When Workplace announced its shutdown, Orbrann—a fire and rescue service operating across a wide region in Norway—set out to find a platform that could continue supporting their internal culture and communication. With teams distributed across several stations, maintaining unity and flow of information was critical. Their goal wasn’t just to replace a tool, but to find a modern, intuitive solution that fit the way their frontline staff work every day.
The lack of a centralized system made it difficult to track, organize, and monitor employee needs, consuming significant time, especially for a company facing growing complexity and demand.
After six months of evaluating alternatives, Orbrann selected Humand for its mobile-first design, user-friendly experience, and range of integrated communication tools. They appreciated how easy it was to onboard even the least tech-savvy employees and how natural the platform felt from day one. The ability to post updates, photos, and videos from field teams added authenticity to their communication flow and gave everyone a voice.
The transition to Humand began in June 2025 and officially launched in August. Instead of starting from scratch, Orbrann focused on continuity—replicating familiar content and formats to ease the switch. As part of the rollout, the communications team met with every department in person to demonstrate how the platform would support their daily work. They also added playful elements: launching the new Survey module with a quiz based on their internal yearbook, where employees could win gift cards. This hands-on and creative onboarding made the process both fun and effective. “Even those who are the least digitally experienced in our organization managed to log in and set up their user profile surprisingly easily, with little to no help from the onboarding team. The feedback we received was that Humand was not only very easy and intuitive to use, but also felt like an improvement compared to Workplace.” — said Inger Thommessen, Head of Communications at Orbrann.
Humand quickly became Orbrann’s central space for connection—especially among their core firefighter teams. Adoption and usage were high from the start, with users actively posting from the field and interacting across shifts and departments.
