New employees are quickly up to speed with Plek

"Thanks to Plek, we have a central place where we can continue to inspire, involve and inform our employees."

Op Stoom is a leading daycare and after-school care organization with more than forty locations in the Netherlands. The organization offers high-quality care services for children of different ages. They know everything about pedagogy, and their loving care for children makes everyone happy.

They noticed that due to their rapid growth in locations, the connection between the different locations and regions was deteriorating. They came to Plek asking what they could do about this and in what way they could improve the connection as quickly as possible.

Challenges and objectives

With locations and staff departments scattered throughout different regions, the connection between employees of different departments from Op Stoom was not very strong. In addition, they did not have a central app to provide all employees with the right information at the same time.

As a result, employees were not always aware of important organizational news. Nor did employees always have the correct and up-to-date information - this resulted in misunderstandings amongst each other, and employees not feeling involved. Together we looked at how Plek could be part of the solution, and what was needed to create a successful intranet for Op Stoom.

Solution

Bas van Meerkerk, the IT and HR Manager within Op Stoom, is very pleased with the arrival of Plek. Bas told us, "'Plek' has become the medium of choice for connecting at Op Stoom, and proved its value yet again during the lockdown periods. Employees can get information there, plus they can also inspire each other through the platform.

Thanks to Plek, that connection has become much better and colleagues know how to find each other faster. Inspiration and knowledge do not remain at one location or department, but are shared with all colleagues within Op Stoom. Unlike the newsletters that used to be sent out, the messages published on Plek are much more 'alive' and employees are more involved in what is going on within Op Stoom.

Plek got off to an immediate flying start within Op Stoom. They went live in 2019; and in that year alone, there were 3,500 shared contributions and nearly 11,000 comments. This level of activity proved quite constant, and has continued to the present day. Here it is also clear to see that Op Stoom's many location groups are very active in terms of engagement. So there is not only top-down communication but also bottom-up; exactly what Op Stoom wanted.

Plek is perceived by Op Stoom's pedagogical staff as user-friendly, and they are enthusiastic about the intuitive app. The app is also ideal for colleagues who do not regularly sit behind a computer: through the app they can still keep up to date with the latest news. 

Plek has become the central place for Op Stoom where all the information and knowledge needed can be found, thanks to the conveniently arranged information pages and document structure. Whether it's a particular protocol, or location-specific information for flex workers; everything is easy to find internally - something that wasn't there before. 

Onboarding: online and offline
Onboarding has also been accelerated and improved by the arrival of Plek. Within Op Stoom, new employees can be  easily involved because the onboarding of new employees can now also be done via the app. As a result, new employees are quickly 'up to speed' by using Plek.

Results and advantages

Transform the work experience: Plek connects and informs employees optimally

Once a company starts using Plek, it is always important to see if Plek actually 'does' what it was introduced for. The Plek Health Score gave Op Stoom instant insight into the extent to which the new platform was embraced by employees. This allowed them to gain instant insight into several statistics: 

- Reach: how many people actually log in
- Visits: how many people visit the platform
- Reading: how many messages people read
- Contributing: how many people contribute (for example, by posting messages)
- Responding: how often people interact (likes, responding to comments, etc.).

That Plek has been embraced internally as the primary app for connecting with each other is confirmed by the Plek Health Score. The statistics don't lie: Op Stoom's Plek app is among the top three best-performing platforms within the Childcare sector! Looking back, Plek has been positively received:

• More connection among staff;
• Broader knowledge sharing: Inspiration and knowledge does not stay at one location or department [a lot of knowledge is shared both bottom-up and top-down];
• People have a much better mutual knowledge of what is going on at Op Stoom;
• No more searching for information but finding it; with the most important protocols in one place;
• New employees are quicker to find their way through a relevant onboarding.