Heart-warming highlights of the exceptional coronavirus year included thanks from our members and the positive feedback received from our own staff. They indicate that even at exceptional times we were able to create such circumstances where everyone can succeed in their job and in providing the best service to our members. One recognition of this in-house success is the list of Finland’s most inspiring workplaces, published this week, where we were placed fifth in the league of medium-sized organisations. We are proud of our great achievement.

The key to success lies in people: each YTK employee who works to ensure the most fluent and caring earnings-related service to our members. During the past year we have doubled the number of our personnel to be able to respond quickly to the changing situation with the applications. That called for a great deal of planning and anticipation, adapting the recruitment process to the changed world, and continuous development of familiarisation.

While new application processing employees and customer advisors were introduced to the world of earning-related security, we provided the experts in the company with training on the quickly changing exceptive enactments and even more efficient work processes. The degree of commitment of our personnel is high, and the meaningfulness of work is felt strongly. The development of your own expertise motivates and inspires the YTK employees. The security of our members is genuinely a matter of great importance to us, and the feedback is heart-warming and gives energy to working.

Looking after the well-being of the personnel is also extremely important in the exceptional conditions. We gather all staff regularly to Teams meetings where we give out up-to-date information about the situation and where the teams provide humorous interludes to cheer up everybody. We offer a break workout application, and everyone was given a chance to participate in a well-being measurement project to promote their own well-being.

Office Christmas party and other collective recreational activities were arranged virtually, and little surprises were provided to our employees who are mainly working in their home offices. The days are filled with work to enable earnings-related security and efficient implementation thereof, but we also encourage our employees to contact their colleagues working in their own home offices at coffee breaks. The best thing at YTK is great colleagues, and we want to hold on to that in the exceptional conditions, too.

We are again following closely the news and decision-making, at the same time preparing for the necessary measures by which we can ensure the smooth payment of earnings-related security also in exceptional conditions. We are recruiting around 60 new employees through different channels early this year, and about 30 of them have already started work. Our summer employees include many familiar faces from the last summer as well as those who did part-time work in the winter.

We have also opened a new summer employee application. We will hire and train extra resources especially for positions in processing of applications. The work is well suited e.g., to university students of law, business or social sciences who already have a couple of years of studies behind them. Important qualities at work include customer orientation, the ability to learn and apply the twists and turns of the Unemployment Security Act, and readiness to make decisions independently.

The first team of summer employees will start already at the end of March.