In line with its strategy, LähiTapiola invests in increasing life security and customer value. Operations have been developed consistently and customer-centrically in a rapidly changing operating environment, despite turbulence in the global economy. The company also invests heavily in internal operating models and ensuring that consultants working in the organization are thoroughly onboarded and warmly welcomed into the work community. We discussed our collaboration with LähiTapiola’s Service Manager Terhi Ruponen.

Reflector has been a trusted partner for years alongside LähiTapiola in consulting area, both in project management and architecture assignments. Among Reflector’s professionals, LähiTapiola is a highly valued client whose projects consultants enjoy working on for extended periods. We are proud of this: some of our consultants have been working with LähiTapiola and its predecessors since the last millennium.

LähiTapiola wants a good employee experience to extend to consultants as well

Terhi is responsible for the internal PMO service at LähiTapiola, which oversees the operating models used in development and the supporting tools, as well as project support in applying operating models, project resourcing, and reporting.

When Reflector consultants discuss LähiTapiola, the following emerges:

• “At LähiTapiola, a consultant is like part of LähiTapiola’s own team.”
• “We have wonderful openness and trust in projects.”
• “LähiTapiola has amazing colleagues.”
• “You can say what needs to be said there.”
• “In projects, I can genuinely look at things from the customer’s perspective and be on the customer’s side.”

Reflector: The comments highlight the same aspects that are emphasized when discussing a good employer experience in a company in general. The statements reflect honesty, openness, authenticity, and genuinely being part of the work community. What do you think about these descriptions, Terhi?

Terhi: I was genuinely moved! It is extremely important to us that consultants feel they are part of us. I have a consulting background myself, so this was especially nice to hear. Reflector has a “quality guarantee” with us: you always provide skilled professionals who master the project manager role, for example, but also bring strong technical expertise. Reflector’s consultants are extremely popular in our organization, and project managers may specifically request your people for new projects. This is a good sign and shows that we have built genuine trust.

Reflector has provided us with absolutely excellent professionals, recently especially technical project managers, but also Business Analysts and architects. Reflector consultants often join us for long and large projects. The same person may have several projects running in parallel. One of Reflector’s strengths is that people are highly committed to their employer. We have great confidence that when our team interviews Reflector consultants and we find someone who fits the team, there is always strong competence and extensive experience behind them. I have been consistently satisfied.

LähiTapiola’s personnel policy includes the conscious use of consultants both from a competence perspective and to scale capacity. We have precisely defined which roles are maintained with our own staff. Project managers are, as a rule, always LähiTapiola employees.

Reflector: Do you have a playbook for how external consultants are integrated into operations?

Terhi: Not a direct playbook, but we have an onboarding program for all new consultants. Everyone joining the organization receives a personal onboarding plan for the organization’s operating models and guidelines. Each person is assigned a buddy—someone in a similar role from the same project who helps the newcomer with daily matters and practices.

We have built role-specific competence communities that operate virtually in Teams and also meet regularly. Consultants are included in these competence communities. For example, project managers have their own competence community. We work in a matrix structure at LähiTapiola, and consultants operate like anyone else in the matrix projects. However, external consultants are not involved in all line organization matters. I encourage everyone here that when questions arise, they should always turn to their own competence community. This way we gain collective strength in building competence within the organization.

From my own consulting experience, I know that it inevitably takes time to truly get inside an organization. The effort required to properly integrate people into the organization is often underestimated. In LähiTapiola assignments, consultants’ daily work revolves around us here, so it is important that everyone feels they are part of the team. After all, this is where they spend their days.

Purchasing in-house consultants has become more professional

Reflector: Have you encountered similar consultant onboarding programs elsewhere?

Terhi: I am a returnee to LähiTapiola. I have not experienced such an extensive onboarding program elsewhere. When I worked as a consultant, clients in many companies did onboard well into the specific project, but not “as part of the organization.” I believe there has been a major cultural shift in this over the years, and the need naturally also depends on the length of the assignment. It would actually be interesting to see how these have been built elsewhere recently. What I have noticed is that purchasing in-house consultants has become more professional in companies, and more in-house providers have entered the market.

We gained valuable experience from similar projects for the cloud migration project

Reflector: One of the key projects was the Oiva cloud migration project, which concluded at the end of the year, led by Reflector consultant Mats Lindstedt with Sanna Eriksson as architect. What did you do in the Oiva project?

Oiva involved the technical cloud migration of a CRM solution. The cloud migration project manager from Reflector is one of our trusted professionals. He has worked on similar projects with us before. The Reflector consultants brought experience to this project regarding what aspects should be considered at different stages. The project was highly technical but important to our business. The fact that this project was completed on schedule and successfully enabled other development portfolio projects to proceed on time. With Mats and Sanna’s assistance, we always knew where we stood, and we never had any concern that we would not complete the project as planned.