HUS year 2022: Supervisors and leadership

Satisfaction with leadership continued to improve

During the year under review, systematic efforts to identify structural obstacles to high-quality leadership have been identified at HUS and tools developed to help with personal supervision in particular. 

The beginning of the year was affected by extraordinary circumstances caused by the coronavirus pandemic and the labor market situation, which put pressure on personnel. Employee satisfaction and experiences of leadership have been regularly assessed with the Leadership Pulse survey since 2021. In the most recent survey in 2022, 79% of respondents reported being satisfied with the leadership of their immediate supervisor. This was an improvement of 6 percentage points on the previous year.

Leadership is generally felt to be fair and encouraging. The survey indicated that workplace units have a trusting atmosphere and that work runs smoothly.

Supervisor passport coaching for new supervisors

Induction training for new supervisors was revised to produce a coaching module titled Esihenkilöpassi (‘supervisor passport’), consisting of online lessons and classroom teaching. The purpose of this is to support supervisors at the start of their development path and to provide them with knowledge and competence that they will need in their roles along with actual induction training. The number of leadership training webinars was increased. Hundreds of supervisors attended events designed for them, on topics such as change management, development discussions and managing the employee experience. 

Structures enabling good leadership

In 2022, a strategic project entitled ‘Ensuring potential for leadership and supervisor work’ was carried out. Its purpose was to describe the structural factors that underlie high quality leadership.

Observations about the work of supervisors and about leadership were collected in the main project and related pilot projects. Proposals for action were then drafted. One of these was a recommendation on unit size, stating that no supervisor should be managing more than 40 employees. 

The project involved devising a tool to clarify the job duties and division of duties of supervisors and to identify stress factors. The goal in this is to increase the time available for managing employees and to foster potential for coaching leadership, among other things.  

Further information on this topic:

Leadership development resulted in concrete tools to help supervisors in their everyday work