The digital solutions company ADM group was elected the best private sector company at the Dream Employer competition. The award was earned as a result of their well-thought-out personnel politics which is centered around the satisfaction of each employee. ADM Cloudtech is a member of ADM group.
Over the last couple of year, ADM group has grown in both its employee numbers as well as its financial results. Today, the group employs over 120 people who create digital solutions for various international and local clients, such as Coca-Cola, Hewlett-Packard, Amnesty International, Toyota, Coop and many others. In addition to that, ADM group is active in the Estonian start-up community and a contributor to multiple important national projects in the Ministry of Finance, the e-residency programme and Smart-ID.
The company’s fast growth has also created a need to hire new personnel at a fast pace, a task which can be difficult in Estonia and especially within the technology sector. According to the CEO of ADM group, Riho Pihelpuu, it is possible to successfully hire people on the job market if this process is truly a priority for the employer, “Despite the fast growth, it is very important to us to deal with each employee personally and systematically, because that is the only way for us to be able to create teams that fit together well and who feel good working together. Of course, it would be easier to just delegate all employee-related tasks to the human resources department and demand for increasingly better financial results from the department heads, but then we could no longer say that employee welfare is our priority.”
ADM is constantly investing in its people and they support an entrepreneurial culture among their employees. Each team at ADM group includes interns who have been assigned a personal mentor and a buddy. Additionally, ADM group has their start-up incubator Elevator Startups that offers mentorship, training, product development and investment programmes. Similar to Google, the company holds monthly Innovation Fridays where the teams work on side projects, R&D, or participate in either training programmes relevant to their specialties or one where they can learn new skills. In addition to the mentorship programme, the company also has its own coach and a psychologist, people are guided according to their strengths and their growth as a person in all aspects is supported as much as possible.
“Providing access to health and sports programmes and other similar things became a so-called hygiene marker in all companies focused on the future a long time ago. But these things alone are not enough to provide people the chance to grow and develop themselves through which they are able to create better added value for the company and the Estonian economy. The job market and employee expectations have both become a lot bigger and changed fast. The whole board has to work hard and implement concrete, deliberate, and measurable activities instead of simply relying on an attractive bonus system. The fact that the former approach works is illustrated by the Dream Employer title as well as our biannual systematic and in-depth employee satisfaction and engagement index,” said Pihelpuu.
Over 20 companies participated in the competition and alongside ADM, Pipedrive, PricewaterhouseCoopers and SEB Bank were all competing for the best place in the private sector category in the finals. The title, which was awarded for the sixth year in a row this year, has been previously awarded to the Estonian Academy of Security Sciences, LHV Bank, Science Centre AHHAA, Ericsson Estonia, and Pipedrive.
Founded in 1997, ADM group is based on Estonian capital with over 120 employees that provide digital, IT, development and infrastructure solutions. ADM group’s annual sales turnover is over 8 million euros, 40% of which is comprised of export. Our clients are well-known Estonian and international organisations, such as Hewlett-Packard, Bosch & Siemens Home Appliances, Toyota, G4S, Coop, SEB Bank, Amserv Group, SK ID Solutions and various state departments.