"A strong culture can move mountains"

– I started five years ago as the first HR resource at Kivra. A new CEO with a background in product development joined, and we had the green light from the board to grow. And quite right; a lot happened. I came in just as we were building the modern technology and product organisation, and we had to attract and recruit talent quickly, says Erik Lignell, CHRO at Kivra.

For a tech company like Kivra, it was about acquiring talent highly sought after in the market.

A happy philosophy

Kivra's business idea is strongly rooted in sustainability, aiming to reduce traditional mail dispatch:

– Why cut down a tree to make paper? We are building a service for the entire population, and our target audience ranges from your old grandmother to 17-year-olds. Just as hard as we work to create user-friendliness for our end-users, we work to create a friendly workplace for our employees. Kivra was very early in adopting a collective agreement, which is not very common in the tech industry. Our people strategy is largely about being a fair employer, a place where people simply want to be.

– “Happy Happy” means striving to find a solution where all involved get something that is good for everyone. It sounds difficult, but it is about sharing the common resource. We try to keep this as a guiding principle in everything we do. For both our staff, our workplace, and in our product development and customer support, this requires transparency.

– Every fourth month, the entire company gathers for information and presentations. But mostly, we have a very loose schedule to create space and time for people to just hang out. If we do this three times a year, we can be apart for quite a while, as we meet very intensively in a short period and build strong relationships, says Erik Lignell at Kivra and continues:

– A sustainable workplace for us means having good support such as health insurance and health-promoting measures, looking at workload and leadership, and regular employee surveys as a vent for the organisation to give direct feedback. We believe this is strengthening and contributes to a feeling that this is a place where people care and can speak up if they want to."

Kivra's values are friendly, sustainable, and entrepreneurial, all summarised in the "happy happy" philosophy, based on a book by Lars-Johan Åge.

How Kivra uses Simployer now

• Research-based questions from Engagement Radar are sent to the entire company every fourth week
• Customised pulse surveys are sent to product teams every fourth week (for increased relevance in these teams)

– We go full throttle with feedback. In practice, something comes out every other week. We know there will also be free-text comments on everything from gender distribution and strategic decisions to complaints about ping pong playing being disruptive and the lack of yogurt in the fridge. It is a very nice and practical way to get immediate feedback on changes.

– In my role, it has been great to show that the initiatives I take and the agenda I follow are effective. In that respect, Simployer &frankly, with its data-driven basis, has been an important tool, says Erik Lignell.

– The HR profession is especially exciting right now. The role is becoming more business-oriented. We need to be out in the business, working closely with leaders, enabling the company's success. These things do not happen by themselves. Simployer &frankly has been a key part of the priorities and initiatives we take as a company and within HR. Insights from the tool make us more accurate. Instead of guessing, we let data based on our employees' actual opinions guide us. Then being able to track the effects of an initiative in trend curves is fantastic. When I present at board meetings, Simployer &frankly is always part of the foundation, focusing on showing what I want to do and what effect I want to achieve.