Our celebration plans are being updated in view of recent global events, but one way in which we plan to mark this significant milestone is ready to see the light of day: our new brand. For decades weā€™ve been known as STP, but from now on, you can call us Sandberg. Weā€™ve designed a bright new logo to go with our new name, and you can read the story behind it below.

Honouring our heritage, projecting our future aspirations

The language services market is evolving at a rapid pace, with consolidations, acquisitions and ever-closer integration and collaboration between language service providers (LSPs and content creators). Weā€™re evolving our services to offer even more value to our clients beyond translation. To reflect this, we felt it was right to update our name to one that is flexible and distinctive.

Our Nordic roots are important to us. Our founder is a Dane and even today many members of our management and production staff are Nordic. This has been essential to the formation of our company culture, where we value directness, openness and honesty. Sandberg is a classic Scandinavian surname, translating roughly as ā€œsand mountainā€ (many Scandinavian surnames have geographical references).

The name has a number of key advantages:

• Itā€™s distinctive and stands out in the LSP market
• Itā€™s clear and easy to pronounce in many languages
• It adapts as our service offering evolves

We also loved it because it avoids some of the familiar naming tropes in our industry (such as trans- and lingua-) and (perhaps most importantly) itā€™s not an acronym!

A modern responsive logo

Our new logo incorporates our new name whilst maintaining our familiar trademark blue. This darker shade is accompanied by a brighter shade of blue that pops in digital applications such as social media and our website. Blue represents a common element that ties all the Nordic nations together: the sea. ?

The two dots are imbued with subtle imagery. The hollow dot references the letter Ć„ used in Danish, Norwegian and Swedish, and is a nod to our Nordic heritage and core translation offering. Together the dots can also be taken to represent a diaeresis (commonly known as an umlaut), which appears in various languages in the letters Ƥ, ƶ and Ć¼.

The dot device is offset by a friendly lowercase wordmark. We chose to split our name in two and stack the parts on top of each other next to the dots to create a counterbalance. The ascenders of the ā€˜dā€™ and ā€˜bā€™ have been cut at the same angle to add energy and interest.

As with almost any identity these days, ours will primarily be encountered in a digital context, which was a guiding light during the design process. This can create constraints in terms of available width and height, hence the need for the logo to be ā€˜responsiveā€™. With this in mind, weā€™ve created a version for use in contexts with little vertical space, as well as one without the wordmark for use as our social media avatar and favicon. It also exists in a number of colour applications, offering much greater flexibility than our previous logo.

The entire design process was handled in-house by our Communications department as part of a broader update to our branding that has been gradually rolling out over the past year.

A statement of intent

Musing on the new identity, Sandbergā€™s Managing Director, Anu Carnegie-Brown says: ā€œFor our clients, this means a more recognisable, distinctive presence in a crowded marketplace. It is also a sign of our ambition to expand our service portfolio to our LSP clients by offering them much more than just translation.ā€

On a practical note, our website and email domains will remain stptrans.com for the time being. The new brand does not affect our legal name, sa¹ś¼Ź“«Ć½., meaning invoicing and payment arrangements will not change either. You might continue to see STP on some communications in the near future as we complete the process of updating all our materials.

ā€œWeā€™ve got some exciting plans in store for 2020 to mark the milestone of our 25^th anniversary. Our new identity represents the first stage of those plans and sets the tone for the way weā€™ll communicate with our client and supplier partners from now on,ā€ Anu concludes.

For enquiries relating to Sandbergā€™s new identity, please contact Max Naylor, our Content and Communications Officer, via communications@stptrans.com.

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This August saw the celebration of the third year of our presence in Varna, Bulgaria. Back in 2016, we started the process of setting up an office in a city and a country that was previously unknown to us. As talent in our industry is sometimes hard to find, we knew we had to look beyond our traditional home markets of the UK and the Nordic countries to continue our growth.

Varna became an obvious choice after our initial visit. This Black Sea resort is popular with tourists in the summer, but dies down somewhat in the winter. Itā€™s brimming with a local, young and motivated workforce, but itā€™s not so large as to feel impersonal. It struck a good balance for us as a company.

Weā€™d heard success stories from another UK-based language service provider whoā€™d set up shop in Varna, and this partnership was crucial in the early days. STPā€™s Managing Director, Anu Carnegie Brown, says: ā€œWe saw that theyā€™d built a successful branch there, and they certainly seemed to have great team spirit and staff morale. In fact they helped us immensely to get started.ā€

Our expansion into Bulgaria represented a turning point in STPā€™s history. Until then, weā€™d only ever had a physical presence in the UK or the Nordic countries. As our no-nonsense culture is a crucial part of our DNA, we were worried about how that would come over in a new country. What we found was that our Bulgarian colleagues shared our open, purposeful communication style, which has long been a defining feature of STP and a key to its success.

Anu concludes, ā€œWhat a journey itā€™s been: a steep learning curve with exponential team growth, plenty of trial and error from the management team and heroic personal contributions from our Bulgarian colleagues who joined us at the start. I remember going to Varna in March 2016 to interview the first PM applicants, and I see what a long way weā€™ve come already. We have a thriving PM team as well as HR, admin and tech staff in Varna. These are motivated, smart people, who get the STP ethos, our work ethic and our Nordic casual dress code.ā€

Employee office exchange

With just under half of our employees working remotely and the rest spread across our offices in the UK, Sweden and Bulgaria, we think itā€™s vital to try and find ways for our employees to form relationships with each other and gain an understanding of their colleaguesā€™ work ā€“ no matter where theyā€™re based.

One of the ways we try and foster internal connections is to offer our staff the chance to go and work in our Varna office for a week at a time. With the bulk of our project managers based in this location, many of our translators and UK-based employees will never have met their Bulgarian colleagues in person.

Turning what can be impersonal digital relationships into friendly, personal ones through face-to-face meetings improves colleaguesā€™ mutual respect, understanding of their roles and responsibilities, and means we get to know each other better as people, rather than just workmates.

Anna Lenartowska is one of our remote project managers, based in Devon. She recently went to work in Bulgaria for a week, and greatly enjoyed the experience: ā€œSpending a week in the Varna office was a lot of fun. Working remotely full time, itā€™s very easy to get stuck in a bubble of your own small team and certain way of doing stuff.ā€

Anna got to know her fellow project managers in person and learned new ways of working too: ā€œSpending time with other teams not only allowed me to finally put faces to the names, but also pick up some new tips and tricks.ā€

Another plus was the chance to share her knowledge and experience. Anna continues, ā€œI also spent some time shadowing junior PMs, offering advice on things that may be obvious to more experienced PMs but not necessarily to newbies, such as translator selection, CAT tool troubleshooting, etc.ā€

Of course, a trip to the resort town of Varna wasnā€™t all about the work ā€“ there were some secondary benefits for the soul to boot: ā€œIt was also really nice to enjoy some proper summer weather for a bit!ā€ Anna concludes.

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This spring, STP welcomed a group of interns from the in Norway. The interns were based in the head office in Whiteley. During the internship period, they got a chance to learn how to use CAT tools in practice and to become acquainted with the process of translation as a professional activity.

Nathalia Bru, who was one of the interns this spring, felt her time in Whiteley was fruitful: ā€œI found the internship to be a really good experience and am very happy that I got the chance to come and work with all the great people here at STP. Iā€™ve learned the importance of deadlines and how it is to work a full day. Iā€™ve also taken all of the feedback in and it will definitely come in handy in the future.ā€

STPā€™s cooperation with the University of Agder is a longstanding one. Learning and Development Manager Raisa McNab is proud that STP is part of the universityā€™s BA in Translation studentsā€™ journeys towards a career in language services: ā€œEach semester, we welcome one to four interns from Agder who come to STP for a period of three to four months during their year abroad. They are exposed to the day-to-day life of a busy translation company, and at the end of their internship have a very concrete, realistic view of what life is like as a professional linguist.ā€

STPā€™s Managing Director Anu Carnegie-Brown views internships as beneficial for all parties: ā€œA typical translation graduate coming out of university has to work hard on two fronts of their professional capability: the quality of their output and the speed of it. There is a cost to this learning curve, both to the individual and to the company who first employs them in-house. Good-quality internships reduce the time and cost of the learning curve, and bring ROI to the university, enterprise and graduate.ā€

Variety is the spice of life: HR matters in an international LSP

The translation industry exists because people need to and want to communicate across language barriers. This means that many translation companies are not only full of multilingual people, but that they often include employees from different language backgrounds and cultures.

At STP, we mostly focus on translation into the Nordic languages and English, but our staff is more diverse than that might suggest. In fact, STPā€™s staff includes people with 15 different nationalities, living in a number of different countries. In addition, we have five offices in three countries (the UK, Bulgaria and Sweden).

HR Advisor Melissa Elsey enjoys the variety that having staff in many locations brings. She points out that the harmonised legislation in the different countries makes things easier: ā€œEmployment laws in each of the countries that STP operates in vary based on the country jurisdictions, but some laws are the same as the UK because Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Bulgaria are all currently in the EU.ā€

While legislation does not vary wildly between various EU countries, there are local differences that need to be taken into account. Melissa mentions that the HR team recently compiled a Danish and Finnish Staff Handbook: ā€œTo do this, we engaged a Danish and Finnish employment law specialist to advise on the employment laws in both countries. We have a localised Staff Handbook for each country that STP operates in and employment law contacts in each country whom we can contact for advice.ā€

ā€œWe research various sources online to check the law and any changes to the law in each country. Luckily, we can find some of the employment laws online in English, but if not, we get the information we need translated.ā€

Within the legal framework, a company must have strong internal principles to operate well across countries. Melissa finds this a simplifying factor: ā€œI think that because STP reflects the Nordic style of employment and values throughout the whole company, it makes it easier to implement STPā€™s company policies in each country. Itā€™s great having a workforce in different locations in Europe, whether office or remote based.ā€

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In early 2019, STP opened a new UK office in Leeds, which is now our fifth European branch. Leeds and Yorkshire are familiar territory for many among STPā€™s staff who have studied or lived there. In addition to having staff members with links to the Leeds area, STP enjoys close collaboration and knowledge exchange with local universities, particularly with the University of Leedsā€™ Centre for Translation Studies (CTS).

The new office was made ready for the first staff members at the beginning of February after securing a central location for the new space.Ā  Setting up this small branch of STP in Yorkshire is an exciting beginning in a new ā€“ albeit familiar ā€“ home.

Championing green values

In 2017, STP took action to make environmental issues part of everyday business at our offices by creating the companyā€™s first environmental policy. One of the items on the list was recruiting ā€œGreen Championsā€ from the offices to act as volunteers who make sure that the environment is on the agenda when the offices make purchases, organise events and make decisions about products and services.

In 2019, our Green Champions will be involved in organising and supervising environmental activities and initiatives and promoting environmental awareness at the offices and at STP in general. In addition to the many office-based volunteers, we even have two who work remotely!

This year so far, the Green Champions have organised a company-wide vegan fika (or coffee morning), set up a battery collection point in our Whiteley office, arranged a plastic bottle top collection drive in our Varna office and made energy savings in Varna by lowering the thermostat temperature and turning off air-conditioning units and water heaters when they are not needed.

Daniel Field is a Project Manager and one of STPā€™s newest Green Champions. He joined the Whiteley volunteers this year. He finds even the small changes that the team are able to make encouraging: ā€œIf a few people can instigate small changes across a company and reach perhaps more than 150 people that way, our actions have a much bigger impact than just me doing the same thing at home.”

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Halloween was celebrated throughout STP with decorations and treats in the offices and staff in other locations taking part, too. A company-wide competition was organised to choose the best costume and the best carved pumpkin from entries submitted by people working in the four offices or remotely. The winner of the best costume was Danish translator Christina Bjerggaard with her gory prom queen and the best pumpkin was Norwegian translator William Hagerupā€™s entry ā€“ one side carved by him, the other by his daughter. We’ll leave it to you to guess which one is which:

STPā€™s Varna office participated in the pumpkin carving, too, but it was their collective effort at costumes, decorations and treats that wowed everyone.

Project Manager Veronica Marinova:

Client Service Assistant Natali Yordanova and Vendor Coordinator Hristina Doncheva:

In addition to the celebrations, STPā€™s Whiteley office has hosted colleagues coming in for team meetings: many of the teams at STP are based in multiple locations, either in various offices or working remotely. While this is a real benefit to both the company and the team members themselves, STP makes an effort to bring colleagues together to meet each other in person regularly. This year, the translator teams have continued the practice of spending a few team days in the Whiteley office after last yearā€™s successful trial.

One of the teams to visit Whiteley was the Danish translator team (pictured below; from left to right: Junie Haller, Amila Jasarevic, Christina Bjerggaard and Trixie Hauberg).

The team focused on working together during their stint at the office: each team member shadowed others and was shadowed, took part in a team meeting, a review meeting with their line manager, a brainstorming session and had many chats over lunch. On their last night, they all headed for a drink at the local pub and a team meal.

Christina, who joined the Danish translator team earlier this year, found the days they spent together very useful: ā€œFor me, it was very beneficial professionally as well as socially to meet my team mates in person. I learned a lot and got so many nice little tips from shadowing all three of them and it has definitely made me workĀ more efficiently. And it was so nice to meet all of them properly and get to know them a bit better. It was very lovely to be able to have a drink and a meal together. I definitely look forward to next year!ā€

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To the outside world, Raisa McNab has been STPā€™s Learning and Development Manager and an active ATC Council member. To her colleagues at STP, she is an enthusiastic, effective and driven leader whose get-up-and-go is inspirational.

Knowing Raisaā€™s talent and work, we are delighted that, from the start of October 2018, she is the Chief Executive of the Association of Translation Companies, leading the ATC together with the associationā€™s Council, Chair and Secretariat.

The appointment is a well-deserved recognition of Raisaā€™s input as an active member of the ATC Council and her contribution to establishing the associationā€™s ISO certification service, in particular. Raisa will continue to work at STP in a part-time role.

Although we are proud to be sharing Raisaā€™s talents with the ATC for the greater good of the UK translation industry, we also value her immensely as a member of our leadership team and look forward to working with her and benefitting from her drive and passion for many years to come.

If youā€™d like to read Raisaā€™s thoughts on her appointment, you can read our interview with her here.

Salty liquorice, name day chocolates and yoga make for happy offices

We often read about the ways that start-ups and tech giants create home-like environments to make their employees devote their every waking hour to their companies. At STP, one of the main principles is that we work smarter, not longer ā€“ so that employees can have dinner (and play video games if they so wish) at home.

However, we think that a team works well together when they know each other ā€“ a company should be a community. To this end, we have regular socials and meetings that bring both our office-based and remote workers together.

This year, the offices in Whiteley and in Varna have created initiatives to bring teams closer together and to integrate new members into the community.

In Varna, the whole team now has health insurance and they have received Multisport cards, which give them access to a range of gyms and sports facilities. The card has been a big hit with the team: our HR Advisor, Radostina Hristova, and project management team members Maria Daskalova, Silviya Ivanova and Yoana Nedelcheva even found a yoga class to attend together twice a week.

Apart from keeping fit, the Varna team also make an occasion of birthdays and name days by collectively chipping in for chocolates and small gifts. ā€œAlmost every week someone cooks or bakes something and brings it to the office or we have a celebration,ā€ Radostina says.

In our Whiteley office, employees follow the Nordic tradition of bringing in cake or sweets on their birthday or on Mondays for fika. You can also often find a bowl full of sweets one of the Nordic linguists has brought from back home ā€“ the rest of the team has already learned to be wary of salty liquorice when it inevitably appears on the lunchroom table.

Apart from sweet treats and other benefits, a new initiative with the aim of integrating new starters to the area and to STP has been trialled with great success this year. The initiative is known as the buddy system: volunteers are assigned a new starter and given a budget to help get them settled.

Ida Berntzen, who is an Account Linguist based in STPā€™s Whiteley office, has taken part in creating the system: ā€œThe new buddy initiative is great way to make newcomers feel safe and taken care of. When I came a little over a year ago, I donā€™t know what I would have done without friends I already knew over here who knew how everything worked.ā€

Project Assistant Alexandra Waller is one of the new starters who took part in the initiative this year. ā€œKnowing thereā€™s a familiar face whoā€™s not only looking forward to meeting you but is there to support you in your new role is priceless. I received a happy little email welcoming me to the team, but also my buddyā€™s number just in case anything happened to me en route to the office. They thought of everything! The buddies arranged some social events for us newbies to get to know each other and our local area. Iā€™m starting to feel at home here and the buddies have definitely made the process fun and easy,ā€ Alexandra says.

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