Experience is everything

The employee experience journey begins from the day you first hear about the company to the day you leave.

As Director of People and Culture at Beamex, Tina Ademola is responsible for making sure that the employee experience for every single Beamex person, whether new recruit or seasoned professional, is the best it can possibly be.

Together with her People and Culture team, she is developing a company culture with openness and transparency as its cornerstones.

The discipline of human resources has changed immeasurably in recent years as companies strive to build compelling employer brands that act as a talent magnet and support rewarding career development paths. Whereas in the past HR has traditionally been dominated by compliance, payroll and legal matters, today’s HR professionals need to take a much more holistic approach to their work.

First impressions count

Modern businesses need to build and evolve an employee experience that brings talent through the door and ensures people remain happy and engaged throughout their career at the company.

“The employee experience journey begins from the day you first hear about the company to the day you leave,” Tina says. “HR is naturally a human-centric discipline, but today we employ a vast range of technologies and lots of data to help us create and maintain a positive experience.”

First impressions last, as they say, so a positive first impression of your prospective employer during the recruitment process is a must. “A slow process or lack of communication can be deal-breakers for many candidates. At Beamex we put a lot of effort into making sure we get things right from day one, which is vital in an environment where top talent can be hard to find and attract,” Tina emphasizes. “We have also specified an employee value proposition (EVP) that describes what we promise our existing and prospective employees.”

Happy employees are your best ambassadors

A positive employee experience contributes to greater engagement with the company’s brand and values, helping to create people who act as ambassadors for the company as an employer. “We do a lot of work to communicate to the outside world what a great place Beamex is to work. As a niche business in a far-flung corner of Europe we need our people to tell friends and family what they love about working here. We also do a lot of work to tell our employees’ stories, for example through our website, so that people can build their own picture of what it’s like to be a Beamex employee,” says Tina.

Once the recruitment process is complete and the new candidate joins, the next critical step is onboarding. The key is to reaffirm in people’s minds that they made the right decision. “Many people come to Beamex knowing little or nothing about our core business of calibration, so it can take time to learn the ropes depending on your role,” Tina points out. “Everyone follows the same general onboarding process regardless of the job they’ve been hired to do, so they feel ‘Beamex green’ from the start. Then we help them to build the specific skills and competences they will need through methods like eLearning modules and task-specific onboarding.”

Taking a long-term view of the onboarding process, Beamex also holds bENGAGED events, where all employees who have started at the company in the previous three to six months are invited to HQ in Pietarsaari, Finland for a week of discussions, presentations, training and fun activities.

The power of open dialog and transparent communication

Beamex follows a dialog framework that ensures all employees have regular discussions with their manager. While these chats, which happen a minimum of every eight weeks, follow a standardized format they are intended to be an informal exchange of views. They act as a great barometer for how people are feeling and how the company is performing as an employer. “These discussions help us keep our finger on the pulse of the organization so we can quickly identify any issues and see where we can improve. On top of these regular discussions there are more formal development discussions to review past performance and set development targets,” says Tina.

These formal development discussions also help Beamex to map the career development wishes of its employees with the strategic competencies the company needs to develop in order to remain a global calibration leader. “Career paths here don’t have to be linear; we give people the opportunity to move between functions to help them develop a skillset rather than mold themselves for a defined role.”

Openness is a core value at Beamex, and one of the ways employees are encouraged to embrace this value is through transparent communication. “We started using Yammer just before the COVID pandemic hit,” says Tina. “We now have a whole host of different communities covering the different parts of the business. Our leadership team also posts a blog every week following their meeting to keep everyone informed about what’s going on in the business.”

Leading from the front is never an easy task, but Tina is confident that with the hard work and dedication of her team and commitment from across the organization Beamex is well positioned to remain a global leader in its field. “Our work is never done, and evolving our employee experience is an ongoing process that helps us make sure we are building a workforce today that is ready for the challenges of tomorrow.”

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