Dive + Sofokus: Keeping the "Sofokus spirit" live after going fully remote

Sofokus is a digital business agency based in Finland. Founded in 2000, Sofokus designs modern business concepts for their clients through strategy, design, technology and digital marketing to deliver measurable business value.

In 2019, Sofokus was named the best company in Finland in the Workplace and People Development category at the European Business Awards competition owning to their work ethics and culture.

The "Sofokus spirit"

One of Sofokus's core value is its culture. Paying attention to what their employees want and keeping them content has always been their mission. This journey led to the inception of "Sofokus spirit" internally — providing an environment of happiness and appreciation, where there's a sense of belonging between employees.

The new normal and the challenges that it brought along

Remote working has been a part of Sofukus's way of doing things for quite many years. But when the pandemic started they had to fully shift to remote work. That was quite new for them. The initial shift was fast and easy because they already had all the processes in place. The main challenge, however, was team connectivity.

They realized that they had to come up with new ways to socialize with each other.

They were used to having get-togethers and off-work rituals to boost the overall spirit of employees. But it was getting hard to replicate that at remote work.

"Dive"-ing to keep the Sofokus spirit live

They tried a couple of things like having after-work sessions via Microsoft Teams and playing virtual Trivia. But none of that felt natural. And it didn't work because someone had to organize it for them. People mostly remained silent during these sessions. It was getting more and more difficult to keep the "Sofokus spirit" alive.

Sofokus heard about Dive and wanted to give it a shot. Once they tried Dive, it felt like a natural way to socialize virtually. They initially started using Dive for their weekly off-work catch-ups. Slowly, yet steadily, Dive became a part of their remote story.

They still used Microsoft Teams for their formal meetings when it was about getting the job done on the meeting or having customer calls. But, Dive became their go-to tool if they wanted to have casual conversations.

"Our teams are spending more time together and it's not just about work anymore. Especially with remote it's quite hard to talk anything other than work. And there is no way to bond when you have work meetings. So having a space especially for that really helps us. The best part is that bonding happens so naturally on Dive. It's become our hang out space." - Milla Heikkilä, HR Lead @ Sofokus

Teams at Sofokus use Dive for almost all of their casual meetings. They use Dive for their daily meetings, lunch catch-ups, onboarding, one-on-ones, socials, trivia night, watch parties and a bunch of other things.

Recently they started hosting virtual physical training sessions too.

"We recently tried virtual physical training on Dive. Which was a huge hit. We are used to having gym sessions together. And it feels so great to be training together again irrespective of staying in different locations. We are also planning to have a virtual wine tasting session soon. Everyone is excited about that. " - Milla Heikkilä, HR Lead @ Sofokus

What teams at Sofokus love about Dive is that it's interactive, fun and engaging. The environment is informal and it feels natural to bond with people. When people start using Dive they feel instantly connected and get fixed as a crew. It's the best way to keep up the team spirit. Teams at Sofokus love using emoticons and sounds during their meetings. And love playing Draw party.

"I still remember our first Draw party session on Dive. We were all laughing together while trying to guess the word. I just remember that it was super fun. For the first time for a long time it felt like, hey, we can actually have fun together even though we are not in the same place physically." - Milla Heikkilä, HR Lead @ Sofokus

The way forward

The teams at Sofokus feel like they've found the right platform that helps them stay connected. People have slowly started using Dive for their own small catch-ups without anyone forcing them to meet. Which is helping Sofokus sustain their culture by providing their teams an environment to be open, have conversations and stay TOGETHER. Sofokus is excited about upcoming features on Dive like Trivia and increase in number of participants as they have plenty of other ways in which they want to use Dive going forward.

"Our folks are getting fixed as a crew after using Dive. They are building their team spirit here. It's all happening better and faster on Dive than any other tool we've been using. It just feels really natural because it's a place where we can hang out together virtually. It's surely helping us sustain our culture remotely. - Milla Heikkilä, HR Lead @ Sofokus