Stakeholder interaction

Our key stakeholders are customers, owners, personnel, decision-makers, partners and funding providers.

Customers

Our customers are Finnish universities outside the Greater Helsinki region, higher education institutes, businesses and public corporations operating on our campuses, and all users of our premises. Universities and higher education institutes are increasing their spatial efficiency, which has freed up premises for non-university users. This has led to an expansion of our customer base. We expect this trend to continue in the coming years.

Customer relationship management is a strategically important aspect of SYK’s operations. It is aimed at ensuring that we correctly understand the campus and spatial needs of each customer, and that the customers have access to a campus, premises and services that meet their needs.

Responsibility to the customer particularly concerns always maintaining the premises in an appropriate condition, and developing the premises in response to our customers’ changing needs. We support the success of our customers by developing our properties into attractive campuses.

Customer satisfaction survey result release for 2018

SYK is owned by the nine Finnish universities outside the Greater Helsinki region (University of Eastern Finland, University of Jyväskylä, University of Oulu, University of Lapland, Tampere University, University of Turku, University of Vaasa, Åbo Akademi University and Lappeenranta University of Technology) and the Finnish government, represented by Senate Properties Ltd.

The owners exercise control over the company at General Meetings and elect the members of the Board of Directors. The owners are influential organisations in their respective regions, giving University Properties of Finland Ltd significant regional influence. In addition to being the company’s owners, the universities are its customers, which means that communication between the company and the universities is very active.

Communication with stakeholders

We engaged in close cooperation and dialogue with partners, influencers and decision-makers in 2018.

Our communication channels include our website and social media accounts as well as one-on-one meetings and local media conferences. We also aim to engage in close cooperation in the area of communication with our partners and the media.

We conducted a stakeholder survey in early 2019. Based on the survey, we will determine the material aspects of our operations and reporting in more detail during the year. The stakeholder survey was conducted in the form of theme interviews to assess our customers’ and partners’ views regarding our operations, what they consider the most important aspects of our work and what their wishes are with regard to our responsibility. The results of the survey will be analysed in more detail during the year.

In the stakeholder survey, the respondents were invited to rank responsibility themes and material aspects of SYK’s operations in their perceived order of importance. The most important themes highlighted by the survey were safe and healthy premises and long-term property development solutions. A few of the interviewees also highlighted cost-efficiency and innovative premises as key considerations.

Memberships in organisations

University Properties of Finland Ltd is a member of Real Estate Employers, which is an advocacy organisation representing employers in the Finnish real estate and facility services sector. The company is also a member of the Finnish Association of Building Owners and Construction Clients (RAKLI) and the FIBS corporate responsibility network. RAKLI brings together responsible professionals in the real estate and construction sector and disseminates information on these industries, while FIBS is Finland’s leading accelerator of sustainable business and a developer of companies’ expertise.

University Properties of Finland Ltd conducted a total of 20 stakeholder interviews among its major customers and partners as well as employees at the turn of the year 2018–2019. One part of the interviews was to rank SYK’s key responsibility themes in their order of importance. The materiality matrix above shows these themes in the order of importance indicated by the research data. Financial aspects — such as the efficient use of space and cost-efficiency — were not included in the ranking question in the survey since they are ever-present considerations in SYK’s operations and they are given a high priority as a rule. We believe that cost-efficiency and the efficient use of space are obvious priorities in our operations and we need to always seek to maximise them.

The stakeholder study was conducted as an interview survey, which allowed us to assess the views of our stakeholders more comprehensively. The results of the survey will guide us towards closer and better stakeholder engagement in the coming years.

Stakeholder map

Universities
Universities of applied sciences
Businesses
Service companies
Schools and day-care centres
The Finnish government, represented by Senate Properties

Construction and property maintenance companies
Other stakeholders in the construction and property sector
Other service providers
International networks
Funding providers

Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Education and Culture, Ministry of the Environment
European Union
Members of Parliament
Museum authorities
Municipal building control authorities

“Researchers have more time for research, the university and the university of applied sciences have more funds available"

The joint campus of the university and the university of applied sciences in Lappeenranta is a place where big problems are solved and people work together towards the common good.