Social responsibility
For us, social responsibility means looking after people and the surrounding society, including buildings.
Property development
We carry out construction projects and develop the service networks of our campuses in cooperation with our customers. It is important for us that the end result serves users not only today but also in the future. We aim to ensure that our new buildings as well as renovated buildings are healthy, safe and comfortable for people and the environment.
Our customers also have their own environmental and sustainable development goals, and we want to help them achieve them. Cooperation plays a significant role in this regard. With the help of the joint development process we have developed, we have been able to take a very customer-driven approach to the planning and design of premises.
We understand the value of our properties and respect their cultural heritage. When changes in the focus of our operations, for example, lead to us selling properties, we find buyers who have the same respect for the properties and the desire to develop them as part of the urban environment.
Research and development
Our vision is to be Europe’s most valued campus developer. To achieve this objective, we actively invest in research and development. We want to understand the increasingly rapid changes happening in the world and their effects on our business, and make the latest opportunities available to our customers.
One change that affects our operations is related to the changing perceptions of learning. This involves a shift from lecturing to phenomenon based learning and learning by doing. This entails creating classrooms and lecture halls that support a more active role for students. At the same time, the perception of learning premises is becoming broader. Spaces such as lobbies, corridors and restaurants can be used as learning environments.
Product responsibility
Safe and healthy premises and healthy indoor air quality in all of our buildings are very high priorities for us. The indoor air operating model we developed in cooperation with the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health is used at all of our campuses. We regularly evaluate the operating model for indoor air quality and the related development needs in cooperation with experts.
We are also involved in local cultural initiatives and we support biodiversity on our campuses.
Local communities
Last year, we supported children and young people in partnership with Save the Children Finland. We also supported children and their families in the inpatient wards of university hospitals.
We support activities that have broad positive impacts in Finland. Many of the organisations we have supported in the past have focused on helping children and young people.
We are also involved in local cultural initiatives and we support biodiversity on our campuses. We believe that even small acts that benefit nature and the environment can make people happier, and everyone enjoys an attractive environment. Last year, we participated in a planting project with the Tampere Teacher Training School and a local association to support biodiversity. The project involved planting a meadow to create a habitat for Anacampsis fuscella, an endangered moth species, at the site of the Teacher Training School in Tampere’s Nekala district. The project was carried out in cooperation with the teachers and students of the Teacher Training School and the local association Villiniitty.
Customer cooperation
Our customers include universities as well as businesses and other organisations that operate on campuses. In 2018, 92 per cent of our revenue came from universities and 8 per cent from other customers.
In accordance with our customer promise, we support the success of universities by developing our properties into attractive campuses. Customer relationship management is part of our company’s strategy and it is aimed at ensuring a high level of customer satisfaction.
In 2018, we restructured our organisation by making the management of customer relations and services a separate function. We recruited new employees as account managers, which is a new role in our organisation. The account managers operate in their respective regions, in close proximity to our customers and other stakeholders.
We aim to maintain ongoing contact with our customers and we hold regular monthly meetings with our major customers to discuss and review matters related to facilities and operations. We also have a feedback channel related to property maintenance. The feedback and its processing is actively monitored. We also engage with dialogue with our stakeholders on social media.
In addition to the channels mentioned above, we also have an ongoing customer relationship monitoring system and we survey our customers’ satisfaction with our operations by means of a more extensive annual survey. The survey is also aimed at identifying areas in which our operations should be improved.
We received a total of 126 responses to our customer survey conducted in late 2018. SYK’s average overall score was 3.6 on a scale of 1–5. Some 84 per cent of the respondents indicated that our role as a developer of university areas is fairly important or very important, and 30 per cent felt that our operations have improved over the past year (2017: 20%).
We survey our customers’ satisfaction with our operations annually.
SYK’s success by theme:
More than half of the respondents gave a score of 4 or 5 for the various themes on a scale of 1–5. The most satisfied customer category was businesses operating on campuses.
Scale: 1=very poor … 5=excellent
More respondents indicated operations had improved during the year
More customers than before indicated that SYK’s operations had improved during the past year (2017: 20%).
Development of operations
SYK’s role
84% of customers consider SYK’s role as a campus developer to be fairly important or very important (2017: 98%).
SYK’s role
Breakdown of customer groups by revenue in 2018
| Universities | 146,4 milj. € | 91,8 % |
| Other | 13,1 milj. € | 8,2 % |
| Total | 150,1 milj. € | 100 % |
Breakdown of customer groups, excluding universities, in 2018
| Municipalities | 4,1 milj. € | 2,6 % |
| The Finnish government | 0,5 milj. € | 0,3 % |
| Universities of applied sciences | 1,7 milj. € | 1,1 % |
| Hospital districts | 3,2 milj. € | 2,0 % |
| Businesses and private individuals | 3,7 milj. € | 2,3 % |
| Total | 13,1 milj. € | 8,2 % |
Sustainable development indicators
| Year 2018 | Year 2017 | Year 2016 | Unit | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Corporate responsibility | ||||
| Corporate responsibility, charity | 2 targets / year | 1 target / year | 1 targer / year | |
| Personnel have created added value for stakeholders (e.g. volunteering to deliver lectures) | 1 | 2,40 | 1,9 | days/year/pers. |
| Taking stakeholders into consideration | ||||
| Completed multi-user properties, new buildings | 2 | 1 | build. | |
| Demo sites for universities | 5 | 9 | 6 | cases / year |
| The company’s employment effect in Finland, indirect | 2040 | 2350 | 2000 | man-years |
| Safety | ||||
| Number of personnel with first-aid training | 16 / 30 | 16 / 35 | 16 / 32 | participants / whole staff |
| Safety coordinator and guidance at SYK’s construction sites | 100% | 100% | 100% | % |
| Employee competence development | ||||
| Employee training days/year | 4 | 4,80 | 3,5 | days/year/pers. |
| Total number of employees and employee turnover | 30 / 4 | 35 / 3 | 32 / 0 | number/new hires |
| Well-being at work |
||||
| Days spent on well-being at work/well-being training | 2 | 1 | 0,5 | days/year/pers. |
| Employee satisfaction survey score | - | - | 3,9 | (scale 0 - 5) |
| Performance reviews | 100% | 100% | 100% | Held for % of personnel |