Jumping at opportunities
Chief of Human Resources Satu Koivu
National Police Board
My career in the police began in the summer of 1988 as a constable at Kerava police station as the first woman in the unit's public order and emergency response missions. Since then, my 36-year career has included a wide variety of police work: operational fieldwork, criminal investigation, competence development, communications, human resources, supervisory work and strategic planning and guidance. I’ve gradually advanced in my career to increasingly demanding tasks, and for the past 20 years I’ve worked as a senior commanding officer.
I’m currently working as Chief of Human Resources at the National Police Board. Among other things, my job includes developing the competence of police personnel, performance guidance and result management at the Police University College and matters related to occupational safety and healthcare, workplace wellbeing and employee aftercare, both in the National Police Board and in the Police as a whole.
Besides duties in Finland, I served for three years as Head of the Police Component of the UN Peacekeeping Operation and as part of the Mission Leadership in Cyprus (2021-2024), and I have also previously worked in EU civilian crisis management tasks in Palestine (2010-2011). In other words, I’ve gained quite extensive work experience in the field of policing.
Diversity is the richness of police administration
I’ve had a chance to see and be involved in police work from different angles, and I think the diversity of tasks is the strength of our police organisation. My experiences of different kind of policing tasks have increased my appreciation of variety of skills and my understanding that all police work is important in ensuring that the whole thing works. This is especially emphasised in critical situations, where each employee's contribution towards a shared objective is the key to success.
In international police work, the multiculturalism of the work community and learning from each other enrich everyday work. The work requires good interaction and negotiation skills, respect for other people's opinions, trust in one's own competence, strong motivation and a flexible approach. In my supervisory role, I wanted to convey a message of strong professionalism and fair, straightforward supervisory work. Back home, you bring back many experiences that you can draw on in your everyday life. Conflicts experienced at close quarters around the world certainly increase appreciation of the stability and security situation back home in Finland.
The police administration offers a wide variety of tasks both for police officers and civilians. There are a lot of opportunities, we just need courage and boldness to reform.
I’m not someone who believes that life can be planned meticulously in advance, although of course everyone should have goals and objectives and be willing to work towards them. In my own career, I’ve boldly seized the opportunities that have arisen. Sometimes they’ve been leaps into the unknown, but in hindsight they’ve always paid off.
Continuous development is required
Regardless of the task, competence development has always been important to me. It’s necessary to learn new things because working methods and tools are evolving the whole time, and the operating environment and its challenges create new requirements for policing. Continuous change is commonplace, which is why competence must be maintained and updated.
My goal in supervisory positions has been to ensure that people have opportunities to develop, in the same way that organisations need to develop over time. Adopting something new requires growth and a new approach. In my current role, I do work on many different levels. You have to think about things from the point of view of the individual, the group and the organisation as a whole.
Training and development seeks to ensure that police personnel are able to respond to everyday needs also going forward. In addition, in the midst of all the demands and challenges, employees should feel happy at work, and learning new things also increases motivation.
These goals can only be achieved through the broadest possible teamwork. I honestly believe that no one can achieve much alone, but together we can make a difference in things that matter.
