Leveraging diversity to improve working environment and competitiveness
Meet Henrik Lægreid, Project Manager within IT Solutions at AFRY
Down-to-earth, safe and fun. This is how Henrik Lægreid describes the working environment within IT Solutions at AFRY. Also, he finds that his expertise and experience are highly valued.
“The strength at AFRY is clearly our ability to cultivate diversity in the organisation, which we actively use to further develop our own culture and competitiveness”, says Henrik.
He urges all interested parties to apply to AFRY. “We need more brave, dedicated team players who want a little more”, says Henrik enthusiastically. He works with project and program management at AFRY's digitisation projects, and works mainly on site at the client. “This is incredibly educational. It allows me to get to know new disciplines and organisational cultures, all while working closely with the client”, says Henrik.
In favor of a hectic toddler life, the trumpet is placed on the shelf
Henrik was born and raised in southern Norway, more specifically Kristiansand, but has lived in Oslo for the last ten years. “I love music, and in my free time I enjoy going to concerts. In middle and high school, I played the trumpet, and in the first-time service I played horn in the King’s guard music troupe”, he says. After the first-time service, he thrived so well in Oslo that he chose to stay. “Today, unfortunately, the trumpet is barely used. I am married and have a six-month-old daughter. I am naturally quite occupied with the toddler life, Henrik explains.
Working to improve patient safety and health data
For the past year, Henrik has worked in a national programme at the Directorate of e-Health. “The program will enable a better utilization of data in the health sector by linking various coding systems to a common reference terminology called SNOMED CT. The purpose is to provide the health sector with better clinical documentation. This, in turn, will improve patient safety, and facilitate better research and analyses of health data”, he says.
To explain the work in more detail, Henrik compares the health data with oil. People often say that data is the new oil, and maybe it is. But you cannot just pump out the data and think that the work is done. The data must, like the oil, be refined for use. "For example, we need more standardized data in the health sector, and we need to be able to document patient pathways in the health sector more structured than we do today," he says.
Down-to-earth, safe and fun
But why is Henrik so clear that those interested parties should apply for a job at AFRY? The reason is simple: “I always feel that my expertise is valued here, not because it differs from my colleagues', but precisely because it is different, he says.
“At AFRY we believe in attacking problems from different angles and in a holistic way. In order to do that, we need diversity in competence and experiences. That’s why we say that culture drives competitiveness for the company. For me, this means that I’m given the opportunity to work on projects where I can play on my own strengths, and to feel professional development”, Henrik explains. Based on this, he describes the working environment as both down-to-earth, safe and fun. “We have an incredibly good working environment, and this is important to cherish as most of us work on client site. When we first gather in the department, there is therefore a lot of socialising and fun”, says Henrik.
“At AFRY, my expertise is valued.
Not because it differs from my colleagues',
but precisely because it is different”
Digitisation as a driver in sustainability work
One of the issues Henrik is concerned with in digitisation projects is how to ensure faster development in sustainability. “Digitisation is a driving force that enables better and faster development in the sustainability field”, he says. For example, he points out, that digitalisation of the public sector can provide improved, more coherent and more seamless services to citizens, and at the same time cut costs.
Difficult to anticipate technology impact before implementation
Also, Henrik believes that it is important to highlight the challenges of digitalisation by predicting the negative consequences. “One example is social media. On the one hand, social media has enabled completely new ways of communicating and interacting. At the same time, it also has demonstrably negative effects on young people's mental health, on political discourse and echo chambers”, Henrik explains. I could also mention the enormous power consumption that is necessary to fuel cloud services and data centres. “But it is difficult to regulate something that has already settled, and one important challenge is that the regulation of technology often lags behind the technology development”, Henrik concludes.
