Allier Gruppen: Developing both people and organisation through employee conversations
Eirin Eriksen Horvei
October 14, 2026
With the help of the Motivati method, Maksimer has brought structure to the employee appraisal and a clearer way of following up on what comes up.
– Before we started using Motivati, we had no tool for employee appraisals and no clear structure for follow-up and progress, says Morten Jørs, COO of Maksimer.
Today, the situation is completely different. The employee appraisal is more targeted, and managers go into the conversations with a concrete starting point. This makes it easier to ask the right questions and quickly get to the heart of the matter.
– The employee appraisal has now become an important part of how we work with development, he says.
Maksimer was founded in Bergen in 2009 and today has around 65 employees across offices in Norway, Sweden and Serbia. The company works with clients both nationally and internationally, in both the B2C and B2B markets.
They support their clients throughout the entire journey – from idea and setting up an online store, to operations, advisory services and growth.
– We deliver everything from technical solutions to strategic advice, explains Jørs.
With a growing organisation and a market in constant change, Maksimer depends on developing both people and the organisation in step.
When Maksimer started using Motivati in February 2023, it was part of a larger effort to professionalise the business.
– We have been through a process where we have put an HR team in place and started working more systematically with routines and tools, says Jørs.
The goal was to create a more holistic and structured approach to how they follow up and develop employees.
He also highlights the importance of internal drivers.
– We have been lucky to have skilled, independent people who have taken ownership of this. They are the reason we have got so much out of the tool across the whole organisation.
Today, Motivati is used by all employees, across departments and locations. The HR team has established a clear annual cycle, where the employee appraisal is a fixed part of the second quarter, supplemented by separate conversations on goals and development and several follow-up points along the way.
Ahead of the employee appraisal, all employees at Maksimer complete the Motivation Analysis™. It gives a simple picture of what matters to each individual in their job, and how their working day is actually experienced.
This way, both manager and employee get a shared and concrete starting point for the conversation.
– The analysis makes it easier to ask good questions and get to the heart of the matter faster. The conversations flow better and are less rigid than before, says Jørs.
Rather than starting broad and general, the analysis highlights the gap between what matters to the individual and how it is actually experienced in practice.
– This gives us some clear hooks to hang the conversation on. The dialogue becomes more relevant, both for the employee and for the manager, he explains.
The result is more open and targeted employee appraisals, and a more natural dialogue about development, well-being and improvements.
At the same time, he highlights transparency as an important strength.
– What we agree on in the conversation is visible to both parties. That makes it easier to create ownership on the employee's part.
One of the advantages of Motivati is the ability to follow development over time, at individual, department and company level.
– Now that we have used the tool for several years, we have built up a lot of history. That makes it very interesting to work with, says Jørs.
– We can compare departments, see development over time and identify where there are differences. That gives us a good basis for taking action.
This has also produced concrete results.
– We can see that the motivation score has developed positively. We have fewer gaps than before, and less variation for each individual. That shows we are on the right track.
For Maksimer, perhaps the biggest gain has been the predictability and continuity that Motivati has contributed to.
– The employee appraisal is no longer something random. Everyone knows it's coming, and they know that what they raise will be followed up afterwards, says Jørs.
This continuity also makes it possible to see whether the measures actually work over time.
– The most important thing for us is to see that we are developing in the right direction. Otherwise, we wouldn't have continued using the tool, he says.
Feedback from employees confirms the same.
– They are positive, and feel that the conversations are more relevant and useful than before. That's what matters most to us.
