As Sonja Heiskanen, who has worked at Innokas Medical’s human resource department since 2006, decided to take on new challenges during the summer, Innokas Medical has appointed Minna Salomaa (M.Sc., Administrative Sciences) as HR Manager to replace Heiskanen.
Before joining Innokas, Salomaa was working for KONE Oyj, where she held the role of Senior HR Specialist. In her earlier positions Salomaa has gained significant experience in HR field as she has been working in several HR related positions for example at Patria and Insta Group. Especially the multifunctional role as well as very interesting healthcare technology field attracted Salomaa to apply the HR Manager position at Innokas.
“Diversified and multifunctional role, where I’m able to work and communicate closely with the employees, really sparked my interest. Although the healthcare technology is a new kind of industry for me to work in, it surely includes several common elements reflecting to my previous employment history. I’ve been able to work in the fields where the safety of people and the products are the key elements – especially my working experience from defense and security industry has taught the importance of these issues to me. That’s why the healthcare sector felt already kind of familiar to me – and on the other hand, will certainly provide lot of new things to learn”, Salomaa says.
Salomaa joined Innokas in June. Her main location is in Innokas Helsinki office, but as HR Manager she will regularly travel to meet Innokas employees at Innokas other locations, too.
“I’ve liked working at Innokas very much. As I started in my new role in June when the employees were having their summer holidays, it gave me a good opportunity to take a look at the routines and practices of Innokas to familiarize myself. It’s been also very rewarding to get to visit all Innokas locations and meet Innokas employees there, already in the beginning of my career at Innokas. My colleagues have extended me a warm welcome and have been ready to help, for which I am very grateful. At Innokas, the working atmosphere seems very positive and transparent”, she tells.
To counterbalance between work and home, Salomaa loves to do different kind of sports, travel a lot and work voluntarily at the cat rescue house. She finds it very important that both at work and home, she gets to spend her time with duties and issues she really enjoys. Salomaa finds that the best parts of her job are a diverse and multifunctional range of duties – as well as different challenges that may occur.
“When the daily work is almost a third of your daily grind, I find it very important that each of us will do their best to make sure that the time used at work is a good part of your everyday life. It’s sometimes very challenging to handle all the related issues when managing the HR field, but on the other hand, it’s definitely one of the best parts of my work and one reason I decided to apply the open position at Innokas. When working at human resource department, very challenging issues may occur – but solving different kind of situations and problems is also very rewarding. I’ve really enjoyed my first months at Innokas, and I believe the feeling remains”, Salomaa concludes.
