Meet Precilia: The People & Culture Manager who knew Valo Motion was “meant to be”

Some career moves take months of soul-searching. Others feel obvious the moment you see them.

Meet Precilia Lievonen, our People & Culture Manager – or, as some of her colleagues call her, “the sun.” Three years ago, she came across Valo Motion on LinkedIn and had one of those rare career moments when everything just clicked. She applied to one job, and one job only. In her words, “when you meet the right one, you just know.”

She found Valo Motion on LinkedIn – and stopped looking anywhere else

Before Valo Motion, Precilia spent years working as an HR and recruitment consultant, supporting a rotating list of client companies.

“I did a lot of recruitment work, and I worked as an HR consultant for so many different clients. I also did admin work, even marketing – my role was incredibly versatile,” Precilia explains.

Going on maternity leave gave her an unexpected wake-up call.

“When I came back, five different people had been hired to take over parts of my job. That was the moment I really understood how much I’d actually had on my plate.”

The role that followed focused more heavily on recruitment consulting. But Precilia had realized she wanted something different: ownership of the whole employee journey, not just the moment someone gets hired.

“I wanted to actually see the whole pipeline – from the person being hired all the way to how they’re doing months later. As a consultant, you get someone hired, and then that’s it. Maybe you see on LinkedIn how they’re doing, but I wanted to really see it for myself.”

Becoming a parent also changed how she thought about work.

“You start choosing very carefully where you put your time, because it’s limited now. You need to pick your battles – but you also need a role that supports your parenthood.”

Then she came across Valo Motion’s job ad.

I describe it a bit like a love story – when you meet the right one, you just know.

She watched every video of the team she could find and never applied anywhere else.

“I got that feeling right away: this is meant to be, this is it. And meeting the team in person only confirmed it – I thought, this is exactly what I’ve been looking for.”

Growing from 27 people to 63 – and building the foundation to match

When Precilia joined Valo Motion, the company was a fraction of its current size.

“When I joined, we were maybe 29 people – well, 27 really, if we’re talking about who I was actually responsible for. Now we have 47 in-house, plus our remote colleagues and CSMs, so really about 63. That’s quite a jump,” she laughs.

Before she arrived, HR had been one part of someone else’s already-full role. For the first time, Precilia could fully focus on building the structures needed to support a growing team.

Since then, she has introduced standard HR processes, documentation and systems – including HR and travel management tools – and helped build a foundation that allows everyone else to focus on their own work.

“With standard processes in place, nobody has to worry about whether things are being handled correctly. It’s about building the foundation so people can focus on their own work, knowing the ground underneath them is solid.”

Why colleagues call her “the sun”?

Ask Precilia what she’s proudest of after three years, and the answer isn’t a system or a process.

It’s the culture.

“I’m really proud of our culture. I’m really proud of all these people, and I’m really proud that everyone here talks to everyone,” she says.

They’ve told me that when the sun herself is around, people smile, they chat, they dare to open up.

For Precilia, part of what makes the culture special is the mix of people and backgrounds within the team.

“When people come from all over the world and bring their own culture with them, it opens up so many conversations. We hear it a lot, too – someone leaves, and what they say they’ll miss is our culture.”

One small tradition that captures that culture particularly well is Thursday Fun: a weekly dose of intentionally silly team activities.

“It might feel a little embarrassing at first, but then people just throw themselves into it. It’s really important when you’re working together – you know that this person also has a silly side, and that you can connect with that too.”

What three years in People & Culture has taught her

For Precilia, one of the biggest lessons has been learning just how differently people can experience the same thing.

“You learn to look at things from different people’s perspectives – that different people have different needs. Something that’s completely clear to you might look totally different to someone else, and neither way is wrong.”

As Valo Motion’s solo People & Culture person, adapting to those differences is part of the job.

“Whether someone is junior or senior, everyone needs support somewhere, and you have to be able to adjust your own approach.”

Sometimes that even means encouraging people to actually take their holidays.

“In some cultures, you just don’t really take holiday. It’s a bit of a battle, honestly, but a good one.”

Building a puzzle that’s never really finished

If Precilia could give herself one piece of advice before starting at Valo Motion three years ago, it would be simple: take it one piece at a time.

“An elephant gets eaten one bite at a time. I’ve had that in mind: you just do this piece by piece.”

Because when your work revolves around people, there isn’t really a point where everything becomes finished.

“You’re building a puzzle that’s never actually finished when you’re talking about people, and that’s okay. It’s one small piece at a time, and it genuinely has a big impact.”

As Valo Motion continues to grow, that’s also what she hopes the company holds onto: the things that make its culture feel distinctly its own.

“I hope we keep this kind of open culture. As the company grows and people come from different backgrounds, it changes a little, but I hope we manage to keep our own kind of culture – that we never grow past our core values.”

Asked to describe Valo Motion’s culture in one word, Precilia lands, after a laugh, on versatile.

And if you’re considering becoming part of it?

“This culture is really, genuinely welcoming, no matter your background or where you went to school. We’ve somehow managed to build our own bubble – when you walk into Valo Motion’s space, it’s us.”

This is our space, and you get to be exactly who you are, and teach us something. We want to see the world through your eyes too, and you genuinely get to have an impact.

And perhaps that’s the best way to describe what Precilia herself found at Valo Motion three years ago: a place that wasn’t finished, didn’t pretend to be – and gave her the opportunity to help build what came next.

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