”For me, lontti culture means communality, supporting each other, empathy and caring. It’s also about happiness and succeeding together. At first, the word “lontti” took some time to getting used to, even though the culture felt right straight from the start. The word even seemed a bit odd before I started working at CCEA. But once I joined the community, it all made sense. It’s probably hard to describe it to the outside world, but you can feel it immediately.
The CCEA onboarding process was a positive experience compared to what I’m used to. It was well structured, and things were not left only for the new employee to do or figure out. I appreciate that I had enough time to meet the new people and learn the CCEA way of working well before starting my first customer project.
The lontti culture is reflected in my daily work – I’m not alone and there’s always someone with whom I can brainstorm if I’m stuck with something. When joining a new customer team, I like that the principal consultant introduces the company and its industry well, and I know that his/her support is available.
For a consultancy company, communality is not something that you can take for granted. Even though lonttis work with different clients and usually spend their time in client premises, we still have a tight group and a culture where you can ask anyone for help. On Fridays, we all gather at out office, have morning coffee together and share the highlights of our week. This even increases the feeling of social cohesion. This is a great way to stay in touch with the colleagues I’m not currently working together with and learn more about them as persons.
I feel that CCEA cares about our well-being and respects everyone’s life outside of work. Compared to many traditional large corporations, the leadership team is visible, and we know who stand behind the decisions. We try to avoid bureaucracy. There’s also a lot that lonttis do outside work, e.g. After work and sports events. These are nice things to have, but I also appreciate that all activities are voluntary – it’s completely up to you to choose what to participate in and when.
All lonttis have a good attitude and the people are well selected – not just for their professional know-how but also for their skills in empathy. I think it’s more important that a culture is lived in practice, instead of trying to memorize a few selected words and not actually living by them. At the same time, it’s challenging to define what are the concrete building blocks of a culture. For me, it’s a certain feeling that I get from all the activities we do and from the people I work with. After all, I have to say that I’m happy to be working here.”
