A headquarters with a difference

Walk into SOL City, headquarters of one of nortern Europe`s most admired companies, and it feels like you`ve entered a business playground. Located in a renovated film studio in the heart of Helsinki, the office explodes with colour, creativity and chaos. The walls are bright red, white and yellow; the employees wander the halls talking on yellow portable phones. Lisa Joronen developed SOL Cleaning Service 11 years ago, out of a 150-year-old industrial empire owned by her family. SOL`s competitive formula has five key ingredients.

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Few people dream about becoming a cleaner. But that doesn`t mean cleaners can`t find satisfaction in their work. The keys to satisfaction, Joronen believes, are fun and individual freedom. Its cleaners wear red-and-yellow jumpsuits that reinforce the company`s upbeat image. SOL`s logo, a yellow happy face, is on everything from her blazer to the company`s budget reports. Freedom means abolishing all the rules and regulations of conventional corporate life. There are no titles or secretaries at SOL, no individual offices or set hours of work. The company has eliminated all perks and status symbols.

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SOl`s training programme consists of seven modules, each of which lasts four months and ends with a rigorous exam. Of course, there are a limited number of ways to polish a table or shampoo a carpet. That`s why SOL employees also study time management, budgeting and people skills.

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Lots of companies talk about decentralising responsibility and authoruty. At SOL it`s way of life. The real power players of the company are its 135 supervisors, each of whom leads a team of up to 50 cleaners. These supervisors work with their teams to create their own budgets, do their own hiring and negotiate their own deals with customers.

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Lisa Joronen believes in autonomy, but she`s also keen on accountability. SOL is fanatical about measuring performance. It does so frequently and visibly, and focuses on customer satisfaction. Every time SOL lands a contract, for example, the salesperson works at the new customer`s site alongside the team that will do the cleaning in the future. Together they establish performance benchmarks. Then, every month, the customer rates the team`s performance based on those benchmarks. "The more we free our people from rules", Joronen says, "the more we need good measurements."

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Laptops and cell-phones are standard equipment for all supervisors at SOL, freeing them to work where they want, how they want. Inside the offices there`s almost no room for paper. So the company stores all critical budget documents and performance reports on its Intranet, along with training schedules, upcoming events and company news.

From Fast Company

 

7Which of these statements are true? Correct the falses ones.

1. Everyone has their own office. ____
2. Lisa Joronen believes cleaners can feel good about their job. ____
3. At the end of the training course there is an exam. ____
4. The training course takes 28 months to complete. ____
5. At SOL giving responsibility to employees is important. ____
6. SOL thinks measuring performance restricts freedom. ____
7. Every month Lisa Joronen measures each team`s performance. ____
8. All the information is stored in filing cabinets. ____

 

8Match the words to their meanings.

· set up standards of achievements

· assesses how the group have done

· interested in people being responsible for what they do

· extremely interested in judging achievements

keen on accountability

fanatical about measuring performance

establish performance benchmarks

rates the team`s performance

 

9Discuss these questions.

1. Would you like to work in a company like SOL? Explain why or why not.

2. Would Lisa Joronen`s ideas work in your own company or organisation?