"What Doesn't Need to Be Secret, Isn't Secret"

Following APRÓ's excellent performance in VR's Company of the Year survey, Vísir.is wrote about our company culture.

APRÓ's HR manager, Erla Sylvía Guðjónsdóttir, sat down to tell the full story.

The interview was conducted by Rakel Sveinsdóttir, Vísir's business editor, and was published in late June 2025.

Making VR's Company of the Year list is always sought after, because it's based on employee feedback that's compiled into one overall score.

But it stands out when a company few of us have heard of receives the highest rating among large companies. Only four companies reached this top tier in 2025, and APRÓ was one of them.

Even more interesting is learning that APRÓ is actually only two years old. It's a newer company created after the acquisition and merger of three software firms.

It raises the question: how can you manage a merger so well that employees themselves give the company the highest overall score in VR's best company ranking?

"Honest communication matters a lot. We talk about what goes well, but just as much about what doesn't work or what we're not quite sure about," says Erla Sylvía Guðjónsdóttir, APRÓ's HR manager, when discussing the merger process.

How APRÓ Came to Be

To better understand what makes a successful merger and get some good advice, let's look at the background behind this one.

A few practical facts: APRÓ has about 80 employees, and the company name comes from two of the companies that merged: Andes and Prógramm.

The gender ratio is about 80:20 male/female.

Andes was a relatively young company before the merger, originally founded in 2016 and specialized in cloud solutions. Prógramm, meanwhile, was founded eighteen years ago and had years of experience in software development.

Andes and Prógramm merged in 2023, and last year a third company joined: Miracle, which specializes in developing and operating data systems, business intelligence, and was founded in 2003.

"These companies came together after investors from the search fund Leitir bought them," Erla explains:

Search funds like this are known internationally and are designed to identify companies to acquire, build them up, and sell them later.

Search fund managers are called searchers, and one of the first hired was Hlöðver, who is now APRÓ's CEO."

Hlöðver Þór Árnason previously worked in the IT department at Kvik and is one of the founders of Parka, a parking app.

"Hlöðver finds two interesting companies to buy: Andes and Prógramm. It turns out both companies are acquired and merged," Erla says, and as mentioned, Miracle joined as a third addition later.

"One of the first things Hlöðver does after an acquisition is hire an HR manager and a finance manager," Erla says. She found the merger opportunity interesting right away, and previously worked at Valitor.

"I thought the merger was interesting because even though Andes and Prógramm were both tech companies, Andes was very young and used to working closely with partners like Amazon. Meanwhile, Prógramm was a much older company that mostly worked with public institutions and businesses. The structure of these companies was very different."

Erla says it helped a lot that both companies had strong cultures and therefore inherited good foundations. "But there are all kinds of other things that matter. For example, how project work is done, what processes look like, and so on. In tech companies like APRÓ, we sell our time, so these details matter a lot."

Erla also points out that even though the culture was good at both companies, the teams that worked there were different.

Employees rate their workplaces, and those ratings can land companies on VR's Company of the Year list. APRÓ received the highest rating among large companies in 2025, reflecting how employees view this new combined organization.

Here are some fun pictures: our 2024 Christmas sweater day, a group photo from our annual event, and tree planting with Jafnvægi FKA.  

Fear and Good Advice

One reality of company mergers is employee fear.

For instance, fear of losing your job, losing your position or influence, and so on.

Were there any layoffs?

"No. Like other companies, we've had layoffs. But these weren't related to the merger," Erla says, and then adds:

"The fear we saw among employees was perhaps more about this: by merging and becoming such a large company, we'd lose a certain flexibility and become more corporate or bureaucratic."

Erla says it helped a lot that new management met individually with all employees right from the start. The same happened when Miracle joined.

It's natural for us to start by thinking about how changes will affect us personally.

What will these changes mean for me?

That's why starting with personal conversations—meeting and getting to know each person—was really valuable."

Another thing Erla mentions is giving people time to adjust.

"At all three companies, the organizational structure was pretty flat—mainly the CEO handled most things. After the merger, we had a different structure: a new leadership team, which was a new concept for everyone. Naturally, people still look to their old manager. But that's fine, because what happened gradually is that as we all got to know each other better, people realized they could reach out to multiple managers, and so on. This has evolved at a natural, stress-free pace for us."

Often managers fear job loss most in a merger. Do you think it helped your merger that the three companies had relatively flat management structures?

"Yes," Erla answers. Clearly convinced.

No Bullshit

Right from the start of our conversation, Erla emphasizes how important good communication and information flow to employees are.

"We try to keep people informed as much as possible and follow a principle: anything that doesn't need to be a secret, isn't. We're open to talking about everything. This also means we store things like how we manage documents on shared drives so everyone can access them. We use Slack, similar to Teams, to share information. I think one of the things that helped us most through this merger process is this transparency."

But also the human side.

"Our approach is also to not hide the fact that sometimes we make mistakes. That's simply part of the process, and there's no reason to be embarrassed about discussing it," Erla says, giving an example:

"The three companies had different processes for tracking time and managing projects, so we knew we'd need to align on a single way of working. But we've made mistakes in this and had to change our approach more than once."

Erla says a lot went well, of course.

"But this is a learning curve, and while it might sound like a cliché to emphasize good, honest communication and information sharing, the truth is this: trust is the only thing that reduces uncertainty and fear in people. Building trust takes time, and the only way to build trust is to be honest and transparent in what we say and do."

Are the teams blending together, or do you still see people clustering with their original company at events or in the break room?

"Yes, we saw this quite a bit at the beginning. But it changes over time. At first, we saw it with the teams from Andes and Prógramm, and gradually that shifted. Then we saw it again, a bit, when Miracle joined, but again it's changing," Erla says, and adds:

"But we also worked intentionally to bridge the gap between teams by holding shared events and doing cross-team work when possible."

Hlöðver, Anna, Erla, and Páll from APRÓ accept the VR Company of the Year award. APRÓ was created after Hlöðver, APRÓ's CEO, worked as a search professional for a search fund, a role focused on finding acquisition opportunities and building those companies further.

And speaking of trust, Erla says one of the most important things is that managers never say anything they can't stand behind.

"In a process like this, it's natural that people scrutinize all communication and information, especially from leadership. Ensuring transparency in sharing information or acknowledging when mistakes have been made or something needs to change is one thing. But it's another to never say anything you can't deliver on."

To keep track of how things are going, APRÓ uses an employee satisfaction measurement system that shows results almost in real time and also lets employees send anonymous suggestions. Erla says this tool has worked well for them.

"It's really valuable to have a tool like this and get the chance to respond if we can. Some things can obviously be changed, others can't. But then there's nothing to do but discuss it specifically at team meetings."

Erla says the merger of the three companies follows the formula most people know: consolidating and combining to grow.

"The companies each worked in specific areas, but with the merger, we immediately became a company with the capacity to take on bigger and more complex projects than before. Our efficiency comes from building one large unit that we want to become a market leader."

There was some overlap in specific cases—for example, with people in account management where we had to reorganize client lists and so on.

Erla also suggests it may have helped that technical people tend to be curious and always looking for ways to improve things.

"The acquisitions and merger were kept secret until they didn't have to be anymore. Employees got information about what was happening as soon as it was possible. Miracle moved to APRÓ but couldn't do it right away. Still, the team was ready for that move when it finally happened," Erla says, and adds that the individual meetings and other groundwork made a real difference.

"Andes and Miracle moved out of their spaces into where Prógramm was based. One of the things that helped with the move is that all our office space is really beautiful and nothing was spared. So most people were happy about the moves, as most of our staff were very pleased to work in an excellent workspace."

Looking back, Erla finds much of the process interesting.

But in between are harder tasks to deal with, and often the best approach is just to rip off the band-aid and focus on doing what needs to be done.

We have a goal of solving problems as quickly as possible, and I'm also very inspired by a principle from Andes that we've kept: simply put, it's this:

No bullshit!"