Jirka Tuominen’s role as Facility Manager means he looks after employees as well as the environment.
Jirka Tuominen is Kojamo’s Facility Manager. He first joined the company in 1999 to work as an assistant during the busy Christmas season. He is still on the same path, although his job description has changed over time: “It’s not that I’ve moved from one position to the next. Instead, my job has grown to take its current shape. I’ve always been eager to take on new responsibilities that interest me. But everything I do is related to the working environment in one way or another.”
A lot has happened in 20 years
Over the course of his career, Jirka has been involved in large projects such as designing the current head office. Today, he is Kojamo’s chief shop steward and a deputy occupational safety and health representative. In his role as chief shop steward, he can help people get more out of their jobs. “The better the working environment, the higher the level of well-being among the people who work there,” Jirka explains.
Kojamo looks after its employees
Kojamo is a company with a long history, and many familiar things have changed over the past few years. According to Jirka, one thing that has not changed, however, is the commitment to taking good care of employees. “Employee well-being has always been a very high priority, even as the rate of activity increases and there are more demands.”
“Employee well-being has always been a very high priority.”
#GoKojamo and a high-energy work community
One of the highlights of Kojamo’s summer is the #GoKojamo campaign. As part of the initiative, Kojamo employees participate in a race to accumulate bicycle commuting kilometres and fight climate change under the Finnish Red Cross’ Chain Reaction campaign. Jirka says this year’s participants include people from all levels of the organisation, from summer workers to the Management Team: “We have a fantastic team full of enthusiastic bicycle commuters. It’s great that so many of our employees have joined the campaign!”
Responsibility and sustainability as a part of the job
Kojamo is continuously developing its operations to make them increasingly sustainable. Among other things, Jirka is in charge of Kojamo’s Green Office programme, which is aimed at reducing the environmental impact of offices, increasing environmental awareness among employees and achieving energy savings.
The Green Office programme has already been implemented at Kojamo’s head office for several years, and it has now also been introduced in Hämeenlinna, Lahti, Oulu and Tampere. “Our goal is for all Kojamo offices to be Green Office certified by the end of 2019,” Jirka says.
“Green Office certification represents our commitment to taking environmental issues into account in our work.”
Kojamo requires its partners to take environmental issues into consideration and encourages tenants to live in an environmentally friendly manner. “Green Office certification represents our commitment to taking environmental issues into account in our work,” Jirka adds.
The Green Office programme is based on continuous development. “Environmental issues should be closely incorporated into decision-making,” Jirka says. “Communicating environmental information to employees is also important. The increased awareness can then spread to their homes.”