The Key to an Effective HR Function at Northern Lights

Northern Lights is building the world’s first infrastructure for carbon transport and storage. Established in 2020, the company’s primary mission is to transport and permanently store CO₂. In 2021, Northern Lights became the operator for Norway’s first CO₂ storage license. As part of the Longship project, Northern Lights will begin transporting and storing CO₂ from Heidelberg Materials in 2025. In 2023, the company signed two commercial agreements: one with Yara in the Netherlands to store 800,000 tons of CO₂ annually and another with Ørsted in Denmark to store 400,000 tons annually.

Northern Lights is a joint venture for CO₂ transport and storage owned by Equinor, Shell, and TotalEnergies. With a focus on sustainable solutions, it plays a key role in Norway’s full-scale CCS (carbon capture and storage) value chain initiative.

Challenges Before Partnering with BUHR

Birthe Nylund Sundt, CFO at Northern Lights, explains the challenges the company faced early on and how the collaboration with BUHR provided a solution:

– When Northern Lights was established in 2020, I had several responsibilities and roles, in addition to my natural duties as CFO. We were a small start-up experiencing rapid growth, where I had to handle many different internal functions, says Birthe Sundt.

As CFO, she managed finance, HR, IT, and contracts without having expertise in HR. Northern Lights also wanted to avoid hiring a dedicated HR professional before having a clear HR framework in place.

To address this, Northern Lights issued a request for HR services to explore available market options.

Nina Gulsrud, HR Manager at BUHR

Nina Gulsrud, HR Manager at BUHR, elaborates on the partnership:

– We function as a fully operational HR department staffed by employees with extensive and varied expertise as well as long experience in the HR field. Northern Lights quickly realized that by working with BUHR, they gained access to an entire HR department, along with a dedicated HR Business Partner as their primary contact. This HR Business Partner can draw on BUHR’s expertise as needed, ensuring the client remains compliant with labor laws.

With a growing team and increasing demands for internal routines, having an experienced partner delivering comprehensive HR solutions from day one was crucial.

Nina Gulsrud, HR Manager at BUHR.

Nina Gulsrud, HR Manager at BUHR, elaborates on the partnership:

– We function as a fully operational HR department staffed by employees with extensive and varied expertise as well as long experience in the HR field. Northern Lights quickly realized that by working with BUHR, they gained access to an entire HR department, along with a dedicated HR Business Partner as their primary contact. This HR Business Partner can draw on BUHR’s expertise as needed, ensuring the client remains compliant with labor laws.

With a growing team and increasing demands for internal routines, having an experienced partner delivering comprehensive HR solutions from day one was crucial.

– We wanted an HR partner with strong expertise and experience in multiple disciplines. A lot had to be set up in a short period, and we did not want to hire anyone until we had the HR framework, like procedures, a payroll system, and an employee handbook, in place, Sundt explains.

A Scalable HR Solution

BUHR began working with Northern Lights to establish an HR framework.

Birthe Nylund Sundt, CFO at Northern Lights

Birthe Nylund Sundt explains:

– What was unique about BUHR was their subscription model, which could easily scale to our organization’s needs. This flexibility was critical in managing HR tasks during the early phase. We started with 40%, quickly scaled up to 60%, and then to 80%. This scalability has been essential for us.

BUHR’s HR function and services evolved significantly, playing a key role in Northern Lights’ development. The flexibility of the partnership ensured that resources were adjusted as needed.

– When Northern Lights needed to scale up, we added extra resources tailored to the tasks at hand. Our focus is on building a team customized for the client, says Nina Gulsrud, HR Manager at BUHR.

Birthe Nylund Sundt, CFO at Northern Lights

Birthe Nylund Sundt explains:

– What was unique about BUHR was their subscription model, which could easily scale to our organization’s needs. This flexibility was critical in managing HR tasks during the early phase. We started with 40%, quickly scaled up to 60%, and then to 80%. This scalability has been essential for us.

BUHR’s HR function and services evolved significantly, playing a key role in Northern Lights’ development. The flexibility of the partnership ensured that resources were adjusted as needed.

– When Northern Lights needed to scale up, we added extra resources tailored to the tasks at hand. Our focus is on building a team customized for the client, says Nina Gulsrud, HR Manager at BUHR.

A Collaboration That Delivers Tangible Results

Sundt describes the remarkable growth Northern Lights has experienced—from two to 25 permanent employees in under three years—a milestone supported by BUHR’s HR services.

– It is truly a unique collaboration that works excellently in practice. BUHR is now our HR function and operates in a way that makes them feel like part of our organization. Employees feel comfortable approaching them directly with questions and concerns. They are an integrated part of our organization and have helped develop our HR function, including milestones like annual HR plans and employee surveys, says Sundt.

In addition to this, BUHR handles Northern Lights’ HR needs by: developing procedures and conducting workplace surveys, assisting with recruitment and employee follow-ups, including payroll, leave, sick leave monitoring, pensions, insurance, and other benefits, providing general advice and guidance in HR matters to both managers and employees.