Konstantin applied for a job at Prisma in the last grade of high school, wanting to work evenings and weekends.
To his delight, he was contacted the next day and offered the opportunity to work on a flexible schedule.
Konstantin, who started out shelving products in the milk and fruit department, graduated from high school with good grades, and less than 10 months after taking up his job, he had already become a senior cashier and was offered more responsibility
by starting as team leader. Now, team leader Konstantin coordinates the work of 5–6 people, being responsible for ordering and displaying products at Rocca al Mare’s fruit and vegetable department.
Although sometimes it seems that there is more work that can be done, Konstantin’s kind and helpful colleagues are there to help him out and together, all tasks will be completed. As a complement to everyday work, Prisma offers additional trainings and refresher trainings and the resulting wage increase, as well as development opportunities for the more enthusiastic in various positions in other units located in Estonia.
Another important benefit of working at Prisma is the discounts offered to our employees at the store and for attending parties and workout classes. This means that Prisma employees get discounts at Prisma’s permanently affordable stores, the restaurants and nightclubs of Sokos Hotel Viru belonging to the group, and at various sports clubs.
Although Konstantin is planning to soon continue his education, it is safe for him to know that he would have plenty of work and development opportunities when continuing at Prisma because Prisma is planning to open more and more new stores in the coming years and is ready to invest in any employee who is ready for it.
Take a closer look at Prisma’s open positions on our tuletööle.ee employment website and give yourself the opportunity to come and diversify your career and develop both yourself and Prisma.
A varied and flexible work environment is becoming increasingly important year by year. Prisma offers lots of opportunities for its employees and also tries to make sure that family and hobbies would not suffer because of work. Piret Lankots, Human Resources Development Manager at Prisma, speaks about the flexible opportunities and benefits of the work.
As a whole, we work in three day shifts and one night shift, but the exact times and durations can be agreed individually. You can work full time for 40 hours a week, or half the hours or even less. “When putting the work schedule together, we can also take into account the requests to work in the desired volume, at a desired time or place. We have employees who help us out a few hours after school or, for example, on weekends only because that suits them better,” says Human Resources Development Manager Piret Lankots.
“Since many stores are open 24/7, we also hire those who feel fine about working at night. All Prisma employees actually have the opportunity to work in all shifts and also in all stores. Prisma is currently represented in three cities, but we are expanding and will definitely allow our employees to work in different towns and stores if they wish,” Lankots adds.
The teams discuss the shifts and days off in good time. Work schedules are prepared on a monthly basis and everyone can say what they need – the schedules are made according to the workload, the number of customers and the requests of the employees.
The sharing of skills between different departments also shows flexibility and variety. “It is great to see the different teams in the stores working together. For example, in the summer, when a large amount of ice cream arrives at once, the staff of all departments always come and help shelve the frozen products. This was a lot of help – work is easier if you do it together, and it is also more fun and the products get to their right place faster,” says Lankots.
“In the course of teamwork, the employees of the store get to know each other better and understand the work of different departments and product selections better,” Lankots adds. “The work in different departments may seem similar, but in reality, each work section is a bit different, the specifics of the products are different in each department, and in order to work effectively, the location of thousands of products must be learned. So we have lots of variety in our work.”
The work is educational
So, the work at Prisma is very diverse and full of opportunities.
“We pay a lot of attention to training new employees and we have established a mentoring system for this. A lot is learned in the course of the work, but it is still important that the work methods are correct and are not bad for your health when shelving products, for example. Mentors contribute in every way to learning the work methods as quickly as possible and to the smooth onboarding of a new employee,” Lankots says. “We have a digital learning portal where we provide tips on how to make work easier and more efficient. A three-level system of skill levels ensures that as knowledge and skills grow, so do the wages.”
In addition to work skills, Prisma also contributes to raising health awareness. “The health of our people is important for us. For the third year in a row, Prisma is organising the health promotion programme “Health starts with you”, in the course of which we hike together in the city and in nature, do sports, organise exciting challenges and photo competitions and listen to lectures on health. For example, we have had nutritionists, coaches and mental health experts speaking here,” says Lankots. As part of the programme, every Friday there is a healthy snack or drink from Prisma’s wide selection of products in the lounge for everyone to try.
The most affordable shopping cart
The smartest option for Prisma employees is to make their daily purchases at Prisma as the prices are permanently affordable for everyone. An additional discount is given to employees. “Coming from work, it is very convenient to buy what you need from Prisma. Especially knowing that our own people get great discounts,” adds Lankots.
Prisma Trainee programme
Prisma has many opportunities for daytime or night work, piece-work and seasonal work with different workloads. In order to provide young people with a quick opportunity to improve their knowledge of commerce and learn the work of a manager, Prisma has created the trainee development programme.
Rika Laan has also passed the Prisma Trainee programme, having worked in various fields and graduating from TEKO and the Estonian School of Hotel and Tourism Management and finding her way to Prisma shelves a few years ago through the services of a labour rental company. The store manager noticed her entrepreneurial nature and invited her to work at Kristiine Prisma. There, Rika was responsible for the fruit and vegetable department as a team leader. As Prisma has a tradition of advertising all the open positions to its own employees first, Rika saw the advertisement for the Trainee programme in her inbox.
Rika talks about it in more detail: “When I saw the advertisement for the Trainee programme, I thought I was definitely not ready for it yet because I was still too unexperienced. I got the impetus to join the programme from my store manager, who suggested that I try it.”
For Rika, the Trainee programme was very dense, intense and exciting. She enjoyed the variety of the programme, learned the theory together with other trainees and acquired the skills by constantly changing stores; tried out the work and work management both at a hypermarket and at the smaller Vanalinna supermarket. Rika adds: “We started from the lowest level and kept moving on. Every work process had to be learned in a different store, so I got to know most of Prisma’s houses and staff, met my lovely colleagues and also made friends. I have started to see the bigger picture, gained more confidence and courage. I feel that I am in the right place and I want to keep developing further together with Prisma.”
This year, Rika Laan started working as a project manager at Prisma, now developing a system that makes it easier to manage work schedules.
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Rika recommends: Work at Prisma suits everyone who has the will, enthusiasm and interest in working in commerce – Prisma offers lots of opportunities to gain knowledge, skills and experience. I highly recommend store work to those who are still a little hesitant or sceptical – step out of your comfort zone and seize the opportunities Prisma offers!
