of goals and corporate culture. People Performance Management practices bring our company’s values ​​and goals a concrete part of our daily lives.

Great Place to Work is an organization-wide measure of progress that also provides benchmark information about other companies’ practices.