Dialogue, engagement and improvement
– the story of Reijmyre glassworks

At Reijmyre glassworks, employees felt that they could not influence their work situation, which affected both motivation and operating results. The management therefore decided to introduce new ways of working to replace hierarchical structures with increased employee engagement. The way to achieve this was to give employees more influence over their own work situation. To support this, Reijmyre chose to work according to the Agerus method.

Reijmyre Glassworks is a small and exclusive glassworks in Östergötland where glass has been blown for almost 200 years. The craftsmanship is something they guard and are very proud of. In 2021, Viktor Söderberg entered the business as the new main owner and CEO.

– Vi hade då en situation där medarbetarna inte kände att de kunde påverka sin egen arbetssituation i tillräcklig utsträckning vilket också ledde till att de hade svårt att själva värdera sin tid och prioritera, berättar Viktor Söderberg. Det här var inte alls bra för motivationen och påverkade resultatet. Allt som sänker takten eller orsakar fel i en liten, produktionsinriktad verksamhet blir väldigt kostsamt.

I verksamheten jobbar 20 personer varav hälften finns i glasblåsningen och de andra tio fördelar sig jämt mellan efterbearbetningen och administration. All verksamhet bedrivs på orten Rejmyre med undantag för ett försäljningskontor i Stockholm.

Support for business development

– “When I came in, I started by walking around and talking to everyone in the organization,” Söderberg continues. “It quickly became clear that there were things here that were causing irritation because things were not working as the employees had a right to expect. At the same time, I felt that these were things that would be quite easy to change. That’s when I started thinking about introducing some kind of business development support. The choice fell on the Agerus method, which I already knew.

The introduction has been step-by-step according to a new Agerus solution called Agerus Flow. The idea behind Agerus Flow is to enable smaller companies to work with a science-based tool for business development in a simple way and on a limited budget.
– Working with the Agerus method has so far been very well received in the organization. An important symbolic example is how our employees now get involved in their work situation by suggesting improvements. It’s a new kind of culture that we haven’t had before,” says Viktor Söderberg.

Leading with Dialogue

With Agerus Flow, suggestions for improvement in relevant areas are easily collected via mobile phone or computer. In this way, what you need to talk about to get even better at can be captured both quickly and easily.

– Our work with the Agerus method is about giving people greater responsibility for their own work situation. Therefore, the dialogue about how work works must be pushed to the very end of the organization. And at the very top of the organization, we must lead with dialogue instead of controlling with instructions. In a short time, working according to the Agerus method has become an important part of our process system.

Has the introduction of the Agerus method been all doom and gloom?

– No, not quite, replies Viktor Söderberg. “Since this is a new way of working with slightly new roles for the manager and the employee, it has not been entirely painless. In part, it has been about being able to introduce a new way of working based on limited knowledge. The e-learning that Agerus supports has been a good and concrete support in this context.

– Another part of the implementation has been about the fact that it is generally more difficult to start dialogues about business development in smaller organizations compared to larger ones. But once you get the discussion going, the small organization is great to be in because it is close between thought and decision while everyone can quickly see the result of what is decided.

Easy for users

Agerus-metoden bygger på modern arbetslivsforskning och utnyttjandet av modern teknik. Samtidigt ska användarna uppleva det som enkelt och inte behöva ha särskild system- eller teknikkunskap. I Reijmyre har hela dialogen med cheferna och medarbetarna kring metoden och mätningarna skötts med hjälp av sms och mail.

– Datormognaden inom organisationen varierar väldigt på grund av ålder och befattning, men det har fungerat fantastiskt bra då kommunikationen har skett med sms och medarbetarnas vanliga smartphone. Det ger oss en hög svarsfrekvens i mätningarna och visar samtidigt på att det finns både ett förtroende och en nyfikenhet på Agerus-metoden, avslutar Viktor Söderberg.