Stakeholders value the procurement law and tendering expertise of Hansel’s employees
Hansel regularly monitors customer and supplier satisfaction. A customer satisfaction survey is arranged annually, and a supplier satisfaction survey has been arranged every other year. Both surveys were due to take place in 2022. The surveys were realised in January 2023, and a decision was made to arrange both surveys annually in the future.
The overall customer satisfaction score, 4.15, was better than in the previous year (4.06 in 2021), despite the changes in the state of world affairs. The pandemic, the restrictive measures and the war in Ukraine affected Hansel’s operations.
Much of the work with customers still took place online, and events were organised as webinars. After a two-year break, the autumn roadshow took the form of live meetings at thirteen locations.
In the customer satisfaction survey, the most valued aspects of our operations were our knowledge of the Act on Public Procurement and Concession Contracts and our tendering skills, our service attitude, and the performance of our contact persons. As in the previous year, development areas named by the customers included knowledge of the customers’ needs, and the benefits and functionality of joint procurement. However, there was a slight improvement in both areas compared to the previous year.
A total of 416 customers who did business with Hansel in 2022 replied to the survey.
- The average score was 4.15 (4.06 in 2021).
- A total of 85% of the respondents (84%) gave an overall score of 3.50 or above,
- while 6% (6%) of the respondents gave an overall score of 2.99 or less.
The Executive Committee discussed the results of the 2022 customer satisfaction survey, and the results were also reviewed at a personnel information event. The results will be used in the planning of development initiatives with the employees.
The performance bonus paid to Hansel employees is linked to the customer satisfaction feedback.
Development measure 2022: customer needs are heard in working groups
The involvement of the customer working group in the planning of the procurement process is the basis for the success of Hansel’s joint procurement. The customer working group plays its part in ensuring that the joint procurement meets the customers’ needs, whether it is a question of defining the requirements of the procurement target, the range, the contractual terms or the contract award criteria. A need to improve the work with the customer working group emerged from the responses to our 2021 customer satisfaction survey, which called for a better consideration of customer needs.
In the spring of 2022, we launched a development project with the aim of identifying customer working group practices at different stages of the procurement process, the needs and expectations of our customers for the customer working group, and the needs and expectations of our different units for the customer working group. In addition, the project aimed to develop and share good customer working group practices and to update the customer working group guidelines that our specialists use in their work.
To survey the customer perspective, we reviewed previous customer feedback and customer satisfaction survey responses. To improve our understanding, we also conducted interviews in the summer of 2022 with nine of our customers who have participated in the work of the customer working group in recent years. The views of Hansel employees were also gathered through surveys and at unit meetings.
The project developed and disseminated a set of ready-made templates of best practices to ensure that the work of the customer working group was coherent and of a high quality. In addition, an information session was arranged in the autumn for all Hansel employees on good customer working group practices and methods of inclusion. The development of some of the needs identified by the project will continue in 2023.
Development measures influence supplier satisfaction
Based on the results of last year’s supplier satisfaction survey, Hansel launched several internal projects in 2022 to develop supplier cooperation and the service experience. Among other things, these development projects resulted in increased supplier communication (the Hankintaväylä newsletter is published 11 times a year), a harmonised market dialogue with suppliers and a clarification of the guidelines for the tendering phase, according to which the Hansel employees operate.
A supplier satisfaction survey was arranged in January 2023. The email survey was sent to 984 agreement contact persons. We received responses from 180 suppliers who did business with Hansel over the last year.
The overall supplier satisfaction improved from the previous year to an all-time high of 4.01. The results of the supplier satisfaction survey reveal that similarly to last year, the suppliers think that our knowledge of the Act on Public Procurement and Concession Contracts, our tendering skills and the work of agreement contact persons are our strengths. Knowledge of the procurement target and the fluency of tendering processes were named as development areas in supplier cooperation.
The Executive Committee and the weekly category management meeting reviewed the results of the supplier satisfaction survey. The results will be used in the planning of supplier cooperation development initiatives with the category managers.
- The average score was 4.01 (3.90 in 2021).
- An overall score of 3.50 or better was given by 81.9% (75.1%) of the respondents,
- while 8.5% (9.2%) of the respondents gave an overall score of 2.99 or less.
The results of the supplier satisfaction survey have an impact on the performance bonuses paid to the category managers.
Customer forum
The customer forum convened three times in 2022. A survey of the forum’s operations for the members was arranged. According to the feedback received, the current form of the forum is perceived as functional and useful. Within Hansel, the responsibility for the customer forum was transferred from Deputy Managing Director Raili Hilakari to Account Manager Maritta Mäkelä as Hilakari retired. The meetings focused mostly on the broader effects of the war in Ukraine on procurement.
A customer story from Senate Properties was heard at the March meeting. Esa-Pekka Kuikka, Head of Procurement, reported on the unit’s operations and development plans. The second speaker, Eija Kontuniemi, Head of Legal Affairs at Hansel, spoke about current legal issues, including restrictive measures and amendments to the Act on Public Procurement and Concession Contracts.
Feedback on the customer forum was reviewed at the June meeting. In addition, Kirsi Koivusaari, Director of Finance, spoke about sustainability in joint procurement and the impact of restrictive measures on procurement during the address of Eija Kontuniemi, Head of Legal Affairs.
The November forum focused on the significance of opening up public procurement to competition and procurement preparedness. Antti Norkela, who was on job rotation at Hansel from the Finnish Competition and Consumer Authority, spoke about the significance of competitive tendering, and Jukka Hämäläinen, Hansel’s Senior Legal Counsel, spoke about preparedness.
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