“Musti Office goes stores” strengthens Musti’s pack
As an employer, Musti wants to take good care of its pack. Our employee well-being is reflected in high employee satisfaction levels, and we do our best to make sure that all employees feel like they belong to the Musti pack. In 2023, Musti’s office employees in Finland got a chance to work at Musti’s stores.
The purpose of the “Musti Office goes stores” concept is to get Musti employees to know each other better and to increase mutual understanding of the impact office work has on stores and vice versa. Creating new contacts also makes further communication easier. All Musti’s office employees, including top management, took a four-hour shift in one of the stores.
“The first Musti Office goes stores was piloted in spring 2023 and the feedback was positive. Both the office and store employees said the experience had been eye-opening and a good way of strengthening the sense of belonging. We decided to arrange shifts in some of the stores again in November and December, especially to help with the busy Christmas season,” says Katarina Haga, Head of HR Finland.
Learning from each other helped strengthen the pack
The content of the shifts was planned together with the participating stores, and the office employees assisted with key store tasks including pricing, unloading, and setting up store displays. For example, Musti ja Mirri Tammisto welcomed seven small groups from the Musti office throughout the fall and winter 2023.
“As an experience, Musti Office goes stores was nice and memorable. It was great to meet the people who do the important work behind the scenes to help the stores’ day-to-day work. It was also fantastic to notice how the feeling of a Musti pack is present all over the chain! Together we had great ideas on how to further develop some of the store practices and processes,” says Musti ja Mirri Store Manager Sohvi Mattila.
Project Manager Teemu Kurki assisted at a Musti store in November, helping out with product unloading and other work. Kurki was impressed by the number of various tasks at the store and how important of a role the well-planned store displays have.
“It was good to learn more about the daily tasks and processes. From my job’s perspective, the shift strengthened my understanding of the fact that there cannot be too many IT pilot projects and other experiments running simultaneously, as the stores need to have enough time for daily work,” he says.
New ideas into practice
For Kirsi Pitkänen, the Musti Office goes stores shift allowed her to change perspective and do something different and fun during the workday. She had a chance to be creative with store displays while also learning how physical the work at stores can be.
“Compared to my regular day at the office, there was so much more physical exercise, such as lifting up heavy food packages,” says Pitkänen, who works as a Solution Manager at Musti Group.
“The practical experience at the stores allows us at the office to develop different solutions to help the daily work at all Musti stores. We have gotten a few great ideas during these store visits and some of them have already been put into practice,” she points out.
Due to the positive feedback, Musti Office goes stores will continue in 2024 across the Nordic markets.
