People in tech: Joakim Särkijärvi, Arctic Group

It started in Piteå almost 30 years ago. Today, Arctic Group has its head office in Luleå and offices in Sundsvall, Gävle and Stockholm. HR Manager Joakim Särkijärvi tells us more in our article series People in tech.

- We are an IT consulting company that is at the forefront of solutions in cybersecurity, integration services and implementation of software development tools," says Joakim Särkijärvi.

The customers are in both the private and public sectors and consist of major national companies in, among other things, telecom, the energy industry, basic industry, banking and insurance. In the public sector, they are authorities, regions and municipalities.

- So we work in many different and exciting types of projects. We've been around since 1996 and in most cases it's about long-term collaborations where we have grown through renewed and deepened trust to today be about 70 employees. We are also proud to be part of Allurity, a leading European cybersecurity group consisting of several companies specializing in cybersecurity. Within the Allurity family, we complement each other's offerings and together we strive to develop the industry and make both companies, society and the world digitally safer.

Arctic Group was named "Career Company of the Year 2025" by Karriärföretagen. Can you tell us a little about how you have worked to be an attractive employer?

- Our aim has been and remains to be one of the most attractive and sustainable companies in the industry. Even though we know that we have modern leadership, a warm and inclusive culture and that we are a very good place to work if you want to develop and do exciting things, we also need to be able to convey this in our branding work, which we have succeeded in doing well and awareness of us has increased. We have also managed to recruit fantastic colleagues, including so-called Career Chairs or Tech Talents, which are students who are hired and developed together with us already during their education and then they continue into the business. We who work here are also fantastic ambassadors, which the latest eNPS measurement showed with a value of 68.

"Through TechSverige, we can together influence public opinion and various regulations in a different way than would otherwise have been possible."

- As I said, we have grown rapidly in recent years and will continue to do so. And then it becomes absolutely crucial how good we are at utilizing our different experiences and competencies, and that everyone should be able to achieve their full potential regardless of background, gender, age, etc. The opportunities to develop and be challenged in the professional role are super important while there is sustainability in it, and also a good balance between private life and career. Taken together, this affects how innovative we are and also how profitable, and not least how attractive we are as an employer. We keep track of it, among other things through the SHE index, which is a tool for measuring and comparing organizations from a diversity and inclusion perspective from several perspectives, such as gender distribution, recruitment, salary, guidelines, etc. And there we have a score of 75, which is good, but we can be even better.

How does Arctic Group work with AI?

- We are currently working with AI in several different parts of our operations and are continuously examining where and how we can develop its use. We have created an AI group that is looking at both the risks of AI and the opportunities to build sustainable and safe digitization with the help of secure AI. In the field of cybersecurity, we see great opportunities to use AI to detect incidents faster, prevent attacks, and more. We also look a lot at how AI can handle "non-bias", that is, that the AI models are not "colored" by a distorted view or prejudices that currently exist in different parts of society. In addition to our own internal development work, we have also entered into a partnership with AI Sweden, a body in Sweden that helps companies develop and collaborate with AI, so we are on a very exciting journey in the field.

What benefits do you see from membership of TechSverige?

- We see many advantages in being part of TechSverige, but overall it is about better conditions for both us as a company and the industry as a whole to grow and develop. Through TechSverige, we can together influence public opinion and various regulations in a different way than would otherwise have been possible. In this way, we can become more competitive, and at the same time, hopefully, the business landscape can be better adapted to our and the industry's reality.

- Another important reason for being part of TechSverige is to provide support and advice in important areas related to the development of our staff or other strategic issues. The collaboration also means a large network with the opportunity to make important contacts and also a valuable knowledge sharing through, among other things, training and various types of collaboration.