I attended a talk about Tieto’s employee experience this week and it was very inspiring to learn how Tieto make use of Jacob Morgan’s thoughts on employee experience to strive to be the best on the market for both employees and external customers.
Jacob Morgan is the father of the Employee Experience Equation, which essentially means the combination of technology, physical space and culture that create the employee experience. Tieto have adopted this model to create their employee experience, something that plays a crucial role at Tieto to not only to hire and retain the best talent, but also as based on their own research, it directly translates to the customer experience.
This was very interesting to learn as even though the topic was employee experience, the customers were put at the heart of the service. Even though internal customers are just as important as the external ones, we often tend to design services with the external customers in mind first, but should not forget the impact an organisation’s internal customers (i.e. employees) have on the value that customers create.
The Employee Experience Equation in practice
As Morgan discusses, the employee experience boils down to 3 areas. At Tieto, these mean the following:
Technology
Having the best technology in use that makes working more efficient. When new technology is being considered, the employees are interviewed to increase buy-in. Data privacy and security also plays a big role as Tieto employees are experts in this, the same standard is required from the technology choices.
Physical space
One of the best-known examples of the physical space within the employee experience at Tieto is the Empathic Building which can be experienced in the Keilaniemi offices. The Empathic Building allows a completely new way of interacting with your colleagues from finding their location based on tags they wear (all voluntary so if an employee feels like they don’t want to be tracked, they don’t have to) to seeing which rooms and desks are free. But the physical space is a lot more, there are a variety of spaces employees can choose from depending on what their day looks like (from quiet spaces to group working areas or even areas meant just for relaxing). There is also an in-house Support Centre where anyone can get help with their IT or healthcare, which is one of the key areas that Tieto employees feel is important.
Culture
With over 15,000 employees globally, creating a culture of inclusion has been very important. The aim of Tieto culture is for everyone to feel included, valued, respected and heard which is achieved by celebrating diversity and bringing employees from different locations together, either digitally or physically. There are, for example, several Tieto Communities where likeminded people can network within the company and learn from each other.
Tieto are continuously investing in their employee experience and it was great to hear how they have utilised the Employee Experience Equation. If you ever get the chance to visit the Tieto offices, I can warmly recommend them as it serves as a nice inspiration for what employee experience can look like.
Aalto University Executive Education arranged on the 1st of June 2017, on International Service Design Day, networking event around this very interesting theme. Speakers and panelists who game from different backgrounds looked at the topic in a versatile and detailed way. They represented front line service design expertise: Peter Barkman, Managing Director from Palmu Helsinki, Laura Franck, Client Service Director from Hellon, Ulla Jones, Business Designer from OP Financial Group and Pekka Toivonen, CEO of Muotohiomo. Next I will raise some points from the discussion to give some thoughts to this important heading.
Service Innovation & Design 
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