Workshops based on personality profiling have helped Enento’s teams work together more effectively after significant organizational changes. The results can be seen, for example, in a stronger team spirit and improved psychological safety.

At Enento, a provider of digital business and consumer information services, two mergers took place in 2018 and 2019, bringing major organizational changes. Soon after, the pandemic began – followed by further significant changes in the company’s leadership, business operations, and the surrounding world.

“Over the past few years, we have increasingly formed Nordic teams that operate across countries. This required new ways of working together and getting to know colleagues in a different way than before. The need became particularly visible when we returned to hybrid work after the pandemic. The integration of the different country organizations had not really happened culturally. For that reason, among others, we decided to focus strongly on developing leadership, culture, and teams,” says Sari Ek, HR Director at Enento.

A Clear Need for Team Workshops

As teams began meeting again after the pandemic, Ek says there was a clear need for team members to get to know each other better and to understand different cultures as well as different ways of working and thinking.

Ek began facilitating team workshops based on the WorkPlace Big Five personality profile, with the aim of strengthening team synergy and enabling more effective collaboration.

First, each team member completes a WorkPlace Big Five Profile and then has an individual feedback discussion.

After this, the whole team gathers for a joint workshop where key themes for the team are explored. Using methods such as scale-walk, the team examines important areas together – especially strengths, but also potential areas for development.

Greater Understanding of Diversity

Despite the major changes that occurred within a relatively short period of time, the new teams have quickly started working well together.

“I believe – and we can also see it in the results – that WorkPlace Big Five has helped teams form more quickly. Without it, it might have taken longer to find the right ways of working together,” Ek says.

At Enento, a pulse survey is used to measure areas such as team spirit, psychological safety, self-leadership, and diversity. All of these indicators have improved since the team coaching sessions began.

Ek believes the positive development is largely due to team members gaining a better understanding of each other’s ways of working – and because differences in personality and behavior have been openly discussed.

“We wanted to increase understanding of diversity and encourage people to listen to different perspectives. Conversations have become more open and constructive. There is also more laughter and humor in our teams.”

Currently, more than half of Enento’s teams – nearly 200 employees – have participated in the workshops, and the coaching continues.

A Systematic and Measurable Journey

With the pulse survey tool, teams themselves have also been able to monitor the impact of the coaching: where they were before the workshop, what happened during the workshop and afterward, and how the results are reflected in the team’s metrics.

“This is not just a single workshop after which everything goes back to normal. It is a systematic journey whose results are also measured,” Ek explains.

Word about the positive impact of the coaching spread quickly among Enento’s managers.

Initially, Ek facilitated the workshops alone. Today, in addition to her, all three HR Business Partners and the Development Partner in the company have also become certified WorkPlace Big Five users.

“Clearly, teams and managers appreciate how the profiling opens up people’s ways of working and their personality at work in a constructive way,” Ek says.

HR Supporting Teams in a New Way

The team coaching workshops have created a new kind of collaboration between HR, managers, and teams at Enento.

“We now have a clear way to support and develop teamwork, and it strengthens the shared agenda between HR and the teams. HR is no longer just a separate administrative function somewhere in the background – it is genuinely supporting teams and helping them succeed. The added value of HR is strongly recognized in our organization,” Ek says.

She also feels that WorkPlace Big Five is particularly well suited for a data-intensive technology organization.

“Whatever we do, it needs to have a certain level of reliability. It is reassuring to use WorkPlace Big Five because we know how extensive its research foundation is,” Ek says.

WorkPlace Big Five in Team Development

WorkPlace Big Five helps to:

Foster constructive and open dialogue
Increase understanding and appreciation of differences
Deepen collaboration between HR and teams

Interested in introducing WorkPlace Big Five in your organization? Read more about the tool.

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Enento Group is a Nordic expert company that has provided information for society since 1905. Enento Group consists of six companies operating in Finland, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark.

Sari Ek is an experienced HR professional who joined Enento in 2022 and has served as the company’s HR Director since 2023.