Students and Graduates

- In this way, everyone in the management team gets an understanding of the views of different generations, the world of values ​​and what is important for young people at work and as people. Mentor pairs exchange experiences, values ​​and know-how, as opposed to just a mentor to a mentee, says Hanna Reijonen, Posti's Director of Human Resources.

- I had read that such reverse mentoring has been done and the experiences have been good. Everyone was positive about the idea and saw that it has value. Posti included a management team and a few others who work in a role that could benefit from such mentoring experience. If anyone would be able to apply, there would probably have been a lot of other applicants too, Hanna laughs.

Meaningful Person-to-person Connection

Mentor pairs plan their own goals and meet online once a month. Hanna participates in the mentoring herself, as a partner of Communications & CXC Trainee Emilia Rantala. Due to the exceptional situation, Hanna and Emilia have not yet met face to face but have held three virtual mentoring sessions.

- It's easy to talk to Emilia, we have had a good conversation going all the time, Hanna says.

- It is nice to note that even though we have such a different background, we still have a lot in common. Hanna is genuinely interested in my experiences, although by themselves they may seem small, Emilia continues.

Together, Hanna and Emilia made a list of topics they would like to discuss during the mentoring period. Although Emilia's role is to be a mentor, she certainly gets advice and learns from Hanna.

- The most important things I want to talk about with Hanna are performance and performance confidence, as well as leadership. For example, what kind of management challenges Hanna has faced during her career and how she has overcome them. Hanna has so much experience, so she’s interested in how she’s gotten to the point where she is now in her career.

Hanna's goal is to learn more about the world of millennial values ​​through examples.

- Quite a lot of information is available about the millennials. There are various studies on what is important to them. I want to learn how things and values ​​are genuinely linked to everyday life. At times, it seems that articles and studies on millennials start through the negative. However, it is not worth thinking too much that there is some big gap between the generations, but facing a person as a person, Hanna reminds.

Emilia emphasizes that she doesn’t actually feel like she’s a millennial.

- We discussed with other participants in the Trainee program whether we can actually offer a millennial perspective when it sounds so compartmentalized at times. All the millennials are supposed to be experts in social media and interested in the same things. However, I try to offer Hannah a new perspective and at the same time remind me that there are as many perspectives as there are millennials.

A Lot Has Been Learned

Although there have only been three meetings, Hanna, who has worked at Posti for more than two years, and Emilia, who graduated with a master's degree in economics in December 2019, have already learned a lot from each other.

- I have noticed how important networking is in Hanna's work. It’s interesting how much Hanna collaborates with HR professionals from other companies. It’s been expansive to get in on a conversation with someone who works in a different team and does a whole different job, Emilia says.

- It has become clear to me that Emilia and the other millennials are quite goal-oriented and they reflect on things more than I remember doing myself at that stage. The constant desire to learn has become clear, and I am systematically thinking about what I am learning and whether this is taking me in the right direction. This is a good idea for leading millennia, inches Hanna.

Hanna and Emilia agree that Millenial mentoring can be recommended to everyone.

- I wish I had had such mentoring in my previous jobs, this is a really great thing, Emilia cheers.

- Forward with an open mind, Hanna encourages.

In the Millenial Mentoring Program, participants of the Posti Trainee Program mentor the members of the Posti Management Team. Reverse mentoring has many benefits: members of the management team get to hear what values ​​and insights millennials have, and they can get a lot of fresh ideas for doing their own work. Millennials can also provide guidance on issues such as technology, social media, and general trends. Mentoring mentors, on the other hand, can become more closely involved in their new work community by collaborating with the management team. At the same time, it will give good tips for building your own career.

The mentor pairs are: Razieh Zare – Kaj Kulp, Anna Juusonen – Kaarina Ståhlberg, Vesa Pulkkinen – Janne Ojanperä, Henri Torniainen – Tom Jansson, Emilia Rantala – Hanna Reijonen, Aleksanteri Fagerholm – Petteri Naulapää, Markus Hirvola – Sakari Kiiskinen, Anniina Puhilas – Yrjö Eskola, Katariina Honkanen – Maiju Fernelius ja Henri Törnwall – Turkka Kuusisto.