Different roles and support to succeed in them
HR Director Eija Ruuska is responsible for leadership development at Cargotec's business area Hiab, along with her other tasks. Leadership is one of the company's focus areas when aiming to increase Cargotec’s competitive advantage.
Ms. Eija Ruuska is responsible for HR function in EMEA at Cargotec’s business area Hiab, the provider of on-road cargo handling solutions. When she started at Cargotec, her duties involved remuneration and secondments - tasks for which she had previous experience from her earlier position as an external consultant for large Finnish companies.
Ruuska graduated as Master of Science in Economics and Business Administration from the University of Jyväskylä in 2007. Her first employment was at EY (before Ernst and Young): “I was deeply involved with customers, and got to know large Finnish companies very well. Career opportunities were more oriented towards sales or leadership, whereas I considered myself to be more of a specialist. So I started considering possible new challenges outside EY,” Ruuska remembers.
At Cargotec, an open position about secondments caught Ruuska’s attention, and she was selected to the job. “I had done many different projects at EY related to this topic. I was interested to continue with that, but from a different perspective, from inside a company”.
Since she started at Cargotec seven years ago, Ruuska has been building up her career at Hiab, progressing gradually to more challenging positions. Ruuska feels that at Hiab, people are actively supported to seize different opportunities. “ I have been here in 5-6 different roles, and my superiors have always been great. Have I wanted to, I have always received new interesting tasks, as well as support to succeed in them.”
Focus on leadership quality
Ruuska has been developing Cargotec training programmes to further accelerate and amplify our leadership excellence aspirations at Cargotec. Cargotec dedicates a significant amount of resources to Lead programme - directed to 300 highest level superiors - and to the two-day Grow programme, which is being organised by HR trainers. At Cargotec, every superior attends either of the two programmes.
“The ultimate goal is to ensure that superiors can help their teams to find meaning in their work, and that this would be aligned with the company strategic objectives. This allows our teams operate better, creating productivity and competitive advantage in our markets. During the last years, we have put a lot of effort in this,” Ruuska explains.
“It has been great to see how proud and committed people are to our products and customers. The reason why I have enjoyed working here is that we have a strong common goal we are aiming for. The culture is very open, and it is always possible to go and talk with anyone within the organisation. That creates a fruitful ground for a prosperous organisational culture,” she concludes.