Culture

VALA’s culture

It’s difficult to condense VALA’s culture into one specific definition, because culture is not a fixed state. Instead, it is constantly defined and re-adapted through the components that VALA people bring to the table. We have, however, made a conscious decision of upholding certain values and objectives that we hold vital no matter what happens. These values, which are incorporated into our strategy, affect our work culture, atmosphere and decision-making, both small and large-scale. 


VALA’s culture is more than just inspirational quotes on screensavers and office walls. VALA’s culture is a combination of action, attitudes and relationships, with a hint of idealism.

Meaningfulness at the core of happiness

For a number of years, VALA’s vision was to be the Happiest company by 2020. In 2020, our employee satisfaction scores were at record high, we won the Tunto service award for “Most successful employer brand of the year (with special mentions for best management and most transparent employer brand) and our national employee-NPS scores were of the very highest in the industry. Due to these reasons, we felt we had reached a milestone that we had been driving towards for a long time. However, something was missing. 

The pursuit of happiness as an absolute objective does not lead to good results, partly because happiness is not a lasting emotion. Just as other emotions, it too will pass. Also, obsessing about happiness can yield the opposite emotions. In addition, happiness is definitely not easy to measure, let alone beneficial to be compared to others. 

Therefore, we came to a revised realization – our job as an employer is to provide the means for VALA people to be as happy as they can be, if they want to. 

This realization caused us to shift VALA’s strategy from simply striving towards happiness, to focus instead on what affects happiness and what makes life and work feel meaningful. And yes, this is quite a challenge but we want to believe that difficult tasks deliver great results.

Whatever people find most meaningful in their work can vary between people, but VALA focuses on supporting people to construct their working methods and objectives to match their requirements on an individual basis.

VALA’s values

Empathy is at the very backbone of VALA’s operations, since the very beginning when our founder Sami laid the first bricks of a caring culture. In a people business, putting people first is a principle that won’t be undermined. Our empathic culture is incorporated with values such as equality, a drive for diversity, strong cohesion and respecting one another.

VALA is a self-directed company. This means that VALA has a very low hierarchy and people lead themselves, through inner motivation and high autonomy. This way of working doesn’t only provide us with great freedom, but also requires a lot from a person, so alongside the freedom we enjoy, it is important at VALA to support each other. People decide themselves what their professional direction is, what client project they work in, and what kind of an impact they have on VALA’s culture. With high autonomy comes a fail-fast attitude, that encourages trial and error and challenging one’s self in a safe environment.

In our line of business, responsibility affects the work we choose to do with our clients, the partnerships we build and how we run our own operations. What comes to sustainability, meat-free office, the compensation of every VALA employee’s carbon footprint, or the minimization of brand merch are small steps in the right direction but not sufficient enough.

Transparency is about being open and honest with providing answers to questions starting with why, what, how, when and who. In addition, transparency at VALA is about including people in decision-making and providing people with impact. Transparency is based on reciprocal trust, and therefore it’s a fundamental value in our self-directed environment.

In a business where our skills and knowledge are at the forefront, staying on top of new technologies and ways of working is essential. We believe we are never “complete” in regards to learning new things. Instead, we aim to constantly question the ways we are used to doing things and we keep ourselves constantly curious about new ways of working. 

Our objective is to arouse people’s enthusiasm to develop themselves by tapping into their own motivational drivers. Learning doesn’t happen simply through a collection of mandatory courses, but instead by getting excited and curious through daily work. These feelings of accomplishment and development breed work meaningfulness.

Life Quality Management- tool

In order to prioritize wellbeing, VALA constructed the Life Quality Management tool to implement our supporting culture into everyday life. The LQM tool enables the care of VALA’s people in a flexible, autonomous and comprehensive manner.

We believe “occupational wellbeing” is not a separate topic that can be developed in a vacuum, detached from the rest of our lives. At VALA, we develop wellbeing as an entity, covering all aspects of life and relating to each employee as an individual with specific needs.

VALA’s daily operations, employee benefits and support measures are always reflected through the LQM-tool in order to ensure they reinforce our wellbeing all-inclusively and are compatible with our culture. 

Professional drive

  1. Respect & Influence
  2. Meaningful work
  3. Professional development

Mental Energy

  1. Freetime & vacations
  2. Recovery, dreams & hobbies
  3. Family & friends

Physical wellbeing

  1. General health
  2. Physical activity
  3. Nutrition & rest

VALA’s communities

Working in a business that is not time or location-specific, we have to find innovative ways of sharing knowledge, motivating each other, and offering both emotional and technical support to each other.

One of the most transformative solutions to this challenge have been the internal communities within VALA. VALA’s communities gather people with similar interests to meet up to workshop various topics within the realm of their passion. Currently, there are communities built around QA, Test Automation & Software development, People Skills and Business & Culture.

QA-hub is a community build around QA: The community aims at providing professional support and communality for everyone interested in QA at VALA.

In practice, the activities consist of events, such as workshops and seminars, discussion channel, everyday support etc. The community has official ‘Office days’ once a month when community members are encouraged to come work at the office, meet colleagues in a casual atmosphere, bump into each other at the coffee machine, and have communal lunch together.

By default, the community consists of VALA people working with testing and test management, but basically anyone is welcome to join the community, regardless of what they work with.

Tech-hub community gets together around topics of test automation and software development. The aim is to provide professional support and communality for everyone working around or interested in these topics.

In practice, the activities consist of events, such as workshops and seminars, discussion channel, everyday support etc. The community has official ‘Office days’ once a month when community members are encouraged to come work at the office, meet colleagues in a casual atmosphere, bump into each other at the coffee machine, and have communal lunch together.

By default, the community consists of VALA people working in test automation and software development, but basically anyone is welcome to join the community, regardless of what they work with.


Smooth Interactions workshops handle work-life skills, interaction and behavior and work-life balance. The community promotes topics such as mentoring, self-direction, a better understanding of yourself and others, impact and consultancy skills, teamwork and cooperation, and conflict resolution. The objective of the community is to uphold and further develop VALA’s empathic, autonomous culture.

To uphold transparency and involve everyone in decision-making processes at VALA, the BizzCult community tackles subjects around VALA’s business and culture. The aim is to both share thoughts and ideas, but also find solutions to concrete topics through the community workshops. Examples of workshops can include updating VALA’s employee benefits, going over the latest economic figures, finding company values in everyday practices or learning how VALA’s sales team operates.

Career at VALA

A career at VALA means interesting and versatile work, sharing our values, working in a self-directed environment, getting to know fantastic people, failing and succeeding, and learning from all these experiences. If you feel that these aspects of work are meaningful to you, read more from our career page!

Read more and apply!

About VALA from VALA people

Esa

test lead

“Before starting at VALA I had been following the company for several years. Sometimes I was wondering that is it true what you can read about VALA. E.g. the vision of happiness and the possibility to choose you own project. Well, now I can tell that it really is true. The atmosphere in the company has been very positive, welcoming and supporting since the day one.”

Bardhyl

TEST AUTOMATION DEVELOPER

“Working at VALA has given me everything what a young and aspiring person like me needs, challenging projects in a friendly and compassionate environment.”

Alessandro

SOFTWARE DEVELOPER

“One of the greatest positive things in VALA is the emphasis on people rather than simply employees. Another fact I consider important is also VALA’s support for personal development. I believe that, from the point of view of professional development, VALA is one the best places to work in this field.”

Mika

Test Manager

“My experience with VALA has been positive. Here people are respected and the wellbeing of each individual is taken care of. Development discussions are not just a yearly tradition but rather a continuous interaction and discussion. Moreover, it’s great that there is a culture of low bureaucracy at VALA which enables us to use our time efficiently for the actual work of helping our customers. Overall, I’ve been happy to be a part of this successful and fast-growing company.”

Jan

TEST AUTOMATION DEVELOPER

I chose VALA as my employer mainly because of the company culture. It’s been a joy to notice how VALA’s culture and values aren’t just empty rhetoric, but they are present in every-day work. Right from the start VALA felt like a home and the people were great. VALA listens to my professional ambitions and what kind of projects I would like to work with, not to mention taking care of my personal well-being. At VALA people are truly #1.”

Juha

TEST AUTOMATION DEVELOPER

“When I started at VALA the people here made me feel really welcome. From day one it has been obvious to me that people, their interests and their feeling are valued here. The atmosphere at the office is fun and relaxed, and the colleagues are friendly.”

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