Interaction with the personnel

Ruukki engages in continuous dialogue with its personnel in many ways. Cooperating with the personnel promotes Ruukki’s objective of being a responsible employer, whose culture encourages succeeding together.

Freedom of association

Ruukki respects its employees’ freedom of association and the company’s employees can join trade unions in compliance with the legislation in each country. In countries where local legislation does not recognise these rights, Ruukki provides other channels for employees to engage in the company’s activities and express their opinions. The local management in each country is responsible for creating opportunities for employee engagement.

Internal dialogue

There is active dialogue between the personnel, supervisory staff and management. Cooperation with employees takes place at a local level through business-specific joint working groups and at the corporate level in the international Ruukki Forum, a European works council based on EU acts. Ruukki Forum meets once a year and in 2011 convened in May in Bolintin, Romania. The themes of the meeting were Ruukki’s values and safety, the practical implementation of which could be seen on a plant visit.

In the new administration representation group, the personnel is represented by five persons and Ruukki by the President & CEO and SVP, Human Resources. In addition, an invitation to attend the meeting is sent to the chairman of the Board of Directors and, if required, to other management representatives. The group meets at least four times a year and considers questions concerning the company’s business, finances and personnel.

At the local level, employee participation takes place in, for example Russia, by personnel meetings held at roughly monthly intervals. At the company’s unit in China, participation is through the local HR Forum. All sites in Finland have an advisory committee or similar, which meets once a month. Around 83 per cent (79) of Ruukki people were covered by local employee participation procedures.

At a joint corporate meeting held on 1 December 2011, the company’s management and employee representatives agreed that the working committee of the corporate meeting will negotiate an agreement on implementing corporate cooperation in the new company structure.

Information flow

In addition to everyday interaction, Ruukki’s intranet and the monthly supervisor letters, which include all the latest information affecting Ruukki’s people, play a key role in communication. The supervisor letters considered in team meetings serve to ensure the conveyance of information and as a basis for continuous dialogue between supervisors and their teams. Production sites also have info screens and local newsletters.

Ruukki’s internal employer image is regularly measured

Summer 2011 saw the launch of a survey covering all Ruukki’s summer workers, almost 1,000, in Finland to find out their experiences of Ruukki as an employer. The survey will be expanded in 2012 to cover summer workers in every Ruukki unit.

The results of the survey show that Ruukki is remembered as a summer workplace where there are friendly colleagues and varied jobs. Around 60% of summer workers had earlier worked or trained at Ruukki. No less than 99% of the respondents said that they would consider applying to Ruukki for a summer job again or for a permanent job. The results of the survey clearly indicate Ruukki’s positive image as an employer.

Our future workers

In Finland, we use surveys to track the development of employer image. For example, in a student survey conducted by Universum, Ruukki tops the list of ideal employers for material technology students and also ranks among the ten top ideal employers among mechanical engineering students.

Ruukki focuses on personal meetings in improving employer image

Recruitment fairs, guest lectures, works visits and research and cooperation in subject organisation are effective ways raise a company’s profile. In 2011, Ruukki participated in 26 recruitment events, most of which were local. Ruukki also increased its visibility in the social media and, for example, started to post job vacancies on Facebook and Twitter.

The company’s research and product development organisations work closely with universities in arranging research, thesis work and practical training periods. In Poland, for example, Ruukki has already been recruiting newly-graduated production and quality engineers for years from Wrocław University of Technology. Close cooperation with the university’s career services and an ability to offer training places to dozens of students are also important ways to increase recognition amongst students. Also in Norway and Sweden, recruitment fairs and articles in trade magazines have helped to reach out to technology students in different fields.