Every year, new members are recruited to join the community to ensure fresh input and diverse ideas over time.
We have spoken to four of the members about their role and what their main take-aways have been so far.
“Our role is to minimize the gap between the management and the employees,” says Hiba, one of the Swedish community members. She has been part of the Nordic Influencer Community for two years now and has enjoyed experiencing the openness and collaboration with senior management.
“We have a great and very open communication. We are very much encouraged to challenge existing tasks, ways of working, and culture – and, at the same time, we are also expected to speak up”, she says and continues “You could say that we are the link between employees and senior management, which gives us a unique opportunity to bring messages, observations, and ideas from the organisation upwards and make a real difference”.
The communication between the Nordic Influencers and the senior management team is transparent - and completely confidential. Trust is one of the most important things for the community.
“It’s great to know that we can suggest, challenge, and comment on various initiatives”, says Marcus, a Danish member of the community. “Trust is also something that we have discussed a lot together with the management team. Having trust between employees and within the company is key for making the culture more collaborative, open, and friendly”, he continues.
“I am very happy about the trust that we have earned”, says Trond, a Norwegian member of the community. “We have a strong agenda with various initiatives that we have chosen ourselves. At the same time, we are working on a few tasks “under the radar”, giving input and supporting the senior management in the best possible way”, he points out.
Proud to be making a real impact
The community has already made a significant difference – especially when it comes to the internal communication, where the members have initiated various activities to support buy-in to the strategic- and cultural journey. One specific initiative was launching a “Challenger of The Year”- award to promote the desired behaviour and mindset.
“The challenger mindset is a culture that we want to embrace and promote widely across the organisation. Creating this award was nice – and, for the first time, employees were given the opportunity to nominate colleagues who they believe to have the right behaviour”, Trond comments.
“We have also done interviews with the management team presenting them as less “bankish” to support the human culture and friendly work environment that is important to us”, adds Laura, a Finish member of the community.
All of the influencers are seemingly proud to be part of the Nordic Influencer Community, pointing out that it is a good learning experience.
“In my role, I do not have much interaction with our global colleagues. Being a Nordic Influencer has introduced me to working with a diverse group of people - from different countries and different business units. I believe that we all agree that our role and the work we do challenges us to think outside the box, considering different perspectives and finding better solutions”, Laura says.
“This has been a great personal development experience. Working with a great group of diverse people and achieving so much trust between employees and our management team is the best reward. But we are not done – the great work continues”, Hiba finalizes.
