Vaimo Employee of the Year 2016

 Since 2012, we have held an annual “Vaimo Employee of the Year” competition to highlight and honour our employees who go the extra mile for our clients, other Vaimoers, and for Vaimo. This year, a total of 13 offices from 10 countries voted for their most deserving employee, and from the final nominees from each office, we voted once more for our first, second, and third place winners. The final decision was also reviewed by a panel of judges, composed of Vaimo’s co-founders. Our first place winner received an elegant glass trophy engraved with his name, and all winners received training vouchers. All final nominees from every office, along with the winners, have the chance to design their own personalised pair of Nikes, which are be emblazoned with “EOTY 2016.”

Let’s take a look at our deserving winners; we actually had two employees tie for third place!

Benjamin Gisvold is a Lead Project Manager at Vaimo London, and he thinks the “London office is a fantastic place to be. Not only is the location great (loads of great food places, close to the clients), but the people are what make the office. There’s always a buzz, some kind of activity, people laughing…we have all kinds of personalities which just makes coming to the office fun.” Benjamin recalls his funniest moment at Vaimo, noting that “there are some funny memories I can’t share…but going to the Vaimo Kick-Off, in the bus from the airport to the hotel, playing games with the UK team, and writing “Vaimo is coming to town” with Maurizio is my funniest recollection. We were all tired, which probably made everything funnier at the time.”

Benjamin’s colleagues had plenty to describe why he deserved to win:

• “Benjamin makes waffles for the office, runs PM training sessions, delivers good work for big projects, plays PS4 with others, and is good at listening.”

• “He really helped me get started in the UK processes, he’s always willing to set aside time to answer silly questions, he’s always on a positive tone, and damn, them waffles!” 

• “Benjamin works day and night (literally) to ensure client satisfaction.”

• “He’s not only a great communicator, but has a technical understanding that makes discussions between the developers and the client smoother.” 

• “Benjamin makes awesome waffles, not only for his team, but for the whole office to enjoy!” 

• “He always helps, is always positive and goes the extra mile.” 

• “Ben is always enthusiastic and creates a good atmosphere in the office. He is also a champion in waffle-making.”

Heidi Holmström is a Marketing Coordinator based in Vaimo headquarters in Stockholm. What inspires Heidi at Vaimo? “Everything and anything! I love the fact that each day is different and comes with surprises and challenges that are waiting to be handled. I love the vibe, the friendly atmosphere, the laughter and the openness. We are a rock ‘n’ roll company!”

Here’s why we think Heidi is amazing:

• “She does so much for us all and I’m not sure she gets enough thanks. She is always smiling and happy and takes care of everyone else first. She is the one that is working at every Kick-Off, dinner and party so all other employees can have a great time. She deserves this one and I just love her.” 

• “No matter how much she has to do, she always takes the time to help, guide or just to listen. She is also really skilled, responsible and accurate in her work.” 

• “I can add all of Vaimo’s core values to Heidi: She is a team player, and is always happy to help. She is fun, and her sense of humor is great! Her work is excellent and she is open and honest, both professionally and privately.” 

• “As a true mother to all of us here at Vaimo, Heidi indulges us with her secure embrace and warm smile. Heidi is a wonderful colleague who does her utmost and more in everything she does. From planning and organizing the best Kick-Off all time for over 200 people to translating a text under time pressure.” 

• “Vaimo is truly blessed to have her on board!” 

• “What an amazing job Heidi does, especially for our Kick-Off this year, which was a mammoth on-taking. Heidi made it look effortless – she made sure we were all comfortable at all times and managed late nights and piles of work to put her colleagues first, not just for four days in Italy, but during the months of prep she did.”

• “Heidi is always positive, always available, and she’s friendly, fun, and stylish. She arranges events and happenings in a flawless manner. She really deserves to be the Vaimo employee of the year 2016!” 

• “THE highlight of the year was the way she handled the Kick-Off from beginning to end, which was incredible and top-notch. And she’s the happy, kind, and generous person in the office with brilliant work throughout the year. Two thumbs up!” 

Sergii Zheleznytskyi is a Backend Developer from Vaimo Kiev, and he loves his job because he enjoys challenges. “I have chances to explore new tools and tricks which I’ve never known before. And the people; I enjoy working with intelligent people, it inspires me.”

And we also love working with Sergii:

• “Sergii is always willing and capable to help, he’s hardworking, highly engaged in the process, he initiates tasks and he’s fun to work with. Sergii is tough, but easy-going at the same time!”

• “He takes on challenging tasks, he’s helpful, and he’s a great technical leader.” 

• “He has done an amazing job for some huge projects, such as Tous. Also, Sergii is a highly motivated person, who will always help you with your problems.” 

• “Sergii is always busy, yet always calm and helpful. No one else around me works as hard as him.”

• “Sergii demonstrates great dedication and teamwork! He’s passionate about development and always helpful!” 

• “Sergii shows exceptional engagement, competence and performance.” 

• “Sergii makes Vaimo a great place to work.” 

• “Sergii’s made top contributions to Vaimo’s vision to become number one in the world.” 

• “He is a true helper, and he goes the extra mile to reach goals our together as One Vaimo.” 

• “He’s diligent, and does a lot of work on time.” 

• “Sergii is never afraid to take on new challenges, and he perfectly demonstrates excellence and team spirit.”

• “I’m pretty new here, but as I can tell, Sergii is always on time, always calm and always working. No one else near me works as much and is as disciplined as Sergii.”

Our Employee of the Year 2017 is Juha Pyrrö, who works as a Magento-certified Front-end Developer and Team Lead at the Vaimo Finland office in Oulu, Finland. According to his colleagues, Juha possesses a unique combination of deep technical expertise about Magento, the ability to share his knowledge in simplest terms and a tenacious, can-do attitude to boot. Juha describes his job as “truly unique, and a position that has provided immeasurable experience, knowledge, and an overall amazing experience.” Juha also shares that his colleagues are “leading professionals who are always willing to help, whether they are working next to you, or from an office in Stockholm, London, Dubai, Pretoria, or Tokyo.” Juha describes our overall culture as one that“provides an overall good feeling, along with a high level of know-how,” and his favourite Vaimo memory so far is our last Kick-Off in Italy, that included “inspiring speeches from professionals, a trip to the local vineyard, as well as a challenging hike with the best reward at the top: food.”

Here’s what we all had to say about Juha:

• “Juha brightens our office life, is easy-going and fun to work with.”

• “Has shown both exceptional individual effort and motivation, plus dedication to push his team to the next level, several times. He never looses his drive or passion and also helps project managers drive development.”

• “Juha is an exceptional person with an attitude to help everybody (teamwork); he communicates a lot with a smile on his face (fun), and he’s always willing to learn new things (excellence).”

• “He is a good helper to all team members, he makes our work place pleasant, and he has delivered challenging projects for customers.”

• “Juha leads many projects at the same time and launches them.”

• “Juha has a never-ending inner passion for his work, he wants to educate himself constantly, and he fulfills the project requirements every time. In addition, he is also an excellent team leader. He guides his team well and makes sure that all the new employees in his team are doing okay. He even makes sure that all people outside of his team are doing well and giving them positive and constructive comments that they need. I’ don’t work on his team, as I sit on the other side of the office, but I can still see from a distance that he deserves to be the employee of the year.”

• “I’ve started at Vaimo recently and I’ve received my first client tasks from Juha. They have been scoped quite well to allow me to gain traction. Juha is approachable, friendly, and generous with giving positive feedback. He also randomly wished me good luck when I had my interview here, and that might have helped as well!”

• “He’s the most positive guy I know, and he shows great motivation and skill.”

• “Juha is full of smiles, has great leadership skills, and is an excellent teacher! He is great fun to be around and I am sure he would wear this title with pride.”