4 January 2024
“My job is fundamentally about people.” This was Žyginta Žilinskaitė’s answer when asked about her roles and responsibilities. And when you’re working with people, strong personal connections are essential.
“I make sure we all have a great experience working here. So the key to my job is getting to know people.”
But, as our Senior Workplace Experience Manager, Žyginta’s task is not just to build an individual connection with each employee. She is also tasked with building bridges between different people and teams so the organization comes together and processes flow smoothly.
“My typical working day includes a lot of problem solving, and looking for ways to optimize our internal processes. But doing this is only possible with targeted, engaging and timely internal communication. In other words, the main challenge in my job is to keep people connected and informed.”
From being on personal terms with each team member, through to clear communication and the various team events Žyginta organizes, everything revolves around connections.
The scale of the task
While Žyginta’s commitment to knowing each employee personally is admirable, it is being put to the test by Ignitis REN’s rapid growth. “Getting to know each person is getting harder and harder to do,” she admits. “To give you an idea, about 100 new people have joined the team in the last year.”
Nevertheless, this is a practice Žyginta will not give up lightly, because she understands its value. “Involving employees from day one is important for their engagement with the team later on.”
Team members from around the world
Along with the challenge of working in the field of green energy (which she is new to and passionate about), it was the diversity of Ignitis Renewables’ team that attracted her to the position. “The international team was the first thing that caught my attention,” she explains.
Multi-cultural teams bring a lot of richness and value. But there are also inter-cultural pit falls to be wary of, especially when it’s your job to build a connection with everyone and make them feel at home.
“We had one funny misunderstanding when we congratulated our colleague Matthew on his birthday even though it wasn’t his birthday,” recalls Žyginta. “In England they write the days and months the other way round in the date, so that’s what caused the confusion. In the end, Matthew got to celebrate his birthday twice, so it wasn’t a bad mistake to make and we laughed about it a lot.”
A company culture that brings people together
A good sense of humor can do a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to uniting people from different backgrounds. And it is safe to say Ignitis Renewables has an ample supply of it.
“Every day is fun in our team,” says Žyginta. “I like to say that if you’re in a bad mood, go and read the comments on our Teams channel.”
According to Žyginta, there are many other important facets to Ignitis’ culture that enable strong connections between people.
“The team doesn’t feel hierarchical,” she points out. “Everyone is free to interact with C-level managers and colleagues from other departments. Our CEO typifies this open approach. He never misses an opportunity to joke around.”
“Overall, I would describe our internal culture as flexible and supportive, with strong teamwork and freedom for ideas and growth.”
And this is good news for Žyginta. Because, when it’s your job to connect with and bring together hundreds of people from different countries, an open, friendly and positive culture makes that task a lot easier.
Vilnius
Finance
