‘A day in the life’ at Elomatic
Marja Salenius-Ranki, SVP Human Resources
It’s hard to believe I’ve been leading Elomatic’s People Operations for 11 years already. Time has truly flown by. I feel fortunate to have been part of developing our company culture, work community, leadership, and the way we work together with the rest of the organization. It has been a privilege to do meaningful work and influence so many important aspects of our company over the years.
I joined Elomatic in August 2014. The decision to move to a new workplace was easy because I knew the CEO at the time and knew the company operates according to values that matter to me. Developing people’s expertise and well-being is an important part of our leadership culture. I feel fortunate to work for such a great employer, and it’s rewarding to be responsible for HR functions in a company that genuinely values its people and is committed to continuous development.
HR work is about developing company culture and people’s expertise
I lead a team of eight HR professionals. Our work focuses on developing our company culture and strengthening people’s expertise. This includes recruitment, mentoring, well-being initiatives, the digitalization of HR processes, and building our employer brand.
Our work spans the entire employee lifecycle — from the moment someone joins us to the end of their employment.
My workdays vary quite a bit. Recently, I’ve been working on our pulse survey, which employees complete twice a year. In the latest survey, Elomatic’s leadership and management received praise, which feels especially rewarding — it shows that our work is making a real difference.
Collaboration in the leadership team and around the world
Over the past year, I’ve worked closely with HR and other leaders in our India office. Our shared goal has been to strengthen integration and ensure that our operations support a unified company culture across borders.
My role includes both daily routines and strategic responsibilities. On a weekly and monthly basis, I hold team meetings and one-on-one discussions with my team members — important moments to listen, exchange ideas, and support development.
Each year, we focus on performance and talent reviews that guide the development of expertise across the organization. As the year draws to a close, we enter a new phase: planning ahead, reviewing the budget, and setting goals that provide clear direction for the year to come.
I’m part of Elomatic’s leadership team. In that role, I get to look at the HR function I lead from an outside perspective and develop Elomatic as a whole. Over the past year and a half, we’ve taken our strategy from development to implementation. Last fall, our CEO and I visited all our offices to present our new strategy. It was great to meet so many colleagues across Elomatic.
Working together and helping others motivates me
Elomatic has a strong value foundation on which we build our strategy and company culture. Valuing people and their expertise matters to us. We believe we can succeed together, which is why we support each other and believe in the power of collaboration.
Working together also motivates me. I have a skilled and great team, and we have fun in the leadership team too. That’s important to me.
I’m also motivated when I see people succeeding, developing, and learning new things. I want to help people succeed in their work. When someone else feels good, it gives me a good feeling too.
I’m also motivated by goals and achieving them. One of our significant goals has been and continues to be strengthening Elomatic’s company culture. Our HR team plays a big role in this, as our task is to strengthen leadership and leadership culture, which brings company culture into employees’ daily work. The employee survey showed that we’ve succeeded in that.
Hybrid work, AI, and internationalization have affected my work
We moved to a hybrid work model after COVID, and it has greatly affected HR work too. We need to ensure that managers can lead teams both at the office and remotely.
Digitalization and AI have also significantly impacted my work. It’s interesting to see how this work will continue to evolve.
I believe AI will make HR functions more efficient in almost all processes, from recruitment to employee development, and enable HR professionals to focus on meeting people and developing new things. AI won’t eliminate the need for human connection and collaboration between people.
The impact of internationalization is also strongly visible in my work. When I started 11 years ago, we were just at the beginning. Now we always think globally: how does this work in Finland, Estonia, Lithuania, Canada, India, Germany, and Poland?
HR professionals need emotional intelligence
Working in HR requires emotional intelligence — but also balance. In this role, you see and hear a great deal, and at times you must make difficult decisions. You learn to accept that you can’t please everyone or influence everything.
Elomatic is a great place for HR professionals to grow. Although we provide expert services, products, and solutions for industry, I’m not a technical expert myself. That’s what makes it such a privilege to witness the incredible work our specialists do. Being part of this journey — supporting the people behind the expertise — is truly meaningful to me.
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