Sami Laine says he has always felt that HR is his calling. Laine has two master s degrees, one in business and the other in social sciences. Laine admits that he puts in quite a bit of effort to ensure his competence in HR always stays ahead of the curve.
Laine recently took part in Aalto EE’s Executive HR program. Laine worked as Head of HR at Finnish airports network operator Finavia while he was studying in the program. Thereafter he turned a new leaf in his career, and in January 2019 Laine started working at Lindström Group, where he is in charge of HR in Finland.
Laine says Aalto EE’s Executive HR program provided good payback for the time and money invested in it.
“Aalto EE is a high-quality executive education provider and the Executive HR program seemed to me like a first-rate opportunity for gaining fresh perspective in my field. I am pleased that I decided to participate: the program gave me new ideas on how I as a HR leader can help our business – and perhaps most importantly, the program broadened my perspective of the entire field of HR,” Laine says.
The program gave me new ideas on how I as a HR leader can help our business.
Laine describes the program as an excellent experience that gave him deeper insight of many topical areas in HR, as well as new development ideas.
“The program was very professionally put together. The lecturers were great and we had a very good atmosphere in our group. The topics were relevant and interesting and I gained many excellent tools that I could put to use immediately at work,” Laine recaps.
“All in all, the program was a very well executed package that met my expectations nicely. The teaching methods suited my learning style well and I feel I gained a great deal out of this program,” he adds.
Laine brings up several topics that he found highly interesting during the program, for example talent management and impactful HR leadership.
“We had some particularly interesting discussions regarding talent management – for example how a person’s earlier experience and performance are not the best guarantees of future potential. We should pay much more attention to a person’s ability to learn new skills,” Laine mentions.
“Gaining a more in-depth perception of impactful HR leadership was also very rewarding. I got a lot of new ideas for example on developing my own leadership competence, and on boosting my ability to influence others,” he notes.
“Strategic HR leadership skills, how to take a step back and look at the big picture before rushing into fix HR challenges, strategic competences – the list of interesting areas in which I gained new insight was quite impressive, especially taking into account how concise the program is. No topic was new to me as such, but every topic gave me something new and beneficial to reflect on in my work,” Laine ponders.
Gaining a more in-depth perception of impactful HR leadership was also very rewarding.
During the program, participants also had group works relating to some of their employers. Laine was in a group that reflected on Finavia’s value process discussion development.
“I found discussing the topic with fellow HR professionals from outside our company tremendously beneficial, as I was in charge of this ongoing development project at Finavia. I got great ideas for example on how to engage our personnel during the value process discussions,” Laine points out.
Laine says he is pleased to endorse Aalto EE’s Executive HR program, especially to experienced HR professionals.
“I am happy to recommend this program. I gained a great deal of fresh ideas and useful tools which I have found very beneficial at work. To top it all off, I got a marvelous network of highly knowledgeable, likeminded peers,” he affirms.