Career StoriesEdda van der Ende

Edda van der Ende
HR Manager

When I want to relax

I spend time with my family or friends, eat delicious food paired with some tasty wine. You might also see me knitting and watching TV series.

My hobbies

I love traveling and culinary experiences. I enjoy baking and spending time with my friends and family. You can also find me at Avance’s outdoor trainings.

A weird fact about me

I lived my first 19 years on an island in front of Helsinki. We traveled on our own boat or crossed over the ice. There was no bridge to the island.

This is how I became a member of #avanceteam

I had followed Avance’s journey since its establishment and always found it fascinating. There was something that drew me towards it! I had several discussions with the partners at Avance during the years, but it was in 2019 when I felt that I would have something to offer to Avance: HR. I met a lot of people at Avance during my interview rounds and became sure that this would be my next home.

Memorable moments during my career at Avance

Apart from the amazing parties and trips with my colleagues, many of my memorable moments come through my work. I get extremely happy when we sign a current trainee to an associate position! It’s always rewarding when a company and an employee find each other.

I enjoy my time at Avance because

I can be myself at Avance. I believe we have an open culture where I can speak my mind and also take difficult matters forward. I feel that other people at Avance listen and care what others have to say.

I want to work with HR at Avance because

It’s a playfield that will develop from year to year. I’m the first dedicated HR professional at Avance and have already had the opportunity to build so many things – together with my colleagues, of course. HR is extremely versatile: from laughter and happiness to deep and difficult conversations. My goal is to provide support to our employees in every matter they can think of.

My typical day at work

I have many projects going on simultaneously. Usually there are several recruitments ongoing which I’m coordinating. There are always some development projects going on at Avance that I’m involved in. It could be e.g. about career development, recruitment processes, mentoring or employer branding. Or it might be about work contracts, time recording and other HR related legal matters. I am also the occupational safety officer at Avance which means that I (together with the occupational safety committee) pay attention to different safety matters continuously.

Some of my unusual days at work

Usually, a day becomes unusual if some of the colleagues or me come up with a new project. For example, building our Intranet was maybe an atypical HR task, but something I thought “couldn’t be that difficult” to do. Once I came up with the idea to give small plants as a welcome back present: Jenni and I divided the plants to everyone very early in the morning before others came to the office.

Tips & tricks: how to succeed in HR at Avance

In my personal opinion it’s crucial to listen to everyone and take things forward from that. HR cannot be a part of an organization just “sitting in the back working on administrational matters”. HR should be in the centre of the organization in order to be easily reachable.

One word to describe Avance would be

Supporting.