International Business Brilliance Awards 2025 | Employee Engagement in HR | Gold Award Winner: Softtech – Lokum: One Platform for Seamless Employee Engagement and Communication

In this edition of Behind the Brilliance, we spotlight Softtech, winner of the Gold Award for Brilliance in Employee Engagement Technology at the International Brilliance Awards™, recognised for its innovative digital employee experience platform — Lokum.

Through the insights of Ezgi Sönmez, Product Manager, Innovation at Softtech, we explore how Lokum was designed to simplify communication, enhance connection, and strengthen engagement in the modern hybrid workplace.

Born during the pandemic, Lokum unites communication, recognition, social interaction, and AI-powered assistance in one seamless platform — helping employees feel informed, valued, and connected no matter where they work. Today, Lokum supports over 20,000 employees across multiple organisations, proving that technology built with empathy can truly transform the employee experience.

1. Can you give us a brief overview of your project, Lokum, and what it aimed to achieve?

Lokum is a multi-channel digital employee experience platform developed by Softtech to address internal needs around communication and engagement in a hybrid work environment. It was designed to unify fragmented tools into a single, centralised hub where employees can access announcements, events, surveys, peer recognition, and social interaction features—saving time and improving communication flow.

Lokum includes key modules such as recognition, “Topluluk” (Community), automated celebrations, and a document-based AI assistant for 24/7 access to information. Its main objective is to simplify how employees access information, foster a sense of community, strengthen engagement and support real-time interaction across all levels of the organisation.

Accessible via both mobile and web applications, Lokum enables employees to instantly interact with content anytime, from anywhere. This helps them stay informed, engaged, and connected, regardless of location.

Today, Lokum serves over 20,000 employees across multiple organisations, acting as a digital companion that helps employees feel appreciated and visible in their daily work.

2. What inspired you to create Lokum, and how did you identify the need for a centralised communication platform?

The idea for Lokum was born during the early days of the pandemic, when remote and hybrid work rapidly became the new norm. With physical interactions decreasing, employees found it harder to receive recognition, stay informed about activities across teams, and build visibility within the company. These challenges became even more apparent for new hires, who found it harder to integrate and be acknowledged in a virtual environment.

At the same time, we received direct feedback from employees who felt overwhelmed by fragmented communication tools and missed important updates. Although multiple systems were already in place, they created confusion and inefficiency, leading to a lack of connection and engagement.

We also saw that this wasn’t unique to our organisation. Globally, studies show that employees in an average company use up to 88 different work-related applications, spending as much as five hours a week searching for information. This fragmented experience significantly impacts clarity, productivity, and employee satisfaction.

We realized that a seamless, human-centered platform was needed—one that would consolidate all internal communication and engagement tools into a single, easy-to-use hub. Lokum emerged as a response to this need, designed to simplify access to information, reduce tool fatigue, and foster meaningful connections across the organisation.

3. Before Lokum, what challenges did Softtech face in terms of employee communication and engagement?

Before Lokum, communication was scattered across emails, intranet platforms and various third-party tools. Employees struggled to keep track of important updates, find relevant information, and connect with peers. Appreciation often went unnoticed, feedback loops were inconsistent, and engagement in internal events remained low. These challenges made it difficult to foster a strong sense of community, belonging, and recognition—especially in remote and hybrid work environments.

For example, during special events like World Animal Day, only 6 employees participated when announcements were made via email. After Lokum was introduced, participation increased more than tripled, and engagement through likes and comments significantly improved. This illustrates how fragmented tools were hindering both communication and connection.

4. What makes Lokum stand out as an innovative solution in the HR and employee engagement space?

Lokum stands out by integrating multiple dimensions of employee experience in one place—recognition, feedback, communication, gamified learning, and celebration automation. It also includes an AI-powered assistant and analytics for real-time insights. We designed it to be fun, intuitive, and reflective of our company culture by offering features like gamified recognition, an internal social network, emergency communication, and automated celebrations—all in one platform.

Also, its cultural relevance makes it unique. Lokum stands out by combining essential communication tools with cultural relevance and user-friendly design. In Turkish culture, ‘Lokum’ symbolizes appreciation and celebration. Using this metaphor in the app has made recognition more engaging and meaningful, which in turn increased adoption and usage across the company.

5. How do you feel Lokum has influenced company culture and strengthened employee relationships at Softtech?

Lokum has helped build a more connected, appreciative, and participatory culture within Softtech. Since its launch, over 14,843 recognition messages have been sent, with 1,212 unique senders and 1,541 recipients, showing widespread adoption across teams. Employees have embraced the habit of celebrating achievements and expressing gratitude, fostering a culture of appreciation.

The ‘Topluluk’ (Community) feature also played an important role in strengthening relationships by allowing employees to access social and intellectual content such as books, plays, movies, theater recommendations, healthy recipes, create groups according to their interests, and even participate in company-wide competitions and even post listings for second-hand items they want to sell or exchange.

Employees regularly share posts, participate in themed campaigns, and interact through likes and comments. As a result, these activities have contributed to a stronger sense of community, cross-team engagement, and belonging within the organisation.

6. What does winning the Gold Award at the International Brilliance Awards mean to you and your team?

Winning the Gold Award is a meaningful recognition of our commitment to improving the employee experience through innovation. It reflects Lokum’s positive impact on communication, engagement, and workplace culture at Softtech. 

This journey was made possible by the dedication of our incredible team and the valuable feedback we received from our employees. Lokum was shaped collaboratively—by those who built it and by those who used it. This recognition motivates us to keep listening, enhancing the experience based on real employee needs, and developing new solutions that place people at the center of communication and culture transformation.

7. What does “brilliance” mean to you personally and in the context of your work on this project?

To me, brilliance is about designing with empathy, solving real problems, and leaving a lasting impact. In the context of Lokum, it means reshaping how companies engage and communicate with their people through technology that truly listens and adapts.

8. Can you share some of the feedback you’ve received from employees about the platform and its impact?

We’ve received wonderful feedback—employees often say Lokum helps them feel visible, connected and valued. Many enjoy the gamified aspects and use the platform to send thank-you notes or shout-outs. Some new hires even mentioned Lokum helped them feel welcome from day one. Employees also appreciate the ease of accessing discounts, news, and peer posts through a single channel. We’ve also observed growing demand from employees to create accounts and integrate AI assistants that can support teams helping them ask questions and navigate processes more easily. This reflects how Lokum’s accessibility and ease of use continue to empower employees in their daily work.

9. What key results have you seen since launching Lokum, especially in terms of employee engagement and productivity?

Lokum has driven measurable improvements across several engagement metrics which have improved significantly. Since its launch, +100 surveys have been conducted, collecting over 42,000 responses. In specific cases, survey participation significantly increased—for instance, during an Environment Day event, response rates rose from 31% to 88% after moving the survey to Lokum. 

The fact that Lokum is accessible via both mobile and web platforms has played a major role in these improvements. Employees can respond to surveys, access announcements, and engage with content quickly and easily. This has increased participation rates and reduced response times.

This year the communication for Employee Engagement Survey was carried out through Lokum, which increased the survey’s completion velocity significantly. The Employee Engagement Survey reached 87% completion within two weeks, compared to previous years where reaching 80% required a four-week extension. The ability to send instant notifications through Lokum Topluluk (Community) significantly improved our communication style, and we received positive feedback from employees.

Engagement with internal activities has also grown. Content views in the ‘Advantages’ category of Topluluk (Community) increased by 1,670%, while participation in social events like special day campaigns grew by 184%. These results show how centralising communication and engagement enables timely, meaningful interaction and raises awareness across the organisation.  

10. Looking ahead, how do you see employee engagement evolving in the future, and how does Lokum fit into that vision?

Employee engagement is shifting from one-time initiatives to continuous and personalised experiences shaped by flexibility, data, and a sense of purpose. Organisations are increasingly focusing on integrating feedback systems, promoting mental well-being, and fostering inclusive cultures to enhance engagement. 

As hybrid work becomes a long-term reality, companies face growing pressure to maintain culture, collaboration, and connection regardless of physical location. In this context, employee experience platforms like Lokum play a vital role by centralising engagement tools, adapting to the diverse needs of employees, and supporting real-time recognition, feedback, and communication. With its modular structure and user-centric features, Lokum is well-positioned to meet the expectations of a modern, dynamic workforce.

Celebrating Brilliance

Softtech’s Lokum exemplifies how innovation and empathy can reshape workplace culture. By centralising communication, recognition, and collaboration into one intuitive hub, Lokum bridges the gap between technology and human connection.

Through creativity, purpose, and care, Softtech continues to set a new benchmark for digital engagement — showing that brilliance in technology lies not in complexity, but in making people feel seen, supported, and inspired to connect.