Founded in 1941 by Martin and Eugen Hilti in Liechtenstein, Hilti is a company that makes and designs leading-edge technology, software and services, which power the professional construction industry. Hilti is global, based in over 120 countries with nearly 30,000 employees.
In the spring of 2020, Hilti explored new ways to support employee wellbeing as well as interaction at work and in their free time. The corona pandemic also created a growing need for such a solution.
HR Director Tiina Hildén from Hilti explains:
“The shift to remote work as a result of the coronavirus has created new challenges for well-being at work, with less movement during working days and less normal face-to-face interaction. A sense of community is one of Hilti’s strengths, which we want to maintain even at special times. In addition to our daily team-specific Teams encounters, we wanted to bring something different, more informal, into everyday life.
For this purpose, we at Hilti used the Vire application offered by our pension insurer Ilmarinen. When Vire was discontinued, we wanted to find a platform in which it would be natural to share and encourage well-being activities in particular. We chose the HeiaHeia service for this purpose, as it could be easily combined with wearables offered to our staff as an employee benefit. ”
How has the experience been for Hilti’s staff? We asked directly from one of Hilti’s employees.
“I have been working at Hilti since 2008 and am currently responsible for sales and marketing for Hilti stores in Finland. Besides that, during my career, I’ve also worked as a company culture ambassador (also known as sherpa at Hilti)
In the Hilti corporate culture, the most important resource is people. As a company, we encourage people to take care of themselves, and investing in the wellbeing of our personnel has been a theme for us for a long time. Last year it was also the theme of our two-day culture coaching that covered our entire international organisation of 30,000 people. Culture coaching events are an opportunity for our entire organisation to stop and process a chosen theme from the perspective of our culture.
Wellbeing is important to each of us, and it’s also a personal matter: what suits me, does not necessarily suit you. In any case, it would be important that we maintain a balance between physical activity, nutrition, rest, sleep, and mental wellbeing.
This spring, we had a HeiaHeia physical activity and wellbeing challenge, and HeiaHeia as an app is really easy to use. It motivates me to a sportier and more balanced lifestyle. For example, I’ve tried new kinds of physical activity! As a goal-oriented person, I get energized by various challenges, tracking steps and, above all, from surpassing myself. A small challenge lightens up the daily life and gives me an extra boost.
Personally, during the past years, I’ve paid attention to sleep, nutrition and mental wellbeing in addition to tracking my physical activity. I am now keeping a close eye on my sleep. I also focus on recovery in general, and my impatient self has taken up yoga and mindfulness exercises. HeiaHeia has brought regularity into all my activities, and I have also started various personal wellbeing challenges. The challenges are ultimately about surpassing oneself, because in HeiaHeia, you don’t compete against anyone.
A sense of community has been a strong element of HeiaHeia. In the spring, I’ve taken part in multiple training meetings, and I’ve made it a habit to stretch during these. I also started regular walking meetings during the spring. These actions have helped me focus better and maintain my energy levels. It’s also been fantastic to note that a large number of co-workers have participated. This has become a mutual topic for us to start our meetings with — ‘where are we walking today, did you stretch yet’.
Our company’s virtual community really works! A sense of community and cheering friends are a strong part of our company culture. Now it’s fun to give and receive encouragement for things outside of one’s work as well. This improves the feeling of togetherness in the team, and creates a competitive spirit in a positive way.
All of us have “our thing”, we just have to find it, and HeiaHeia offers comprehensive opportunities to discover and engage with it!”