• January 14, 2021

Valamis’ 2020 Highlights and Goals for 2021

Little did we know when 2020 began, it would be an exceptional year in many ways. Despite all of the hardships, the year taught us a great deal, and it even included its share of highlights as well. Without further ado, let’s take a look back at what 2020 looked like at Valamis.

2020 Highlights

Valamis won awards and received recognition from top analysts

“Valamis has essentially built the modern end-to-end learning platform every company dreams about.”
- Josh Bersin

Valamis awards 2020

Valamis kept on growing and developing

New office in India

New office in India

In the beginning of 2020, Valamis established an office in Jaipur, India, and welcomed new employees and culture. The management team visited Jaipur to set things up and to celebrate Holi together with our new team members before the outbreak of Covid-19.

Released new research & participated in many virtual events

Valamisians were guest speakers at virtual events

3 papers published

A 9-part live stream series

10 webinars

6 videos

Lessons learned

Highlights in the year 2020 are few and far between, but it certainly has been a year of learning. That’s why we asked some of the Valamisians the question: “What have you learned this year?”

“This year I learned a lot about resiliency and the concept of 'post-traumatic growth'. PTG can be a reassessment of what is important in the face of adversity, or as Viktor Frankl says, "When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.”

Katy Peters, Global Head of Marketing, USA

“One of the things I loved most was collaboration. It was great to work with Valamisians all across the globe and work together as a team to achieve the common goal to make our product better and help customers to achieve their goal.”

Harish Kumar, Software Architect, India

“This year, I felt the full power of Sense of Community. Without the office, working in a remote format, you understand how valuable it is to feel your colleague’s support and care. In my opinion, this has made us even more united. In those moments when we can get together, you feel that you spend time with special pleasure.”

Anastasia Trushina, Quality Assurance Lead, Russia

“I have learned how much it means to me to meet with my coworkers face to face.”

Riina Siikanen, HRD Specialist, Finland
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2020 Valamis Statistics

  • 238 new lessons
    238 new lessons

    238 new lessons created in our internal learning environment.

  • 3300 trees planted
    3300 trees planted

    3300 trees planted around the world with our donations.

  • 1050 bottles of beer
    1050 bottles of beer

    1050 bottles of Valamis beer DubbelOps brewed (yes, we have our own beer).

  • 1 new office
    1 new office

    1 new office located in Jaipur, India.

  • 8 photo challenges
    8 photo challenges

    8 photo challenges in Slack to bring cheer to remote work.

  • 188 custom emojis
    188 custom emojis

    188 custom emojis were created - Valamisians just have a lot of feels about things.

Here’s a working from home -emoji starter kit

home -emoji starter kit

Developing together

  • 53 employees changed roles through internal career development
  • 8 participants in the internal mentoring program
  • 14 participants in internal technology tutoring, aiming to grow skills in our core technologies
  • 12 ValamisTalks - presentations by our colleagues - held during the year. Topics included e.g. customer cases, work culture in different countries as well as presentations on design and marketing.

Valamis Nestors

Every month, we celebrate our Nestors - the Valamisians who have been at the company for 3 or more years. They are the walking databases that know the company inside out!

In 2020 we celebrated:

  • 1 person who has worked at Valamis for 15 years
  • 6 people who have worked at Valamis for 10 years
  • 13 people who have worked at Valamis for 5 years
  • 27 people who have worked at Valamis for 3 years

Participation in Kilometrikisa

The Valamis team has traditionally participated in the Finnish bicycling challenge Kilometrikisa, which helps collect money for charity. This year, Valamisians did a fantastic job and bicycled more kilometers than any previous year!

Valamis employees stats in bicycling challenge Kilometrikisa

Instagram takeovers

10 #ValamisTakeovers

Valbo travels

Due to Covid-19, our company mascot Valbo stayed home this year.

2020 brought many socially distanced events

  • Wine & Sketching
  • Pub Quiz
  • Yoga Breaks
  • Cooking Challenge
  • Mystery Picture
  • Remote Surprises
Wine & Sketching

Our popular Wine & Painting events went remote this year! Painting materials changed to pencils, and we had fun drawing each other - and our CEO Jussi, because why not.

Pub Quiz

Now it’s proven: You can do afterworks with a pub quiz remotely, too!

Yoga Breaks

Our colleagues in Jaipur organized remote yoga classes for all of us to enjoy. A different way to spend a coffee break!

Cooking Challenge

The Valamis cooking challenge inspired Valamisians to cook their specialty dishes at home and decorate with a familiar logo. Too bad we didn’t get to taste them, looks delicious!

Mystery Picture

Our traditional, monthly Mystery Picture competitions continued in Slack. Topics this year included, among others, “Guess how many toilet paper rolls Valbo has”.

Remote Surprises

To keep the spirits up, during the remote spring Valamis employees were treated with tea, coffee and chocolate gifts delivered to their door.

Looking back

At the end of 2019, our CHRO Maria Vihtkari set a vision for 2020:

“Instead of growth, our HR goal for 2020 is to make the organization excel in its line of business by finding the best roles for every employee, caring for all employees and achieving operational efficiency.”
- Maria Vihtkari, Chief Human Resources Officer

We followed up with Maria at the end of 2020...

“I am glad to say that despite the pandemic, the goal we set for 2020 has played out as planned. Through internal recruitments, career development, and team rearrangements, we have been able to keep our workforce and the company thriving. During this unusual year, we have paid special attention to our employees’ wellbeing. In particular, finding new ways to support mental wellbeing has been in our focus.”

According to our 2020 Employee Wellbeing & Satisfaction Survey, 92% of Valamis employees agree or agree to some level with the statement that employees’ wellbeing is well taken care of at Valamis.

The Vision for 2021

“When we started to create Valamis in 2009, our goal was to develop a learning solution which would make learning more engaging and productive by leveraging more varied learning approaches than just formal course-based training. For me, the year 2020 was a milestone when this goal was fully realized as Valamis has matured and been recognized as an exceptional end to end solution for digital learning. My vision for the year 2021 is to take this approach to the maximum and have inspiring discussions with our clients to maximize the potential of learning in their organizations.”
- Jari Järvelä, Head of Business Development

A message from our CEO

“In 2020, we took giant leaps with our processes and product development and secured several new customers, including our first customer in South-America. The digital learning market is growing fast, and my prediction is that the growth will only accelerate this year. Investment from Adelis Equity will help us grow along, and one of our goals for 2021 is to increase our personnel numbers significantly.”
- Jussi Hurskainen, CEO