How Trysilhus seamlessly united office and construction teams

By Friday, they return to Sweden, only to repeat the journey the following week. This is the reality at Trysilhus, where the workforce literally spans two countries.

Founded as a small Norwegian construction company, Trysilhus has evolved into a comprehensive residential development powerhouse. They don't just build, they handle everything from identifying and purchasing land plots to handing over keys to new homeowners. It's a complete value chain that demands seamless coordination between teams.

But success brought unexpected challenges. As the company grew from 80 to 200 employees (later stabilizing at 160), something precious began to slip away: the tight-knit culture that once defined them. Long-term employees – those who remembered the early days – watched as newer team members seemed increasingly disconnected from the company's core identity.

The divide wasn't just cultural; it was physical. Office administrators worked indoors with computers and constant connectivity, while construction crews operated outdoors on building sites, often without easy access to digital communication tools. When COVID-19 hit and traditional gatherings became impossible, followed by Norway's challenging real estate market limiting company social events, this gap widened into a chasm.

"The distance between production and administration has increased," reflects Lasse. "The employees that are with us from the start have a different take on what our culture means compared to the new employees."

The challenge was clear: how do you maintain unity across borders, job functions, and physical locations?

The company needed to find a stable, comparable solution that could maintain their high engagement levels while addressing a growing cultural divide.

"For the past 10 years, we've grown significantly, and replies to employee surveys consistently showed that the distance between production and administration has increased," explains Lasse. "Construction workers felt more detached from the company than before."

After an extensive evaluation process that included Norwegian startups as well as Spanish and Danish alternatives, the team eventually found their perfect match.

"We started the process focused on cost and functionality, searching everywhere for something that offered the same capabilities as Workplace," says Lasse. "After scouring the internet without success, we approached Workvivo and had an amazing experience in the sales process. We felt taken care of in a very good way."

The migration partnership with Workplace and flexible pricing structure ultimately made Workvivo the clear choice.

Trysilhus entered their platform search with crystal-clear priorities shaped by their unique operational needs and successful Workplace experience.

Workplace functionality parity

Having built a thriving internal community on Meta's Workplace, maintaining feature equivalence was non-negotiable. "Our goal was to find something as close to Workplace as possible because we were happy with that platform and functionality," explains Eli. The team refused to compromise on the social networking capabilities that had proven successful.

Mobile-first design

With 50% of employees working on construction sites without computer access, robust mobile functionality became essential. "The mobility of the platform is a key factor," emphasizes Lasse. "Cross-platform, friendly user experience is really important to us." The solution needed to work seamlessly whether accessed from a laptop in the office or a smartphone on a construction site.

Cost effectiveness

Operating during Norway's challenging real estate market meant budget constraints were real. The economic downturn had limited funds for technology investments, making pricing flexibility crucial for moving forward.

Seamless migration support

While not initially considered essential, the ability to migrate existing content and maintain user engagement during the transition became valuable. The team wanted to preserve the community they'd built rather than starting from scratch.
 

Despite initially planning to implement independently, Trysilhus discovered the value of Workvivo's guided approach.
"We really went into it with confidence that we wouldn't need an implementation partner – we only needed the platform," Lasse recalls. "But having a project manager guide us through different features was invaluable. We got a thorough walkthrough that enabled us to implement features as we went live, rather than taking it in waves later."

Eli also praises the onboarding process: "It was really professional. I liked how we were challenged to answer strategic questions at the beginning – really asking the difficult questions about what we wanted to achieve and putting that down on paper as a foundation."

The comprehensive training ensured leadership felt confident answering colleagues questions and understanding platform capabilities before launch.

The platform has become essential for bridging physical and cultural divides within the organization. "It's an important tool for building common culture and communicating more effectively because it's a two-way possibility where you can ask questions or post comments that everybody can see," explains Eli. "You don't need to answer the same question more than once."

The platform serves as a cultural bridge during challenging times. "We've had a tough economic situation where the real estate market has been slow – two really difficult years without funds to meet physically as often as we'd like," says Eli. "This is a very important tool to have everybody know what's going on, build engagement, and cheer each other on."
 

Trysilhus is still in the early stages of its Workvivo journey, but initial employee feedback reveals genuine enthusiasm for the platform's enhanced capabilities and user experience improvements.

Enhanced expression and engagement

The expanded emoji options have been an immediate hit. "The feedback has been on little things that you can use more emojis than just the standards – the thumbs up, heart, and stuff like that," notes Eli. This seemingly small feature has encouraged more expressive communication, moving beyond basic reactions to richer interaction.

Seamless transition experience

Employees appreciated the smooth migration from Workplace. The familiar social networking feel combined with improved functionality meant no learning curve disruption. High activation rates demonstrate that workers could immediately engage without hesitation.

Values connection

The values integration feature resonates strongly with the team culture. Being able to connect posts and recognition to company values helps keep organizational priorities visible in daily interactions, addressing a long-standing challenge of maintaining focus on core principles.

Improved navigation

The Mega Menu functionality provides seamless integration across their digital landscape. "That's something Workplace didn't have," notes Lasse. "Having an editable Mega Menu that guides users throughout our technology landscape is very useful."

Pages and recognition features

Moving beyond their basic Workplace usage, Trysilhus now leverages previously unused functionality. "We used Workplace basically just as a Facebook page – groups with content, that's it," explains Lasse. "But pages and badges are functionality we've started using in Workvivo, using this platform switch as an opportunity to utilize more features."

Despite Norway's cultural tendency toward modesty (janteloven), the platform encourages positive recognition and connection.

"The special thing about our journey is that we had a successful platform with Workplace, and our case was to find a stable solution comparable to what Meta provided," reflects Lasse. "From what we've heard from our Workvivo project managers, we have high activation and content rates compared to others. That's because employees just went from one platform to another seamlessly – that's our success story."

For Trysilhus, Workvivo isn't just a communication tool – it's a cultural bridge connecting office teams with frontline workers across international borders, ensuring no employee feels detached regardless of their physical location.