Why does S5 bring the whole company together once a year?
This week we are heading to Riga. Emilie on what an offsite actually does for a consultancy, and why senior SAP people stay at S5.
Why does S5 bring the whole company together once a year?
There is no shortage of glossy careers pages telling you how great a consultancy is to work for. There is a shortage of honest answers to why senior people actually stay.
TL;DR
S5 has been doing company offsites for last years. Nobody remembers the exact start, which is a good sign; it means it became part of how the company works rather than a program someone launched with fanfare.
This week, we are heading to Riga. Every S5 office, every border, in the same hotel for three days.
These trips are the one time a year the whole company is actually in the same room. They are one visible piece of a bigger pattern: independence, depth, execution, and senior people who genuinely stay.
If you are wondering whether S5 is the right place to build a career, or the right partner for your next SAP move, the answer starts with the same three words.
In this article
Why Riga made sense for 2026
S5 has been running these trips for the last years. Nobody’s quite sure of the exact start date, which is honestly a good sign; it means the offsite became part of how the company works rather than a program someone launched with fanfare. Last year we went to Mallorca, and by every account it was just a genuinely good time: a real mix of activities so there was something for everyone, great food, warm weather.
Riga for 2026 came down to a few concrete reasons. It’s close to every S5 office, so nobody’s burning half a day just getting there. It’s got real history and plenty to actually see, so the trip has substance beyond eating and drinking. And it’s got good food and famously cheap beer, which, let’s be honest, people notice.
We are flying in for the weekend: colleagues from Oslo, Stavanger, Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Wrocław, all in the same hotel, all on the same schedule for three days.
What an offsite actually does for a consultancy
This is the part that’s easy to over-explain, so I won’t.
Consultancies are structurally strange places. Everyone is skilled, everyone is senior, and everyone is usually on a client site somewhere else. Between projects, offices, and time zones, most of us don’t cross paths with most of our colleagues for months at a stretch. That’s normal for the industry, and it’s not something an all-hands call fixes.
The offsite is the one time a year the whole company, every office, every border, is in the same room. It’s also the moment where you get a real sense of the people you actually work with: not job titles on Teams, but colleagues you’d genuinely want to grab a beer with on a Friday evening in Riga.
Shared meals and shared plans are what get people talking to colleagues they wouldn’t otherwise catch all year.
The activities and the food aren’t just entertainment; they’re the mechanism. Someone from the Wrocław team ends up on a bike next to someone from Stavanger, and by the end of the ride they’ve usually found a few things worth following up on back at work. It’s not abstract team-building. It’s just the one real chance to catch up.
Why people stay at S5
I get asked this a lot, especially by candidates. My honest answer is that it’s a mix, and the offsite is one visible piece of it, not the whole thing.
People stay because the projects are genuinely varied and interesting; the kind of work that keeps you learning even ten years in. They stay because they work alongside skilled people in their own fields, which is rarer than it sounds in SAP consulting, and it changes what a normal day feels like. They stay because there’s real room to learn and grow, not just on paper. And they stay because of the social side, which the offsite makes visible once a year but which shows up in smaller ways all the time.
That whole picture sits inside something more structural. S5 is employee-owned. There’s no bench, no offshoring, no juniors sent to do senior work. The people you meet on a project are the people who deliver it. That model is what makes the culture possible, and the culture is what makes people stay.
The trip to Riga is one weekend a year. The rest of it is the day job, and that’s the part that actually keeps people here.
If you are thinking about joining us
We describe what we do in three words: independence, depth, execution. Independence because we have no financial reason to tell a customer anything other than the truth. Depth because thirteen years of Nordic SAP delivery, senior-only teams, and a Labs practice building things nobody else is building means we can back the honest answer with real capability. Execution because good advice that never ships is worthless, and we know it.
Those three words are also, quietly, why the offsite matters. Independence is a stance the whole company has to share, not just the CEO. Depth is what you get when senior people stay long enough to accumulate it. Execution is what happens when the people delivering the work actually know each other.
If you’re reading this and wondering whether S5 might be the right next step for your career, the honest answer is: probably yes, if any of this resonates. We’re not the biggest SAP consultancy in the Nordics, and we’re not trying to be. We’re the one where senior people actually deliver senior work, own a piece of the company, and once a year end up in the same hotel in a city like Riga. We’re always open to talking to good people, even when we’re not actively hiring for a specific role.
If you’re reading this from the client side and wondering whether S5 might be the right partner for your next SAP move, the same three words apply, and the same senior people are the ones you’d actually work with.
Frequently asked questions
What does “employee-owned” actually mean at S5?
Employee ownership means the people who deliver the work also own a piece of the company. Decisions about growth, hiring, delivery quality, and long-term direction are made with the people affected by them, not for them. In practice, it shapes everything from who we hire to how we run projects.
Does S5 hire junior consultants?
Our delivery model is senior-only, so we do not run a traditional junior bench with rotating placements on client work. We do hire people at earlier career stages when the fit is right, and we invest in giving them real projects rather than shadow roles. What we do not do is send juniors to do senior work on a client site.
Which S5 offices can I apply to?
We have offices in Oslo, Stavanger, Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Wrocław. Applications from any of these locations are welcome. We are always open to talking to good people, even when a specific role is not open.
How does the offsite fit into the wider S5 culture?
The offsite is one weekend a year and the most visible part of how we work together, but it is not the whole story. It sits inside a bigger pattern of employee ownership, senior-only delivery, no offshoring, and long-term investment in the people who work here. The trip works because the culture underneath it works.
What does S5 mean by independence, depth, and execution?
Independence means we have no financial reason to recommend anything to a customer other than what is genuinely right for them. Depth means thirteen years of Nordic SAP delivery, a senior team, and a Labs practice that builds real capability, not slideware. Execution means we ship the work; good advice that never turns into delivery is not much use to a customer.
Is S5 hiring right now?
Roles come and go, and specific open positions are published as they are available. Beyond that, we are always open to conversations with senior SAP consultants, developers, and architects who are curious about what a different kind of consultancy could look like. Get in touch and we can start a conversation.
Can I work with S5 as a client after reading this?
Yes. The three words that describe our culture, independence, depth, and execution, also describe how we work with customers. If you are thinking about an SAP move and want an honest conversation before a proposal, that is exactly the kind of first meeting we prefer to have.
