Hoist Finance strives to create a great place to work by placing our employees at the heart of the company. We want to offer our employees the best work environment and equal opportunities to develop and progress.
One Hoist Finance
In 2018, Hoist Finance started to implement a strategy aimed at, among other things, organisational optimization, productivity improvements, and equipping the organisation with a flexible platform for growth. A scalable organisational structure is a prerequisite for achieving our overall strategies of market leadership, being efficient and effective, as well as becoming the digital leader in our industry.
We are implementing digitalised interfaces with our customers in all markets and setting the foundation for the next generation of customer journeys.
In order to increase development and innovation, employees need to collaborate and share skills and experiences across the organisation. Harmonised and more efficient work methods have been introduced throughout the organisation as well as a matrix structure between functions and countries.
The new organisational structure, clearly-defined processes, and clear roles and responsibilities are aimed at one thing: working effectively together as a unified company, One Hoist Finance, that always puts the customer first. With this well-defined purpose, a clear structure and a strong, healthy corporate culture, our ambition is to work together to create a great workplace.
Corporate culture and values
The foundation comprises our shared values, beliefs and behaviors. Building trust is what inspires and guides us every day.
Great Place to Work®
A collaboration with the company Great Place to Work was initiated in 2016 to measure the development of corporate culture and work environment over time. Great Place to Work conducts one of the world’s largest employee surveys and ranking programmes, as well as provides tools to support and prioritise development areas. An employee survey that measures TRUST is a key tool, providing information about employee perceptions and experiences of the company. The survey also measures how far Hoist Finance has come in implementing company values. Sweden and Italy both received Great Place to Work certifications in 2019. This gives Hoist Finance a high rank in comparison with companies of similar size in each market.
Ethical guidelines
The company’s ethical guidelines apply to both employees and partners and specify fundamental values and principles that shape how we work. All employees receive regular training on topics such as "When does a gift become bribery?", "Conflict of Interests" and "Code of Conduct".
Training statistics are monitored on a monthly basis to ensure that all employees receive regular training. Training topics delivered include IT security, methods used to discover and prevent money laundering and corruption, and coaching on how to guide customers through difficult situations. The ethical guidelines not only require compliance with laws and regulations, but also provide guidance on ethical employee behavior in line with Hoist Finance's values. Hoist Finance closely monitors the company's compliance with applicable legal requirements.
Employee health and well-being
Hoist Finance works continuously to ensure that all employees have a good physical and psychosocial work environment. Continuous operational improvements are made to guarantee employee well-being and ensure that employees reach their full potential. Hoist Finance works systematically with work environment and health topics, with a focus on creating a workplace that can accommodate at an early stage any employees needing extra support. This focus creates an inspiring environment for employees and customers—a workplace where employees feel comfortable and are happy to work.
Career and skills development
Continuous skills development is a key element in our ability to adapt to the new digital landscape and collaborative ways of working. Employees working directly with financially vulnerable individuals need to have empathy and understanding of complicated financial and social situations. Hoist Finance employees working in collection centres are trained in communicating with customers in order to reach an amicable agreement that is satisfactory to both parties.
Essential to our business is our employees' ability to draw boundaries between regulatory compliance and a good and humane personal contact with customers. We have a Personal Development Dialogue (PDD) to ensure a constructive and sustainable commitment between employee and manager. This aims to clarify objectives and ensure continuous feedback.
When it comes to leadership development, it is essential to our business that our managers are inspiring and able to develop the company in accordance with our strategy. This requires offering managers the opportunity to grow.
Leaders are developed by identifying key positions in the business and recognising and developing colleagues who are suitable for these positions. Hoist Finance applies the same principle when replacing people in senior positions. We also arrange an annual leadership conference, as part of developing the company's corporate culture.
Hoist Finance Academy
With the purpose of building a strong foundation for developing our employees, we have created the Hoist Finance Academy. The goal is to create a learning environment where our leaders are focused on engaging and motivating our employees to increase good performance. Based on the Great Place to Work survey, we have focused on internal training of both managers and employees. External training has been provided as a complement in relevant areas.
Two programmes have been successfully launched by the Academy since 2019:
The programmes have been complemented by the roll out of a new Performance Management Framework focusing on a continuous performance dialogue.
Employee feedback has confirmed that career development is important. These programmes, along with additional local initiatives and the development of e-learnings, provide the framework for clear and consistent career planning.
Diversity and equal opportunity
The company's continued success is based on the creation of a diverse work environment with equal opportunities for all employees. Hoist Finance aims to be a company where people respect each other and understand the individual needs of others. It is self-evident that everyone should have the same rights and obligations. Hoist Finance's approach to diversity is clearly formulated in the company’s Diversity Policy.
Equality and fairness form the basis for employees' compensation, and the Diversity Policy is applied when setting and reviewing salaries. Employee salaries are determined based on local salary levels, market practices and, when applicable, collective agreements. The Remuneration Policy is reviewed and updated at least once a year as required.
Whistleblowing
We have empowered our employees to report behavior that is suspected to be unethical or illegal. Hoist Finance has implemented a whistleblowing procedure through which employees can openly or anonymously notify the company of wrongdoings in the business. Cases of discrimination or other misconduct should be reported through our whistleblowing system, which is a web-based solution.
All concerns raised will be treated with strict confidentiality and the identity of the employee raising the concern is never disclosed without his or her prior consent. Anyone raising a concern will be treated fairly and Hoist Finance will do everything it can to ensure that he or she is not penalised or victimised in any way.
To continuously raise awareness of employees' responsibility in this area, an e-learning course on the whistleblowing procedure is in place.
Shared Service Centre
A Shared Service Center was established in 2018 in Wroclaw, Poland, as a central support function to the organisation. It also provides various services related to the acquisition, servicing and management of loans. The service center has employees within a number of business functions, such as Accounting, Business Control, Internal Audit, IT, Legal, People, Risk and Tax. The purpose of the service center is to gain efficiency through economies of scale and harmonisation.
Nearshoring
A nearshoring center was established in Bucharest, Romania, in 2019. The purpose of the center is to increase benefits of scale and skills, and to implement standardised and harmonised customer contact processes across markets.
Another nearshoring center is located in Craiova, Romania, and provides back-office services for several business unities as well as customer contact services to the Italian market.