Support for personal development

Much time and effort was spent in 2007 to maintain and raise the level of professional knowledge and skills among employees. As in previous years, the focus was on product training, and particularly on enhancing applications skills and ensuring high levels of individual competence. A four-day course on the Basics of Meteorology was arranged twice during the year in cooperation with the University of Helsinki's Palmenia Centre for Continuing Education and the Finnish Meteorological Institute. The Introduction to Meteorology lecture series was continued as part of the induction of new employees.

The seventh Vaisala Business Learning Program began in September. Taking part were 24 people from various parts of Vaisala's organization who came together to learn more about interpersonal skills in different cultures, management and leadership skills, business strategies, collaboration with customers and financial management.

Focus on managing and leading people

In spring 2007 Vaisala commenced the LEAD training program to develop management and leadership skills. After being piloted in the Vaisala Measurement Systems division, the program will be introduced in other divisions. The pilot program covers some 50 persons who manage or lead people and projects. It comprises five modules focused on understanding different management roles, self management and performance management.

The Vaisala Instruments division continued a management and leadership skills program launched for its project managers. As a result of positive feedback received, personal training programs were developed for individual team members. During implementation of the program in the fall of 2007, groups of specialists were trained for faster set-up as a team, while the roles of team members were re-examined from different perspectives in relation to the product development environment.

A 4-module training program for new managers and supervisors operating in Finland was launched in fall 2007. New managers and supervisors have also been able to take part in a year-long guided mentoring process that started in the spring.

Vaisala was an active participant in the Helsinki University of Technology's VITAL project for the development of virtual team management. Several courses were organized for managers and supervisors on this theme.

Information technology as an aid for work

Work was commenced at the beginning of 2007 to create a new enterprise resource planning (ERP) system for the whole organization. This was supplemented by a project to develop Vaisala's personal information system.

Courses leading to a certificate in IT skills were organized for about 30 employees. The course relates to the skills and applications needed in the jobs of individual employees, as well as English IT terminology.