Finnish postal group Posti has concluded negotiations concerning administrative jobs and reduced the number of redundancies to a maximum of 59 employees, from previously planned 106 jobs.
Due to transfers to new positions within the Posti Group and voluntary arrangements, it was possible to keep the job cuts to a minimum. “The negotiations are resulting from a drastic mail volume decline, which requires Posti to continue the renewal and ensure its profitability,” the postal company explained.
“We have made rearrangements to seek effective entities and opportunities to utilise technological solutions. Our customers require from us digital capabilities and ability to response fast to their rapidly changing needs,” Posti’s CFO Tom Jansson said.
“New tasks were also created in the reorganisation, and we are all pleased to see some of new positions have been filled by employees from the target group of the negotiations. The voluntary arrangements and Posti’s New Path program reduced the need for redundancy, as well.”
According to Jansson, the reform takes into account that Posti operates in several countries, (currently 11 countries in total). During the negotiations, it has been reviewed how and where operations could be performed in the most sensible and efficient way, e.g. at the Posti Service Center, which is operating in several locations in Finland (e.g. Helsinki, Turku, Tampere and Oulu) and in Estonia (Tallinn), Sweden, Norway, Latvia and Lithuania.
“We have excellent teams outside of Finland as well. We are transferring to the Service Center teams in Tallinn those administrative tasks that are already being performed there. According to the current estimate and as a result of the cooperation negotiations, a total of 14 new tasks will be created in Tallinn,” Jansson said.
“We want to support our personnel in this transformation. We are providing support in many ways, e.g. through our New Path program. In addition, we are offering opportunities to employees to work in Tallinn, depending on each individual’s circumstances,” he concluded.
In January this year, Posti announced plans to restructure its mail operations due to rapidly declining volumes and increased competition in an effort to save between €150 million and €200 million in operating costs between 2019 and 2021.
Besides cost savings, Posti aims at the same time for strong growth in e-commerce and logistics services, which are both growing markets, in line with its strategy. The changes in the business environment and customers’ needs require the company to invest in new types of services, digitalisation, technical solutions and competence.
As part of its strategy, Posti focuses on expanding its e-commerce activities, keeping mail relevant to customers, “rethinking logistics”, renewing service culture Posti Orange and being “digitally powered” to secure service delivery.
The postal industry is currently undergoing dramatic transformation, with the number of letters delivered in Finland having decreased by half within ten years, and the delivery volume of printed newspapers has fallen to 1950s’ levels. In the coming years, the amount of mail will continue to decrease rapidly as the communication of citizens, companies and public sector becomes digital, Posti predicted.
