Red carpet, portrait cake and flowers

Humour was a great common denominator in the nominations when Finansforbundet in Nordea's president Kasper Skovgaard Pedersen and vice president Mette Balck Mejlby read aloud the reasons behind the nominations of the six Skulderklap Prize winners.

The winners Stinna Gjedsted Jensen, Maria Bruun Carlson, Mette Chemnitz, Kim Borgbjerg, Jesper Steen Renneberg and Morten Lynge were, in addition to the local celebrations, celebrated with a small reception at Metro at Finansforbundet in Nordea's 33rd birthday on 12 January. The nomination of the six Skulderklap Prize winners is an annual tribute hosted by Finansforbundet in Nordea. The Skulderklap Prize is a reminder for recognizing each other for the things we value in our everyday work life.

In a dither
The winners were welcomed with a glass of bubbles and a light meal. They told about many good laughs and fantastic stories of how they had been surprised by their colleagues. A red carpet, portrait cake as well as flowers were in play. The characteristic for everyone was that the surprizes made sent the winners into a dither all day and that they still had a smile on their face when remembering the enormous ingenuity and acknowledgement of their colleagues.

However, there were obstacles on the way. Morten actually initially missed his own celebration due to snow and frost, so when he received an email with a 'Congratulations', he was somewhat confused. Sender did sense the bad and withdrew the email so Morten could be celebrated in the manager's office.

Mette, who was nominated twice, was taken by surprise with flags, confetti and a nice breakfast with the words “we can never do without you". The fact is that shortly before this surprising celebration, Mette had resigned from her position at Nordea after 18 good years. So before she even started in the new job, she had to ask for a day off to be able to participate on 12 January. The new employer was very proud. They have just introduced a similar Skulderklap Prize themselves.

Jesper, nicknamed everything from Otto to Sporty Spice among his colleagues, had no idea what was going on before the day’s physical meeting. But words of praise and subsequent red carpet and flags made him proud and touched.

Kim, on the other hand, was puzzled when receiving an invitation to a meeting about well-being. The team had just held a meeting on the same topic, so the surprise was big when he and a colleague who had also been nominated were asked to alternately sit down 'in the hot seat' in the middle of the meeting room and listen to the colleagues' nominations and receive diploma and a large cake with his own portrait on it.

Surprised in the middle of the pizza
It became an event within an event when, in the middle of a pizza lunch that she had arranged herself, Maria was surprised with flowers and many sweet words about the caring and creative colleague she is.

Finally, the ‘dad joke master’ Stinna was speechless when she was asked to close her eyes in the middle of a team meeting. Opening them again, her entire team was ready with congratulations. Stinna, who normally always has the big picture, was both touched and quite dithered for the rest of the day.

102 nominations in total
Finansforbundet in Nordea received a total of 102 nominations for the Skulderklap Prize – the highest number in the latest six years. All nominees have been celebrated locally with breakfast or a cake. On Finansforbundet in Nordea’s birthday, the 6 winners were celebrated with a delicious lunch in Tårnet at Christiansborg and by receiving a grant of DKK 5,000.