Klantcases - TBI Holding

Hoe TBI Holding werkmaatschappijen verbindt met de moederorganisatie
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Hoe TBI Holding werkmaatschappijen verbindt met de moederorganisatie

How TBI Holding Connects Its Subsidiaries with the Parent Organization and Encourages Collaboration

TBI is a leading force in the Dutch construction sector, encompassing various subsidiaries active in construction, technology, and infrastructure. With a complex structure of dozens of independent subsidiaries—each with its own legal entity, management team, HR department, and communication policies—the organization presents unique challenges. At times, these subsidiaries collaborate, while in other cases, they compete with each other. Until a few years ago, these companies even had their own logos, emphasizing their independence.

The challenge was to foster unity and collaboration without compromising the autonomy that is so valuable to TBI. To address this, TBI adopted an innovative hybrid approach, seamlessly integrating central and decentralized communication. The subsidiaries retain complete freedom to manage their own intranets, while TBI Holding provides a central platform, TBInet, to facilitate cross-company knowledge sharing and collaboration.

Plek supports TBI on three key fronts:

Striking the perfect balance between centralized communication and the unique working methods of the subsidiaries.
Ensuring comprehensive and up-to-date information across the organization.
Enhancing employee engagement at all levels.

But behind this seemingly straightforward solution lie significant challenges. How do you connect independent subsidiaries without infringing on their autonomy? What happens when collaboration clashes with established practices? Dive into the story of how TBI tackled these obstacles and embraced the opportunity to create a more unified and collaborative organization.

"Through TBInet, we keep all our colleagues informed and facilitate collaboration between employees across all our subsidiaries."

Kim de Ruijter

Communication advisor at TBI Holding

Challenges and Objectives

TBI Holding faced two major challenges:

Improving employee connection and engagement.
Finding the right balance between centralized and decentralized organization and communication.

Due to the dynamic and diverse nature of the construction sector, combined with the organizational structure of independent subsidiaries, critical information often failed to reach everyone. Subsidiaries and departments operated in silos, leading to insufficient knowledge sharing within and between the subsidiaries.

The second challenge lay in TBI’s internal organization. Each subsidiary within TBI Holding operates independently, with its own structure and rules. This places significant responsibility on local leaders, leaving the headquarters with limited visibility into internal communication processes. As a result, there was a lack of clarity in communication processes, leading to inconsistencies in information sharing, missed opportunities for collaboration, and inefficiencies in decision-making.

Solution

Several of TBI’s subsidiaries were already using Plek as an employee app and social intranet to improve internal communication, onboard new employees more quickly, and enhance engagement.

In the old situation (before the introduction of a centralized platform), there was a lack of insight into the impact of internal communication, resulting in three key issues:

Extra manual work and inefficiency: Communication officers had to manually post company-wide messages from the holding on their subsidiary’s intranet, creating unnecessary extra time and effort.
Lack of visibility: The holding-level staff had no insight into how these messages were followed up or what actions resulted from them.
Missed opportunities for collaboration: Employees couldn’t respond to messages from colleagues outside their own subsidiary, missing the chance to interact on successes or questions. This also meant missed opportunities for connection and collaboration between subsidiaries.

The solution was the creation of an overarching platform, TBInet, within Plek. This platform was connected to the individual platforms of the subsidiaries via MultiPlek. As a result, news posts could be centrally published and automatically displayed in the channels of all subsidiaries, enabling employees to comment and engage regardless of their location or subsidiary.

This not only improved engagement across the organization but also ensured that employees not yet using Plek could still participate in the communication. With Single Sign-On (SSO), all TBI employees gained easy access to TBInet, facilitating company-wide knowledge sharing and collaboration. Even employees from subsidiaries not yet using Plek could access TBInet.

By establishing clear communication guidelines that still allow for the unique working methods of each subsidiary, TBI Holding ensures better collaboration and reduces misunderstandings. This approach makes internal communication more efficient while preserving the individuality of each subsidiary.

Results and Benefits

Plek has become an indispensable part of TBI and its subsidiaries’ application landscape. Through Plek, TBI can easily reach all employees and empower enthusiastic team members to share updates about projects, expertise, and knowledge.

The platform provides every employee with access to the tools they need, from requesting leave to viewing their latest payslip. At the same time, colleagues are effectively informed and can access all (static) information via the knowledge base.

TBI Holding now has clear insights into what is happening within each subsidiary and how company-wide communications are being received. These insights provide the communications department and leadership with a comprehensive understanding of employee sentiment, enabling them to keep employees engaged with the organization’s strategy and goals.

With the Plek platform, various departments within TBI, such as the TBI Academy, can more easily reach their target audiences, regardless of which subsidiary employees belong to. Thematic groups allow colleagues to exchange knowledge and ideas on topics relevant to them, even across departments or subsidiaries. Successes are shared between subsidiaries, and everyone can engage and respond, fostering a sense of unity and collaboration across the organization.

Future

In the future, TBI will be able to compare the objectives of all TBI platforms, enabling more targeted management within its various subsidiaries. This will allow TBI to operate more efficiently and centrally while further strengthening employee engagement across the organization.

Subsidiaries within TBI retain the freedom to choose their own communication channels. To date, more than 10 subsidiaries have already chosen Plek, including its integration with TBInet. These subsidiaries have the flexibility to chart their own path in how they use Plek. While some still primarily focus on top-down communication, others are actively leveraging Employee Journeys for onboarding and safety awareness.

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Solutions

TBI Holding