At VALA, we don’t just talk about having a great company culture – we live it. We believe in building a workplace where empathy, respect, and genuine connection thrive. And we’re not just saying that; we have the data to back it up. Besides external validation, in the form of the Great Place to Work victory in 2025, there’s much more data to prove our point. In this post we’ll go through some of it. 

Numbers don’t lie

We’re proud of our impressive employee satisfaction metrics. Our eNPS score of 84 (in Fall 2024) tells us that our employees are enthusiastic advocates for VALA as an employer. And for the first time, we participated in the Great Place to Work competition, where we maintained an average of 95% positive feedback across all survey questions. This means that nearly every VALA employee believes we’re a great place to be.

What makes VALA special? 

A while ago we conducted a culture survey, interviewing 70 VALA employees to understand what makes our company unique. Here’s what VALA people highlighted:

• VALA is recognized as a leader in the industry.
• At our core, we value human connection and empathy.
• We prioritize work-life balance and offer flexibility in how and where work is done.
• Employees value the opportunity to influence and shape their projects.
• We have a strong sense of community.
• Each employee feels seen, heard, and valued.
• We create opportunities for connection through our regular events and activities.

“I think VALA is a good company because we can affect the projects we are working with. Also the work environment and culture, which starts from the small things – how people are noticed, how they are met, what kind of career opportunities there are, how much you can impact.” – Janne Juopperi.

Employee Opinions – what our employees have to say

Here’s what our employees have to say about their experience:

• “The atmosphere at VALA is amazing. We’re working together so that everyone enjoys themselves.”
• “I’ve just felt so welcomed from day one. I truly feel I can be myself and I feel respected.”
• “VALA is a very inclusive workplace.”
• “VALA is genuinely interested in how others are feeling.”
• “It’s always a little bit uncomfortable to bring out possible issues, but it’s never been easier anywhere else than here with Vala.”
• “I feel welcome, respected and included at VALA being my unique self.”
• “More than one person has contacted me recently to ask how I’m doing.”
• “Whenever I’ve said anything about some possible difficulties with the project for example, I’ve felt my VALA contact person and all others want to listen to me. I don’t feel the need to hide anything.”
• “Asking for help might feel a bit hard sometimes, especially if the question feels ‘silly’ but in Vala I have always got really nice responses and all the possible help I needed.”
• “Communication is open and people are involved in decision making.”

Areas for improvement 

We’re not perfect, and we’re committed to improving continuously. Here are some areas our employees highlighted for development:

• Project Transitions: some employees wish it would be even easier to change projects
• Professional Development: some feel that the amount of study days could be increased and that there could be more defined career development paths.
• Compensation and Benefits: there are employees who feel that while compensation is fair, it could be more competitive, and that benefits could be improved.

We are listening, and we are actively working on addressing for example these topics. As an example, we already renewed our benefit package in 2025, adding more benefits while keeping all existing ones.

What now?

Above all, at VALA, our employees feel seen and heard. We prioritize open communication, empathy, and genuine connection. 

We’re proud of what we’ve achieved, but we know there’s always room to grow. The fact that the things we want to improve are pretty minor shows how good workplace VALA already is. By really listening to our employees, we’re sure we can make VALA even more amazing. 

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