Our team

In order to provide a vital service, teamwork and staff’s contribution are of utmost importance. It is the people who carry the company forward. However, prerequisite to achieving good results and enjoying the work is first and foremost, a supportive work environment.

Last year our team, including the subsidiary company, consisted of 321 people working for us under employment contract entered into for an unspecified term.

Involving the employees

We consider important that our staff is involved in the activities of the Company, is regularly informed and treated equally. We use several ways for this, for example organise regular staff meetings with the management and issue a quarterly internal newsletter.

Involvement and doing things jointly are important factors, which also influence the quality of service and efficiency of the Company. For example, we continued insourcing services from our subsidiary company OÜ Watercom last year, as this enables us to be more transparent and flexible in our activities.

Commitment in the team

Two-way interaction is of high importance in the team work and therefore, feedback from the employees forms an essential part of the organization's internal culture. One channel, which gives a systematic overview of the employees' satisfaction, is the annual employee commitment and satisfaction survey. In 2014, the commitment and satisfaction of our employees has grown furthermore, compared to 2013, and is clearly higher than the average of the Estonian and European manufacturing and service companies. The participation rate in 2014 survey was exceptionally high – 92% of our employees provided their feedback and opinions. We believe this is a sign of our employees understanding the importance of the feedback.

Development of employees

Characteristically for a stable manufacturing enterprise, the average age of the staff both in AS Tallinna Vesi and its subsidiary is high (average age is 47 years) and at the larger operating units a considerable number of staff is over 50 years old. Therefore, it is of critical importance for us to take a very systematic approach towards working with the new generation and passing on the knowledge and experience, in order to successfully cope with the change of staff expected to occur in the coming years.

We encourage our employees to continuously learn and develop and try to offer respective opportunities, taking into account both the needs of the employees themselves and those of the Company. We believe that sharing of knowledge and experience is very important from the perspective of staff development. Therefore, there has been a significant increase during the past years in in-house guidance as well as in the involvement of mentors from outside of the Company. This means that knowledge has been transferred from one colleague to another or from mentor to mentee. We also encourage development and movements between our teams.

Occupational health and safety

Occupational safety is an inseparable part of our business, being central to everything we do. No work duty is worth getting injured for. Therefore, we are committed to ensuring a safe work environment and guarantee that our employees have work equipment, which is in accordance with the requirements and needs.

Our Company’s work environment performance is in compliance with the requirements of national legislation and international occupational health and safety management system standard OHSAS 18001.

Work environment management system is based on the assessment of risks and execution of activities aimed at preventing or reducing dangerous situations. Workplaces are under constant internal monitoring. Furthermore, internal as well as external audits of the management system are carried out regularly.

Together towards occupational safety

Key issue in creating and maintaining a safe work environment is definitely the awareness of the employees themselves. We consider the involvement of the staff in activities related to work environment through various activities and channels to be central in that. For example, we organize informative gatherings, which enable to share the information, but also – through the discussions – make people act and think more consciously, all kind of informational materials are helpful, too. We also carry out work environment trainings on a regular basis. During these trainings, various topics are addressed, e.g. training and in-service training in first aid, occupational hygiene, training on work involving an open flame, chlorine safety training at the water treatment plant, various trainings on the safety when working with chemicals, machinery and electricity, and trainings on several other topics which are important in our work. Systematic engagement of employees has resulted in considerably increased attention towards one's work environment, which is where the occupational safety starts in the first place.

Continuous improvement of work environment

Occupational health and safety is central to everything we do, and we absolutely do not compromise on it. Therefore, despite of the good results achieved so far, it is important not to rest on the laurels, but to carry on channelling our time an energy into maintaining a safe work environment and making further improvements thereof. In 2014, several supporting activities were carried out at the treatment plants, water and sewerage networks, laboratories and offices, e.g. renewal of risk analysis, elimination of work environment deficiencies as a result of the internal safety audits, carried out by all managers and members of the Work Environment Council, updates to the personal protection equipment procedure, regular activities related with fire safety installations of buildings and vehicles, and activities related with the creation and promotion of an ergonomic work environment.

In 2015, we will focus more seriously on promoting a healthy life style among our staff. For example, our employees have the opportunity to use our own gyms, take yoga classes and with the help of our partners restore their energy in different sports facilities in Tallinn for special rates. Our employees can have affordable meals in our canteens, we participate in the health promotion weeks across the town and our health cabinet is there for our employees to make the measurements that are essential for physical health.

All of the above initiatives as well as several other actions help us to gradually make our work environment safer and more comfortable. All this is part of the work environment supporting each and every one in our staff.