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Sustainability, development and working together inspire Sarlin’s quality manager

With two years as quality manager behind her, Eija Halonen first joined Sarlin as a compressed air sales assistant. A business school graduate, her work community’s many benefits and the opportunity to advance her career have kept her with the same employer.

“The size of Sarlin as a company is perfect for me – agile, not so much rigid bureaucracy. Anyone who has the ability and motivation will have various opportunities to participate.”

Before taking on the title and responsibilities of quality manager, Halonen had worked on quality and development for a year. As quality manager, she ensures that her company operates in line with its quality management systems.

“Among other things, my work includes audits, process development and inspections. Sustainability has become a bigger part of my role in recent years. I’m head of the Sarlin sustainability working group and I’m preparing the sustainability reporting functions that will be mandatory for businesses.”

Her previous job description as a sales assistant was diverse, including orders, invoicing and marketing.

Sarlin’s vision and values are a good match

At Sarlin, Halonen appreciates the continuous improvement of operations and working together in her own role as quality control as well as in other respects.

“We’re always thinking of smarter and better ways to do things. We’re all motivated to work together and develop.”

It is important for Halonen that her own values match with the company’s vision and values. “Sarlin develops solutions that are better for the environment, and that matters to me and for society.”

Because the company values have been created in cooperation with personnel, Halonen sees them as actual values and not empty phrases

“The Sarlin values of sustainability, goals, curiosity and working together become obvious in my own work.”

Relaxed and open workplace atmosphere

We spend much of our lives in the workplace. This is why Halonen considers well-being at work to be a priority. “We have friendly coworkers who are always willing to help. No one is left alone.”

Although the work is autonomous, Halonen emphasises the importance of support and availability of peers for talks. “I can always rely on my wonderful and supportive superior. The support I've received from them and my closest colleagues has kept my spirits high at work.”

According to Halonen, Sarlin has a relaxed and open atmosphere. “Everyone up to management is easy to approach. There are no needless formalities or divides between workers and management.”

Halonen also credits her employer for the development of its company culture, occupational safety and well-being at work. “Our current HR director has elevated our company culture. Happy workers produce the best results. We measure employee satisfaction regularly and have seen improvement in our results.”

Appropriate challenges

In her work, Halonen is motivated by interesting and meaningful tasks that offer challenges.

“My work isn’t tedious or too routine. I get to use my problem-solving skills and learn new things as our quality and sustainability develop. It gives me energy to leave my comfort zone just enough and learn new things.”

Halonen points to herself as a good example of how Sarlin encourages training and education. While working, she has completed a six-month training programme for quality and development managers.

“That training prepared me well for my current role at just the right time. I believe that I’ll have opportunities for more training as needed.”

Working together for a better tomorrow

A strong believer in a positive attitude, the motto of Eija Halonen for the workplace is to not spend too much energy on things we cannot change, and instead use it on things we can. She also has another motto that is especially well-suited for the leader of the Sarlin sustainability working group:

“We’re not waiting for better times but actively working together to bring about a better tomorrow.”
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