People in tech: Tommy Hallén, Visma Enterprise

Our approximately 1400 members range from small start-ups with few employees to large multinational companies with thousands of employees around the world. Under the banner "People in tech", we gather their views on the tech industry as an employer, current employer issues and the industry's skills needs. First up in our new series is Tommy Hallén, who has worked as HR Director at Visma Enterprise for ten years.

- Visma Enterprise AB is a company that has had a fine development and grown both organically and through various mergers over the past 7-8 years, says Tommy Hallén and continues:

- My role as HR Director is to be responsible for the company's HR work both strategically and operationally. This means a broad assignment with work in areas such as Employer Branding, recruitment, leadership development, management support, performance management, HR data and data analysis, automation of HR processes and more.

The new report Tech Industry as an Employer 2023 shows that the tech industry is among the most attractive in the Swedish labor market. How do you view the report from Visma Enterprises' perspective? '

- Of course, it is generally a very gratifying report to read for us as tech companies. It's very good and important that the tech industry is at the forefront of being an attractive and relevant industry to work in. It's always good to get confirmation that we are very competitive as an employer, given the engine that the tech industry is for Sweden's continued development. When it comes to the development of gender equality, it is also gratifying that things are going in the right direction. The fact that we at Visma Enteprise AB are a pioneer is something we are very proud of and is a crucial factor in the success of our company. 

Visma Enterprise has achieved a 50/50 gender balance and received the Excellent Employer 2023 award from the Nyckeltalsinstitutet. Tell us about your work towards gender equality. 

- We have started from scratch, with our values and then set goals and constantly measured and followed up that we are on the right track. Both we at Visma Enterprise AB, and the entire Visma Group, strive for an inclusive approach in all aspects and gender balance is part of this. What we do concretely is to work continuously with the issue in workshops, we organize so-called awareness training, we arrange and participate in inspirational lectures. Visma also has an active D&I network that raises the issue in various contexts. 

- We then continuously measure how employees perceive our workplace in monthly employee surveys and we also have an inclusion index. The index shows how satisfied employees are with the company's efforts to achieve a mixed workforce and to create an environment where each individual feels included.

- Furthermore, it goes without saying that we offer equal and relevant conditions for both genders. This includes everything from financial compensation to the possibility of working according to a hybrid model. We also want our employees to feel that they are contributing to something bigger and that our solutions actually contribute to the development of society.

What challenges do you see ahead and how will you continue to work on these issues?

- The challenge is to remain goal-oriented at all times, which is why gender equality is high on our agenda. For 2024, it remains one of our priority focus areas linked to our staff. This means that we will continue to monitor and measure our inclusion index on a monthly basis to keep track of how employees perceive our workplace. Based on this index and other KPIs in the area, we try to take appropriate actions to continuously develop ourselves. We have set up and will continue to develop a special internal intranet page on Diversity & Inclusion, where our employees can keep track of all the initiatives that are being taken and, among other things, how we are doing with our indices and KPIs. So for us, it's no longer about a lot of revolutionary one-off actions, but about keeping an eye on the situation and working on small, ongoing improvements.