Most Swedes have at some point browsed through Hemnet's selection of cosy summer cottages, renovation projects and luxury villas. Since the company was founded in 1998, the platform has grown to become Sweden's dominant digital meeting place for property enthusiasts, with tens of millions of visits each month. Behind this success story are employees who actively shape a strong and positive workplace culture. Something that Marcus Lundkvist, People Partner at Hemnet, discovered during his first few months at the company.
"We have a fantastic culture. When I started here, everyone talked about how strong our culture is, and I can truly confirm that it's embedded in the company's entire DNA. Our company culture is very warm, forward-leaning and curious."
This strong culture would become a success factor for Marcus's next assignment: leaving their previous HR system and launching Hailey to the organisation. In an environment where employees embrace new ways of working, changes quickly translate into improvements.
We focused on the employee when we went live. Our vision for the rollout
was to give the organisation a great first impression and impress the employee."
From the project's very first day, it was clear who the most important target group was.
"We focused on the employee when we went live," explains Marcus, "our vision for the rollout was to give the organisation a great first impression and impress the employee."
This is the core of every successful implementation. It's not just about technical migration, it's about people feeling confident and efficient in their new digital work environments. Which HR system is used isn't particularly interesting to employees. However, they do care that their data is secure, that information is accessible when they need it, and that everything works intuitively.
Here, Hailey's user-friendliness proved to be a strategic advantage. As Marcus puts it:
"Using Hailey is like using an iPhone."
Simple, intuitive, and without barriers.
Hemnet's strategic thinking began during the procurement phase. By involving managers as decision-makers, they ensured that the new tool would genuinely support leadership within the organisation.
"The transition from our old system to Hailey has been received really well by our managers," Marcus tells us. "They find the traceability very convenient. Being able to go back to previous employee conversations and have two conversations open simultaneously makes a huge difference for overview."
The requirements specification was clear: they wouldn't repeat the mistakes of their previous supplier, where user-friendliness and scalability were lacking. The switch to Hailey thus became both a direct solution and a long-term investment.
The positive reception Marcus believes is partly the result of a gradual change journey:
"We quite strictly limited the manager role at the beginning, then opened up more functionality based on actual needs. Now everyone is used to the system. The best proof is when we get a Hailey question in Slack and I see another manager answering it."
"From our perspective, it's very easy not to make mistakes in Hailey. You can click around and test things as long as you don't press delete."
The implementation was led from Hailey's side by a Customer Success Specialist with experience of implementation projects from similar companies. What immediately impressed Marcus was the transparent communication that set the tone for the entire collaboration.
"The support we received was fantastic, both regarding project management and managers introduction. We had a tight deadline, and I asked our specialist to let us know if we were falling behind schedule. Which she did on a couple of occasions—that creates trust."
Hemnet chose a pragmatic strategy that avoided common implementation pitfalls:
"We felt no resistance to challenging our processes. I said that 'the processes we have today, evaluate them and then think about how we can improve them with the functionality available in Hailey.'"
The structured project plan that Hailey developed during implementation worked so well that Hemnet continued using the same methodology after launch.
The working method that Hailey had set up during implementation was very smooth.
We could see exactly what needed to be done and when, with clear milestones. We used
the same working method even after implementation to continue working on the processes."
The geographical and cultural proximity proved more strategic than expected for support, implementation and product development.
"The fact that Hailey is a Swedish company means I feel close to them as a supplier. In hindsight, that's been invaluable," reflects Marcus.
The effects of the implementation extended further than expected. A concrete example is the cost reduction for employment certificates.
"Previously, we generated employment certificates at a unit cost via the payroll bureau. Now we can handle this ourselves in Hailey with just a few clicks," explains Marcus.
Time savings are most noticeable in recurring processes.
The time we spend on workflows like the hiring process has decreased dramatically.
Employees are automatically channelled into the pre-boarding portal, all contracts go directly
into Hailey after signing. It's digitalisation, automation and efficiency improvement for real"
But perhaps Marcus is most pleased with the small details that make daily work simply flow. When the entire organisation is on board, there are fewer question marks and everyone knows where to find information:
"I haven't had to chase down bank account details for six months."
Create engagement amongst employees through internal news articles and a robust company page. Hemnet even replaced their intranet with Hailey for that information.
From day one, they asked employees to test functions and rate the experience.
Let the system's functionality shape processes instead of forcing illogical workarounds.
A perfect launch isn't the goal—continuous improvement is. In a user-friendly and scalable platform, development becomes a natural part of everyday life.
Hemnet's approach shows that successful implementation is about more than technology. It's about people, culture and smart project management.
