Teamwork creates the best ideas
“I love numbers, because they leave no room for doubt.”
Meet:
- Hanna Sormunen
- Team Lead, Customer and Credit
- Uponor Group
- Helsinki, Finland
Meet Hanna Sormunen, Team Lead, Customer and Credit, who loves to work with figures and people. Originally, Hanna did not plan a career in finance at all. She is trained for culinary branch. Nevertheless, when she got a job as a finance assistant, she developed an interest for numbers that has continued ever since. She went on to work in a credit risk management company. There she learned that working with people and numbers is more her thing than customer service as such. Working with people and numbers is exactly what she is doing at Uponor.
“I love numbers, because they leave no room for doubt.”
Hanna came to Uponor as one of the first people employed for the shared Financial Service Center as Team Lead for Customer and Credit team. Customer and Credit team works with customer payments and credit controlling. Most of Hanna’s time goes to managing the team that includes eight full-time employees plus summer trainees. Planning and developing takes up her time and she is also responsible that the team completes all their duties. As a superior she wants to take care of her team’s needs well and ensure team’s internal communication works smoothly. Hanna is happy that her team is independent and carries out their responsibilities meticulously.
“Customer and Credit team members work independently, but are also able discuss openly if any problems occur.”
The best part of Hanna’s job is that she gets to work with people. It was a great challenge to come and build something new. The building process of Financial Services Center was a great learning curve. Getting the team to work smoothly and see team to succeed feels rewarding. With her current job, she has learned that change in some format has become permanent part of everyday work. Hanna does not mind change and feels that usually good things come to those who embrace the change. But change affects people differently. It is understandable that not everyone likes constant change and it can cause stress and burden. Managing change and people has been more difficult with increased distance working. To tackle this Hanna keeps virtual team meetings every morning, where they go through all day’s tasks. Team’s virtual coffee breaks on the afternoons are valuable for team interaction and less formal chats.
“It is important to learn to know people and understand what is not always said directly.”
Hanna considers Uponor to be an interesting and somewhat exceptional employer. It is a global company with head office in Finland. You can sense the international atmosphere in the office, but still some kind of Finnish mentality shines through in many things. According to Hanna, employees are well cared for and that was one of the reasons for her to apply for a job at Uponor. The fact that shared Financial Service Center was established to Finland tells a lot about the company. Company looks things with longer perspective and wants to develop its processes. Employees are not just headcounts. Uponor sees value in people and expertise.
“Uponor has humane and respectable values and it is important that I, as superior, can manage my team according to those values.”
Colleagues are nice people with whom cooperation is easy. Hanna considers her team as her “work family”. They are skilled people and work well as a team. She feels that this applies to all Uponor. It has been great to see how things are done together. Another thing that she really likes is the international atmosphere. She works daily with people from different countries.
“Skilful team members and smooth teamwork generate the best ideas.”
When Hanna is not working, she likes to relax by watching a good movie or exercising. One thing that keeps her moving is her 11-year-old miniature pinscher. It is nice to come home when there is someone to meet you at the door and always happy to see you. Hanna has also started studying psychology in Helsinki Open University. She is keen to develop further her skills as team leader just as a good leader should.
#myuponor #uponorians #employeestory #weatuponor #uponorcareers
“I love numbers, because they leave no room for doubt.”
Hanna came to Uponor as one of the first people employed for the shared Financial Service Center as Team Lead for Customer and Credit team. Customer and Credit team works with customer payments and credit controlling. Most of Hanna’s time goes to managing the team that includes eight full-time employees plus summer trainees. Planning and developing takes up her time and she is also responsible that the team completes all their duties. As a superior she wants to take care of her team’s needs well and ensure team’s internal communication works smoothly. Hanna is happy that her team is independent and carries out their responsibilities meticulously.
“Customer and Credit team members work independently, but are also able discuss openly if any problems occur.”
The best part of Hanna’s job is that she gets to work with people. It was a great challenge to come and build something new. The building process of Financial Services Center was a great learning curve. Getting the team to work smoothly and see team to succeed feels rewarding. With her current job, she has learned that change in some format has become permanent part of everyday work. Hanna does not mind change and feels that usually good things come to those who embrace the change. But change affects people differently. It is understandable that not everyone likes constant change and it can cause stress and burden. Managing change and people has been more difficult with increased distance working. To tackle this Hanna keeps virtual team meetings every morning, where they go through all day’s tasks. Team’s virtual coffee breaks on the afternoons are valuable for team interaction and less formal chats.
“It is important to learn to know people and understand what is not always said directly.”
Hanna considers Uponor to be an interesting and somewhat exceptional employer. It is a global company with head office in Finland. You can sense the international atmosphere in the office, but still some kind of Finnish mentality shines through in many things. According to Hanna, employees are well cared for and that was one of the reasons for her to apply for a job at Uponor. The fact that shared Financial Service Center was established to Finland tells a lot about the company. Company looks things with longer perspective and wants to develop its processes. Employees are not just headcounts. Uponor sees value in people and expertise.
“Uponor has humane and respectable values and it is important that I, as superior, can manage my team according to those values.”
Colleagues are nice people with whom cooperation is easy. Hanna considers her team as her “work family”. They are skilled people and work well as a team. She feels that this applies to all Uponor. It has been great to see how things are done together. Another thing that she really likes is the international atmosphere. She works daily with people from different countries.
“Skilful team members and smooth teamwork generate the best ideas.”
When Hanna is not working, she likes to relax by watching a good movie or exercising. One thing that keeps her moving is her 11-year-old miniature pinscher. It is nice to come home when there is someone to meet you at the door and always happy to see you. Hanna has also started studying psychology in Helsinki Open University. She is keen to develop further her skills as team leader just as a good leader should.
#myuponor #uponorians #employeestory #weatuponor #uponorcareers