Summer Power Virtual 

"Most innovative summer job practice in 2020"

What is Summer Power virtual?

In 2020 we were all faced with a new normal that for most Wärtsilians meant working remotely and not being around their colleagues every day. This meant finding new ways to stay connected, even when welcoming our new summer trainees in May and June.

Since for many trainees this exceptional summer was the first one at Wärtsilä, we understood that it was more important than ever to make sure our newest Wärtsilians feel welcome, have a way to connect with people and to see how much we appreciate their work. We wanted to create alternative ways to network, learn and to get together. That is why we created Summer Power Virtual- a completion of campaigns and events launched by the local HR to support the professional and personal interests of our trainees with the help of our managers. This initiative also received the award for the “most innovative summer job practice” through Oikotie`s Vastuullinen Kesäduuni campaign (Read the full story (in Finnish) here.)

What was done exactly?

The Summer Power Virtual consisted of different initiatives and events aimed directly for our trainees. Some of the initiatives were pre-planned but most were decided based on requests from the trainees themselves. This all included:

• the Summer Trainee 2020 Yammer community
• 7 Summer Power Virtual online events
• A pilot for our managers to thank their trainees
• Gathering feedback with different surveys

We started by creating an online community where all our trainees were welcome to join, discuss and ask questions on what ever topic was on their mind. This channel was also used in communication and promoting up-coming events. The events themselves included both formal professional themes like getting to know our international career opportunities through interesting career stories and non-Wärtsilä related general topics, such as how to optimize your LinkedIn.

We also wanted to activate the managers, which is why we created a thank-you campaign with an easy approach to promote the importance of giving continuous feedback. Through this campaign, the managers would give a concrete thank you message with feedback and a small tangible gift – a voucher for free ice cream. This initiative was well received and lead to over 180 personalised messages in 1 month, with over 93% of the managers showing interest to participate again.  

Because continuous improvement is very important to us,we gathered feedback from our trainees through multiple surveys related to different aspects of the Summer Power Virtual program. Through these results we came up with new event concepts and ended up also having a wrap-up session where all the feedback and results were openly shared with the participants.

“What we truly realized through this initiative, was that sometimes things that may seem small at first can have a big impact. What running a program like this mostly required was effort and cooperation. So why not do it?” says Tiia-Maria Kinnula, HR Coordinator and one of the organisers behind the concept.

Will the program be re-launched in 2021?

That`s the plan! Because the initiative was well-received and managed to activate both the managers and trainees, we feel that it is important to continue with this concept. Our plan is to also expand and develop the event further, maybe next year we can also meet face to face! If you join Wärtsilä this, summer – be sure to take part in Summer Power Virtual as well!