VALA FAQ

We always try to enable multiple project opportunities for our people and more often than not we succeed in this. We know our people’s project wishes and look for matches for them relentlessly. We don’t waste our time on project opportunities that don’t match the needs of the employee in question. 

Sometimes there’s only one opportunity and in these cases one naturally doesn’t have the opportunity to choose between projects. However, it’s very important to note that at VALA, no one is ever forced into a project that he/she/they doesn’t feel comfortable with. So, if there’s only one opportunity on the table, but it absolutely doesn’t feel right, we’ll just keep on looking!

Our clients represent many different industries and sizes; From small companies to some of the largest companies in Finland. Industrywise our strongest ones are: finance, technology & manufacturing, health industry and public sector.

Most VALA people work at customers’ premises or remotely from where they feel best.

Our office at Erottaja, Helsinki, has two floors. One contains our more casual, team work spaces, and the other one is better suited for independent working. VALA admin team works mainly at the office (though many work remotely some days in a week) and the amount of consultants at the office varies; some days are somewhat quiet but Fridays for example are usually pretty much full, maybe because we have free breakfast and afterworks on Fridays…

It varies a lot. Sometimes we do POC’s (Proof of Concept) for example and these can last as little as a couple of weeks. On the other end the longest projects have lasted around five years. The average project length is around 6 to 18 months.

Starting to sound like a broken record but it varies… About 80% of VALA people work in clients with more than one person from VALA. On the other hand we also have some clients where we only have one person from VALA. Our goal is that in the future there will be more than one person from VALA in all our projects. 

Good question! We’ve researched the topic quite a lot and our assumption is that compared to other similar companies in our industry, our salaries are equal or better. Naturally, salaries are a complex issue and comparisons are difficult because there’s so many variables and limited public information. For instance, we are quite certain that our people are more skilled than the average employee in our industry.

Here are the salaries of our technical experts in March 2026:
Average monthly salary women: 4853 €
Average monthly salary men: 5178 €

There are several factors where you can affect and are taken into consideration when reviewing your salary adjustments:

• Role and seniority: The specific responsibilities and expectations of your current position and your level of experience. 
• Technical competence: Your proficiency and expertise in relevant technical skills.
• Consulting competence: Your effectiveness in client-facing roles, including communication, problem-solving, and relationship management. 
• Performance with clients: This is influenced by the feedback you receive from the client.
• Attitude/motivation/values: Your alignment with VALA’s core values, your level of motivation, and your overall positive contribution to the team.
• VALA’s salary levels by role: Internal benchmarks and salary ranges established for different roles within the company.

• Annual personal education budget
• Lunch- and Phone benefits
• 500€ wellbeing budjet and you can choose where to use it (e.g. sports, culture, wellbeing or commuting).
• Possibility to participate in future engagement programs.
• On your behalf, we donate yearly to Finnish Heritage Foundation.
• Occupational healthcare through Mehiläinen
• Possibility for at-home child care for a sick child.

VALA has an employee engagement program in place. The content of the engagement program is decided annually.

We have many kinds of professionals at VALA. Whether a business person or a software developer, one thing we all have in common is a strong focus in quality.

In the spring of 2026 we are more than 150 in total. 22 of these are working at VALA as freelancers. However, as syrupy cliche it is, at VALA we are all one family. This means that everyone is treated the same and practically the only differences between employees and freelancers are related to financial incentives (like salary/price, benefits, engagement program). Moreover employees naturally enjoy the stability of permanent employment. 17 of us are currently working in admin types of roles.

VALA is a self directed organization. For us this means first and foremost that people are trusted here and people get to make decisions as they feel best. Everyone at VALA can decide their own development path (according to our strategy, we don’t train painters here but quality professionals) and for this, receive all the needed support. Self directedness brings with it a great deal of freedom and responsibility. 

Self directedness at VALA means that everyone gets more than enough support for self development, career path and project work. No one is left alone with their challenges. BUT, one must understand that self directedness means that one has to ask for this support. 

To sum up, it all starts with yourself. If you have the drive to improve and make things happen, there are no barriers whatsoever. If something doesn’t please you, by all means figure out a better way and fix it. On the other hand, if you’re a person who expects active guidance in your work, then your progress might stagnate at VALA.

In the spring of 2026 there’s 17 people in the admin team. Their tasks can be roughly categorised as follows:

Sales and customer management, six people
People team (HR, wellbeing & recruitment), four people
Marketing, two people
Competence development, one person
Finance, two persons
Office & IT, one person
CEO

Smart question ;)! At VALA we believe in servant leadership which flips the traditional hierarchy: the leader serves the team rather than the other way around. The focus is on helping people grow, removing obstacles, and making decisions that prioritize people’s long-term wellbeing. All this with the goal that the individual can perform and help our clients as well as possible. Authority comes from trust and demonstrated care, not from positional power.

In practice, it looks like asking “what do you need from me?” before giving direction, crediting the team publicly and taking responsibility privately, and investing in mentoring over command-and-control.

At VALA, we have a low hierarchy. In the admin team, there are team leads who act as supervisors alongside the CEO. We work with a distributed leadership model based on servant leadership across the whole company. This means leadership is not tied to a single role or team, but shared, with a focus on supporting others to succeed. For consultants, formally the only supervisor is the CEO, but in practice, leadership responsibilities are shared across different roles.

VALA contacts make sure that everyday project work runs smoothly. They support consultants in project-related topics, including wellbeing, performance and salary discussions, together with the people team. VALA contacts take on many responsibilities that are typically associated with supervisors, but we have chosen not to frame the role in a traditional way.

VALA coaches support development. They help consultants grow their skills, reflect on their goals, and move forward in their careers.
What matters most is how we lead. Our goal is to support our people to succeed in their projects, work well with clients, feel well, stay motivated, and find their work meaningful.

In our strategy, we have listed five most important values for us: Empathy, Autonomy, Transparency, Responsibility, Learning.

Company development at VALA begins with listening. We listen to what our people say (directly and between the lines) and ask feedback. We regularly and often find out what is going well and where we could improve. Moreover, in the spirit of self directedness, we encourage people to act on their own development ideas.

In the big picture, the company strategy indicates the direction for the development. We evaluate our strategy yearly and according to the situation, make needed changes. Usually there is a small group of people who make an initial internal and external background work to find out the magnitude of potential changes. If we make bigger changes, we always involve all VALA people who want to participate; e.g. with surveys or workshops.

VALA’s human-centric culture can be seen and felt everywhere. It develops in everyday interactions, in how we work together and treat each other.

It shows how people meet and what kind of atmosphere we create together. Our value of empathy is present in these moments, in how we communicate, support each other, and build a safe and positive environment. This is also something we receive a lot of positive feedback on.

Culture is also visible in how we share information and make decisions. We aim to be as transparent as possible and share openly whenever we can. Everyone at VALA has visibility into how the company is doing, for example through shared financials. We actively involve our people in developing the company and ask for feedback.

We aim to create an environment where it is safe to fail and learn. When something does not go as planned, we address it openly, take responsibility, and move forward.

We also focus on building a sense of community. We invest time in onboarding and create regular opportunities for people to meet each other. Our events are organized in a hybrid format, so people can join regardless of location. Each week, there are different ways to connect, from casual breakfasts to professional development events. At the same time, participation is always optional.

We also want to meet every employee in person at least once a year to stay connected and strengthen our culture of care. At VALA, we develop our culture together with all VALA people and we trust that this way it will evolve to the direction suitable for our people.

At VALA, we offer many different ways to develop. The most important one is client work, as that is where most of your time is spent and where a lot of learning happens in practice.

Alongside project work, you can also offer possibilities for communal learning and self study. Self study can mean completing a course, working towards a certification, or learning a new technology. Communal learning can happen in study groups or in our competence communities, which bring people together around shared topics and organize sessions every couple of weeks.

At the same time, we recognize that it is not always clear what to focus on next. To support this, we have built career paths and defined training needs that reflect our view on what skills are valuable to develop. Our VALA coaches help you think about your next steps and make sure you have the support you need. 

In addition to live interaction, we also support sharing knowledge in written form. We aim to keep the threshold low for sharing learnings. In Slack, we have dedicated channels for this, and for longer discussions we use Discourse.

Even though we offer different structures and support, VALA is a self directed company. In the end, development is something that starts from each individual.