Best workplace for leading-edge expertise: traineeship combining HR and internal communications
What is it like to do a traineeship at Business Finland? What is the role of human resource management and internal communications in an expert organization? Business Finland’s HR and Internal Communications trainee Heini Suvivuo begins the series of trainee blogs being released in autumn 2022. Heini shares her experiences from the first months of her traineeship and sheds a light on how she supports Business Finland’s strategic goal of being the best workplace for leading experts.
I started my traineeship at Business Finland after my first year of master's studies in Management and International Business. My studies have gained much-needed concreteness, as I have been able to see the operations of a large international organization from a close distance.
My internship combines two themes - human resource management and internal communications. The themes in question are directly linked to Business Finland's strategy and especially to the strategic priority area ‘the best workplace for leading-edge expertise’.
For me, connecting work tasks with a broader organizational strategy increases the meaning of work even more. No small task seems so small when almost everything I do, somehow serves Business Finland's goals and helps create an attractive organization for talented experts, of which there is no shortage in this organization.
An international organization through two lenses
I have been able to see Business Finland’s operations through the lenses of two different teams, which has proven to be extremely valuable. In the HR team, I have gained a vantage point for managing people in an international organization that merged only a few years ago. Already in my studies, I was interested in strategic people management and especially in the way companies that have gone through a merger build a unified organizational culture and retain talent after the transition. In addition, the changing working life, and the transition from working at the office to hybrid work have been visible also in Business Finland.
In an organization that has experienced such big changes in recent years, the views are quite unique and, above all, very interesting
Internal communications can sound like a distant function in an expert organization, and before my traineeship, it was a bit like that for me as well. Like almost all functions of the organization, internal communication is also built and developed based on strategy and data. Especially in a hybrid organization like Business Finland, establishing internal communication methods, channels, and culture at a certain level is important. Well-functioning internal communication can e.g., help information sharing between different units and countries, and improve employee engagement.
My tasks as a trainee quite seamlessly combine both human resource management and internal communications. At this point, halfway through my 9-month internship, my responsibilities are focused on assisting in organizing our largest internal event. Organizing the event is a big whole. I have been given responsibilities on different things and have also been able to coordinate related smaller projects quite independently. The second half of my traineeship will contain very interesting projects as well, related especially to the development of Business Finland’s employer brand.
New trainees, new ideas
As a workplace and environment, Business Finland is ambitious and trusts in the expertise of its employees. Trainees can and should bring out their own ideas. Of course, not every idea is always implemented, but honest and constructive feedback is even more valuable.
Managers at Business Finland are clearly interested in the well-being of the trainees and the meaningfulness of the traineeship. Trainees are not coffee makers and do not work 24/7. The traineeship provides many new and interesting challenges, but simultaneously, it gives space and time to foster your own studies for example.
I'm looking forward to what the last months of my traineeship will have in store.