Our vision of a world-class service company with customer experience at the core is always taken into account in the recruitment, training and development of our people. As we operate in a constantly changing business environment, our success depends on our ability to continuously develop our employees’ skills, knowledge and experiences. We aim to inspire people towards high performance with strong focus on feedback and development. Today, we have a TeliaSonera group common job portal used in 20 countries.
To retain a pioneering position in a highly competitive market with exciting business opportunities, TeliaSonera is creating conditions for a high performance company culture.
Professional leadership is a key to motivate and lead our teams to innovate and develop customer-friendly solutions. Therefore, managers at every level are setting individual objectives linked to strategic business goals and providing frequent feedback to each employee.
This is part of TeliaSonera’s group-wide performance management model, which currently applies to senior and mid level leaders in the organization. This model translates TeliaSonera’s business objectives into actions in our different business areas, and is designed to:
- Help managers set and cascade business objectives
- Review individual performance
- Develop and reward performance
Systematic approach to performance
Through our performance management process – Make it happen – we stimulate motivation and offer opportunities for employees to develop and grow, which optimizes performance and in turn helps the organization progress.
The purpose of performance management is to ensure that every employee knows and understands how he or she can contribute to business success.
Appraisals between managers and their employees are carried out on an annual basis, or more frequently.
TeliaSonera’s view on performance is not limited to what you achieve, but also how you achieve your objectives, including what kind of competencies and behaviors someone applies in pursuit of results.
The group-wide performance management process launched in 2009 offers a shared framework and language for defining competencies.
As a first step, the new performance management process involved 346 managers across the whole group in 2010. By the end of 2011 the process will have been further launched to all level five leaders and senior specialists in the group. The performance management process includes wholly-owned as well as majority-owned operations.
Shared values as a platform
TeliaSonera’s shared values combined with the group-wide competency framework work together to ensure shared principles and expectations on behavior and performance. While the values promote preferred behaviors, the competency framework outlines successful leadership competencies for different roles and levels.
The competency framework is a support tool for managers providing feedback to individuals, evaluating performance and assessing what competencies to develop further.
TeliaSonera’s performance management process provides annual routines. We begin each year by setting objectives and conclude the year by conducting a performance evaluation.
We believe in consequence management, rewarding good performance and addressing poor performance by applying coaching in order to reach better results. Performance is directly linked to compensation as well as career and development opportunities.
Meeting business requirements through individual development
To stay ahead of competition, TeliaSonera has constantly developed the business through different competency shifts in order to stay at the forefront of technical development. As a result, there is a solid history of career-long learning among TeliaSonera’s employees.
Today, the majority of our employees have graduated before they join the company. This is the result of a targeted effort to increase educational levels. Current competency development is increasingly about transfer to new technologies and understanding its implications for the telecom industry as a whole, and for TeliaSonera and our services.
Investing for growth
TeliaSonera has a history of growth through mergers and acquisitions and a future of cross-border solutions. This requires awareness of how to operate in an international environment. We have invested in tailored e-learning solutions to support our managers and employees in further improving their language skills, specifically in English which is the corporate language.
In a rapidly changing business environment, it is essential that our employees ensure that innovative solutions are based on profitability and sound judgments. We have therefore invested in further developing business acumen skills among our specialists and leaders.
We continue to develop initiatives to strengthen our competencies, especially focusing on our business capabilities for the future. Current examples are:
-
IT/IP Business Program
The IT/IP Business Development Program enables a number of TeliaSonera’s key individuals to better understand customer businesses and identify how TeliaSonera’s products and services can be used to improve the core business of our customers. The program focus is on what IT/IP based products and services mean and on increasing the understanding of the new business logistics and what this entails. It also explores current and future business positions and the strategic challenges of the telecom industry and TeliaSonera. In addition to a diploma, the program offers ten accredited academic points for its participants.
-
TeliaSonera Business Acumen
The Business Acumen Program supports participants’ capability to better understand the business challenges and provide a basis for sound judgements and accurate decisions. The program puts focus on the different business models and increased business acumen skills, and on TeliaSonera’s capability to offer a true customer experience. It enhances the importance of business innovations with profitable growth as a target. The program ran twice during 2010, and a total of 39 employees participated.
-
Coaching for Performance
Targets middle managers and equips them with tools to coach and challenge performance gaps among individuals and teams to enhance a high performance culture. The skills acquired are transformed from theory into practice. During 2010, we ran five successful programs in cooperation with an international supplier that specializes in experiential learning. To further develop leadership skills, we focus on improving the level of English and extend the internal network by delivering an international program run by native speakers from the UK.
-
Managing and Leading Change
Targets middle managers with the aim of ensuring that they have the capacity to manage operations in a rapidly changing business environment. The objective is to help leaders understand how people and organizations react to change, and how to effectively manage organizations through times of change. During 2010, we have run four successful programs based on an experiential learning approach, where the participants are challenged through a number of different projects and exercises under circumstances that are either known or unknown to them. The intention is to challenge their capability of leading change and at the same time coping with ambiguity and fragmentation.
-
Essentials of Management
Developing our First Level Managers to leverage greater employee contribution in achieving TeliaSonera’s strategic objectives and to empower their capability to lead high performing teams. In order to ensure a shared platform and view on Leadership principles, we introduced a Group Wide Leadership Program “Essentials of Management” in 2009. The program focuses on developing fundamental leadership skills and capabilities along with extending the business awareness. The program is managed either by certified internal trainers or by consultants from our international partners. During 2010 we ran the program in 12 countries and with more than 300 participants attending the program. It has been very well received according to evaluations and has set the baseline for working in an integrated way as One Company.
TeliaSonera’s Leadership Development Pipeline
During 2010, TeliaSonera has worked with the communication and awareness of having a shared vocabulary for leadership competencies and requirements.
Our competency framework sets out competency profiles that outline the behaviors that distinguish successful leadership approaches and skills for each different level and role.
Based on competence profiles, development activities for senior and mid-level leaders are customized to respond to the challenges and competencies that are characteristic of each leadership level. This helps us to ensure the right training and development at the right time, which is when our leaders will be in a position to practice their newly acquired competencies. In order to ensure behavioral change and quality of our offerings, all trainings in our Leadership Development Pipeline are based on defined critical business competencies.
Recruitment - An open job market
Since 2009, TeliaSonera has announced all vacancies through our international job portal, the TeliaSonera Job Market. During 2010 the majority of our companies have been included in the global job portal. Today 20 countries are publishing and presenting their vacancies in the same place on the intranet and during the year we have further developed the recruitment portal to be aligned in terms of functionalities and design. This has lead to an increased number of applications for each vacancy.
As emphasized in TeliaSonera’s recruitment policy, we value business minded people with a strong customer focus, people that team up to make the business happen across borders. We want to attract and recruit people that through a strong drive, a positive attitude and an innovative mindset can create business opportunities. For employees with ambitions and willingness to relocate to other countries, we have international career opportunities within the group.
To grow and develop within the group is a shared responsibility: It is every employee’s responsibility to make him or herself employable and develop competencies needed to make it happen. It is each manager’s responsibility to support each employee in this process, and it is TeliaSonera’s responsibility to make sure that we as a company are fair, ethical and professional in the process of selecting the right person for the right job at the right time.
Internal recruitment vs. local nationalities
TeliaSonera has a global recruitment policy valid for the group. In the Nordic region we have a lot of cross-border functions with managers from various countries.
In Eurasia the common practice is that local staff should be considered first for the majority of the top management positions, provided that they have the right skills required for the position. We have a focus on preventing gender discrimination or harassment.
In all of our operations at least 50 percent of the management are local, in most cases the figure is even higher (75 percent or above). An exception is Nepal where the proportion of local nationalities in the management grew from 40 percent to 52 percent.
Measuring Employee Commitment
Committed employees are core to the success of TeliaSonera. TeliaSonera’s employees are encouraged to express their views on a number of issues in recurring employee commitment surveys, including work processes, customer focus, communication, leadership and working environment.
Since 2009, 14 countries have participated in the survey that follows the One Company approach with synchronized questions and focus areas on a group-wide basis. Moreover, local units are able to benchmark the results both with the respective local peers and with the TeliaSonera group as a whole.
Late in 2009 TeliaSonera decided to conduct its group-wide employee commitment survey on a bi-annual basis. This allows time to take actions to address the outcome of the survey.
In 2009, the response rates were high at the same time as the results showed increased commitment levels. The results are still used as a basis for continued improvements throughout the organization, for setting up actions plans which are then followed up on. In 2011, the plan is to launch the survey during the autumn, with results and analyses available in Q4.
Freedom of association
Employees are free to join a union if they so wish. The level of union affiliation across the group is varying between different countries and sometimes between companies within the same country. Overall, an estimated majority of TeliaSonera’s employees are covered by a collective agreement, in total over 79 percent.
In 2009, TeliaSonera signed a new agreement with European Works Council (EWC) where the content was adapted to the increasing internationalization of the group. For instance, the President of the EWC can now be elected from any of the countries in which the EWC agreement is applicable and the working language in the meetings is English instead of Swedish.
All entry wages above minimum wage
In all of TeliaSonera’s operations we have an entry level wage that is well above the local minimum wage. In the Baltic and Eurasian countries the entry level varies from twice to nearly eight times as high as the local minimum wage. In most of the Nordic countries there is no legislated minimum wage, as this is instead regulated in collective agreements.
Where there are employees who have entry wages close to what is regulated in the collective agreement, the entry level wage is supplemented with an additional variable salary.
Our achievements in 2010
Employer branding award
TeliaSonera was presented with Universum’s prestigious award Newcomer of the Year in Employer Branding 2010.
Employer branding is part of our People Agenda – a number of activities and focus areas that TeliaSonera, including the Group Management, have identified as important support mechanisms for our business strategy.
We aim at enhancing TeliaSonera’s company image as an attractive international employer operating in an exciting sector and offering excellent career development opportunities. We are working towards a common voice, a common message for the group and communicating it through all the available channels: student fairs, brochures, the internet, and so on.
A continued 100 percent employee engagement in change management programs in Sweden
The competence development program Mobil 2.0, introduced in 2008 has now been expanded and adapted by other parts of the TeliaSonera organization, Mobile 2.0 is very well established within the organization and today we also have Broadband 2.0 and Skanova 2.0 among others.
In 2010 six new modules were launched including Customer Relations, Excellent processes and Vision, ethics and strategy business area Mobility Services. The modules are launched together with Broadband Services and Business Services.
100 percent of the employees have participated in the program focused on increasing knowledge about the business. As a result of visible leadership and management’s engagement together with regular feedback to team leaders, employees have been encouraged to contribute to the program.
Human resources have been strongly involved and, as in Nepal driving the implementation of the Code. An employee asking a question to the management.
Working with health and safety
The TeliaSonera Code of Ethics and Conduct states that we aim to provide and constantly improve a safe and healthy workplace by ensuring safe work processes, preventing and reacting to conditions of ill health and supporting measures to promote health and well-being.
Throughout our operations we act according to local legislation and collective agreements and take pro-active measures to promote a safe and healthy workplace. In many countries we also encourage positive health by subsidizing costs for health activities.
Most of the Nordic and Baltic countries have special agreements with external health care providers. In most of the Eurasian operations the employees are provided with health and accident insurance. In Azerbaijan this also covers family members. Most of the Eurasian operations also promote sports club membership and sports activities.
In Kazakhstan, a health and safety test is conducted on the management staff and employees responsible for health and safety issues within company subdivisions (once in three years as per legislation in the country). Personnel working in hazardous work conditions are provided with protective clothing and special equipment. Some categories of such personnel are eligible for additional benefits (additional vacation days) as per legislation in the country. As a recognition of the work done Kcell received an "Asyl Alma" Award for its contribution to protection of the employees’ health.
During 2011 health, safety and well-being will be in special focus within Ncell, TeliaSonera’s operation in Nepal.
Supporting growth of job opportunities in Lithuania
On December 2, 2010, TEO’s subsidiary Lintel was awarded by the Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Lithuania with the prize for creating the biggest number of workplaces. Lintel created 400 new workplaces in 2010 during the financial crisis.
Labor union agreement in Nepal
In 2009, the union Ncell Employee Welfare Council (former Spice Nepal Employee Welfare Council) was formed to create an official forum for dialogue between employees and management and to forward employees’ views and opinions on matters concerning them.
Industrial relations in 2010
A good cooperation and negotiation practice has been established with Ncell Employee Welfare Council, the only official trade union in Ncell. All remaining requirements of the two-year collective agreement (end date June 12, 2011) were delivered during 2010. Employee issues are handled between employees and managers and the Council is used in cases where escalation is needed.
Sound relations have been achieved by open communication, transparent decision-making and improved working conditions which have built a basis for mutual trust.
One major mutual achievement was replacing the local hierarchical job grading structure by a new TeliaSonera Eurasia-wide job leveling and salary structure that is based on career groups and job evaluations and that makes performance based career and compensation options available for employees. In many respects, Ncell has become a forerunner and a benchmark in industrial relations and employee working conditions for the local labor market.
Eurasian Mobile Talent Pool took off
To increase mobility and also identify leadership potential, TeliaSonera Eurasia launched a new initiative during 2010. The main aim was to identify a mobile pool for TeliaSonera Eurasia pivotal/business critical roles with the purpose of pool members’ further development, proper utilization and retention. The candidates were identified and nominated by the CEO’s and Human Resource Department of each business unit according to their past performance and willingness to move for work to another locations.
The nominees passed through a Development Center that consisted of four steps:
- Measurement of leadership potential
- Presentation of self-spotlighting and panel interview
- Giving feedback
- Development planning sessions
Qualified candidates will eventually be offered opportunities of short and long-term assignments across TeliaSonera’s Eurasian operations when and where the need for their competencies arises.
The Mobile Pool candidates are offered support and coaching by a development committee, including local CEOs, HR and other key functions. The talent pool will be reviewed regularly, and in the future it is planned that enrolment will be made accessible via the TeliaSonera job portal.
Case
Promoting volunteering in TEO and in Lithuania
One of TEO’s social responsibility ambitions is to encourage increased volunteering in Lithuania. Today TEO is regarded as one of the socially most active companies in the country.
Pioneering volunteerism in Lithuania
TEO has actively promoted volunteering activities, for instance by setting up Lithuania’s first large-scale volunteering conference back in 2008, and together with Alliance of Voluntary Organizations and the portal CV.LT launching the first independent job site matching voluntary jobs and volunteers in 2009. (www.cv.lt/savanoryste).
In 2010, TEO arranged numerous meetings with volunteering field organizations and initiated a volunteering rating analysis in Lithuania.
Offering employees opportunities to volunteer
During the spring 2010, TEO management decided that all approximately 2,000 employees are entitled to use one full working day to work for a cause of their choice once a year.
The TEO Corporate Volunteering Day is yet another “firsts” of its kind in Lithuania. In this year’s round, many of the employees decided to volunteer for Save the Children Lithuania or the environmental clean-up campaign Darom (Let’s Do It).
Employees choosing to fund local organizations
Later in the year, TEO piloted a social project increasing employees’ involvement in distribution of TEO charity funding. Every employee could choose one of five public organizations and their projects to receive a specified sum.
The organizations are working with issues and areas that match the focus areas of TEO’s support and they are selected with the help of a committee of experts, composed of the representatives of the Alliance of Voluntary Organizations, Ministry of Social Security and Labor and other organizations promoting social responsibility.
By the employees' decision, half of the support in 2010, just over LTL 20,000 (SEK 59,000), was awarded to the charity and support fund "Algojimas". The organization is seeking to change public attitudes to disability and to help families raising disabled children to better integrate into society. Other organizations that TEO employees chose to support included National Student Academy and the NGO “Big Brothers Big Sisters”.
“People's active participation has exceeded our expectations. Our plan is that such a support distribution practice, where TEO employees are involved in the decision-making process will continue", concluded Valdas Kaminskas, Director of Corporate Communication Division of TEO.
Working with diversity
TeliaSonera works with diversity by providing, for instance, internships and job or training opportunities to people with physical challenges or people from different backgrounds.
Sweden - Telia providing opportunities
Recent studies from the Swedish Socialstyrelsen (Welfare) show that young people with disabilities face challenges to enter the labor market. “Open eyes” is a project run by the City of Stockholm in co-operation with TeliaSonera and other ICT companies. The project strives to facilitate employment and recruitment in the ICT industry by looking beyond disabilities and instead focusing on skills and abilities.
Participants are offered an internship for 6 to 12 months and if possible, the person can be recruited into a position available. In our agreement with the City of Stockholm, TeliaSonera is committed to offering two internships per year for persons with disabilities. Since last summer, we have had two trainees who are in place with sound work performance.
Between 2008 and 2010 TeliaSonera ran a mentorship project for newly arrived migrants in Sweden. The project involved ten mentors, each of them a manager at TeliaSonera, and ten novices who all held managerial positions before they moved to Sweden. The goal was to create a new network of contacts and increase the exchange within and between the respective manager groups.
Azerbaijan - Azercell building capacity
Azercell organized two training programs for the members of “Independent Life” Development and Support Centre in Azerbaijan in 2010. The training programs involved 14 persons with various physical disabilities. The main topics were introduction to customer service culture and how to prepare for job interviews.
Key characteristics that are required to build a customer service culture in a company for instance, include empathy, patience and determination. Hence, the ability to perform a great job is not dependant on physical abilities.
These two training programs helped participants to understand customer service culture and various aspects of working with customers, develop negotiation skills and consider the basics of a good CV preparation and success during job interview.
Participants valued the open and frank atmosphere, which allowed them to overcome previous insecurities or doubts over working situations.
Georgia –beyond just offering services
“When Geocell launched a special tariff for hearing-impaired people some years ago, little did we know that this project would become a start of a larger social initiative - promoting integration of people with physical challenges into society,” comments Osman Turan, CEO of Geocell.
A special tariff includes a package to enable communication with low-priced SMS and a dedicated 24-hour SMS-based customer service.
After the commercial launch, Geocell's "We Hear You" project continued to equip a computer center and to promote education opportunities and communication solutions for people with hearing and speaking difficulties. Recognizing the challenge to integrate into society where employment plays a vital role, Geocell has since employed seven persons with physical challenges. One of them is a columnist in Geocell's corporate magazine.
In 2010, Geocell set out to increase awareness of the necessity of supporting and creating better living conditions for people with physical challenges in Georgia.
"Our business is about enabling communication. In order to start communicating, you need to reach others. We took this literally. The basic issue in Georgia is that the infrastructure in many public places is not adjusted in such a way that disabled people could enter or move around. So we reached out and encouraged all public institutions - banks, theatres, universities, and others - to equip their entrances with ramps for wheel-chairs. We did this through an elegant targeted campaign and through leading by example," concludes Osman Turan, CEO of Geocell.
For the indicators to this section, see Key indicators
Key indicators
LA1 – Total workforce by country, business area, age group and gender
|
2010
|
2009
|
2008
|
| Sweden |
9,414 |
9,869 |
10,699 |
| Finland |
4,623 |
4,841 |
5,458 |
| Denmark |
1,183 |
1,727 |
1,895 |
| Norway |
1,357 |
1,311 |
1,461 |
| Estonia |
2,117 |
2,280 |
2,515 |
| Latvia |
905 |
459 |
582 |
| Lithuania |
4,195 |
4,049 |
4,477 |
| Spain |
91 |
84 |
80 |
| Azerbaijan |
782 |
739 |
645 |
| Georgia |
338 |
331 |
309 |
| Kazakhstan |
1,439 |
1,436 |
1,480 |
| Moldova |
347 |
343 |
320 |
| Nepal |
505 |
474 |
414 |
| Tajikistan |
578 |
574 |
605 |
| Uzbekistan |
799 |
754 |
793 |
| Cambodia |
0 |
175 |
176 |
| Other countries |
272 |
288 |
261 |
|
Total numbers of employees by country or region
|
28,945
|
29,734
|
32,171
|
|
2010
|
2009
|
2008
|
| Mobility Services |
7,488 |
7,506 |
8,339 |
| Broadband Services |
13,901 |
13,645 |
15,410 |
| Eurasia |
4,853 |
4,888 |
4,780 |
| Other operations and corporate |
2,703 |
3,695 |
3,642 |
|
Total number of employees by Business Area/Unit
|
28,945
|
29,734
|
32,171
|
|
2010
|
2009
|
2008
|
| Age group < 30 years |
7,998 |
8,179 |
10,323 |
| Age group 31-50 years |
14,985 |
15,480 |
15,717 |
| Age group > 51 years |
5,962 |
6,075 |
6,132 |
|
Total number of employees
|
28,945 |
29,734 |
32,171 |
|
2010
|
2009
|
2008
|
| Female |
12,753 |
13,221 |
14,517 |
| Male |
16,192 |
16,513 |
17,654 |
|
Total number of employees
|
28,945
|
29,734
|
32,171
|
LA2 – Total numbers and rates of employee turnover1 by country, age group and gender
|
2010
|
2009
|
2008
|
| Sweden |
398 |
983 |
997 |
| Finland |
208 |
583 |
640 |
| Norway |
135 |
85 |
116 |
| Denmark |
88 |
305 |
430 |
| Estonia |
253 |
355 |
363 |
| Latvia |
26 |
125 |
29 |
| Lithuania |
796 |
457 |
1,096 |
| Spain |
5 |
7 |
– |
| Eurasia2 |
506 |
623 |
925 |
| Other countries |
9 |
6 |
– |
|
Total number of leavers
|
2,424
|
3,529
|
4,596
|
|
Total rate of employee turnover, %
|
8.8
|
12.4
|
14.8
|
1Leaving rate.
2Eurasia includes Moldova, Nepal, Georgia, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan. Restated history.
LA4 – Percentage of employees covered by collective bargaining agreements
|
2010
|
2009
|
2008
|
| Sweden1 |
100 |
100 |
100 |
| Finland1 |
95 |
95 |
93 |
| Norway – NetCom |
23 |
25 |
25 |
| Norway – Chess |
100 |
100 |
100 |
| Norway – NextGenTel |
42 |
40 |
– |
| Denmark – Telia DK |
56 |
72 |
72 |
| Denmark – Mobility Denmark |
60 |
60 |
– |
| Estonia – EMT |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Estonia – Microlink |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Estonia – Elion |
100 |
100 |
0 |
| Latvia – LMT |
100 |
100 |
100 |
| Lithuania – Omnitel |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Lithuania – TEO |
100 |
66 |
66 |
| Spain – Yoigo1 |
100 |
100 |
– |
| Moldova - Moldcell |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Nepal – Ncell |
89 |
90 |
– |
| Uzbekistan Ucell |
100 |
67 |
67 |
| Tajikistan – Tcell South |
100 |
100 |
100 |
| Tajikistan – Tcell North |
100 |
100 |
100 |
| Other countries2 |
100 |
100 |
– |
| Reported entities’ share of TeliaSonera total, % |
79 |
73 |
65 |
1Excluding top management.
2 TeliaSonera International Carrier France, Austria and Italy.
LA13 – Number of managers by gender
|
2010
|
2009
|
2008
|
| Female |
1,066 |
1,139 |
1,185 |
| Male |
2,109 |
2,146 |
2,176 |
|
Number of managers
|
3,175
|
3,285
|
3,361
|