Bakkerij Paulissen

"For the first time, our bakery and shops can communicate directly with each other, and that efficiency already saves us a couple of hours a week. The biggest difference is that production, distribution, and sales now connect much more smoothly, which ultimately benefits Bakkerij Paulissen as a whole."
- Tya Jeegers, Marketing and Communications at Bakkerij Paulissen

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About Bakkerij Paulissen

Bakkerij Paulissen has been baking bread, pastries, and vlaai (a traditional Limburg fruit tart) for Maastricht and the surrounding region since 1981. Today, the company has ten shops of its own and a central bakery, along with pickup points at supermarkets and the option to order online.

Every day, more than 200 employees, ranging in age from 16 to retirement, help make that happen: on the shop floor, in the bakery, in logistics, behind the scenes at the office, and out on the road as drivers.

The challenge

The bakery runs from late evening into the early morning, while the shops are open during the day. As a result, bakers and shop staff hardly ever see each other, even though they depend on one another every single day. If a product isn't available for a day, the shops need to know in time. And when something is about to sell out, they want to be able to quickly check with the bakery whether a new batch can still be delivered.

Before Oneteam, that contact mostly ran through phone calls and separate WhatsApp groups per shop. Practical updates from the bakery even traveled to the shops on paper, alongside the deliveries. On top of that, Bakkerij Paulissen worked with a communication platform where only the management or team leaders could share messages.

"Communication was often very broad, and couldn't be aimed at specific people or departments," says a manager from the back office.

Shops couldn't reach each other directly, and anyone who wanted to inform everyone had to post the same message in several groups.

The office and HR lost unnecessary time to it too. Whenever new employees joined, for example, their work clothing sizes had to be collected, and that didn't happen by itself.

"The HR manager had to approach or call everyone personally, because not everyone is easy to reach by email," says Tya Jeegers, Marketing and Communications employee at Bakkerij Paulissen.

The solution

With these challenges in mind, Bakkerij Paulissen went looking for one central place for all work communication, where the bakery, shops, and office could reach each other directly.

Specifically, the solution had to:

• reach all shops and the bakery at once, without repeating messages in separate groups;
• make targeted communication possible per location, department, or role;
• connect the shops with each other as well;
• separate work communication from private channels like WhatsApp, so messages no longer come in on days off;
• and work intuitively for everyone, from employees of 16 to 67 years old.

In Oneteam, Bakkerij Paulissen found a platform that brings all of that together.

The approach

Because the team is so diverse in age and experience, Bakkerij Paulissen took the introduction slow. The arrival of Oneteam was announced well in advance, and the communities were set up beforehand, so that every employee was in the right place right from the start.

To get everyone to actually complete the onboarding, Bakkerij Paulissen gave it a playful twist: anyone who finished the process before the deadline received a small reward.

"They were curious what the little gift would be," says Tya. "And that made them extra motivated to work through the onboarding and get familiar with the basics of Oneteam."

The results

A year after the start, Oneteam has become an essential part of Bakkerij Paulissen. By now, 96% of employees are on the platform, and it's used actively every day.

The impact is clearest in three things:

• how the bakery and the shops communicate;
• the time that has freed up as a result;
• and the sense of feeling like one team.

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Bakery and shops on the same page

The contact between the bakery and the shops, once the biggest bottleneck, now runs a lot smoother.

While still on their night shift, the bakers use the app to flag whenever a product isn't available, so the shops know exactly where they stand in the morning. And if a shop runs short of something, one message to the bakery is enough to send a driver over with a fresh supply.

"Before, the shops would call the office, and then the office staff had to go looking for the right person to answer their question," says Tya. "Now it reaches the right person straight away, without having multiple people in between."

The shop managers notice the difference too. "The line between the shops and logistics has become a lot shorter," says one shop manager. "That saves time and means that things get picked up faster."

From phone calls to a single message

Because a single message now reaches the right people straight away, a lot of manual work disappears. Practical information for the shops used to travel on paper along with the deliveries; now a single message in the app does the job.

And things that used to run through phone calls and separate emails, now go through Oneteam automatically too:

• Clothing sizes for new employees
• Reports of non-urgent repairs
• Sign-ups for staff parties
• Approving a new set of house rules

"Everything now comes in neatly in the same place or in the right inbox, so it can be followed up on right away," says Tya.

Sales figures from the shops are shared through Oneteam too, giving managers immediate insight and the ability to adjust more quickly.

And if a colleague calls in sick, one message is all the planners need to find a replacement, instead of calling around every shop.

There's no exact measurement, but by Tya's estimate, all those small improvements add up to a few hours saved per week, both in the communication between the bakery and the shops and between the office and the shops.

Everything easy to find in one place

Information that used to sit on paper or had to be requested by email is now neatly gathered in Oneteam.

If an employee wants to make use of the fitness scheme, for example, it's easy to find in the app's knowledge base. And with the shortcuts to the schedule and pay slips, the rest is within reach too.

"Employees can just look everything up themselves, instead of having to ask a manager," says Tya. "That saves a lot of small questions along the way, and cuts down on the noise for everyone."

A warmer welcome for new colleagues

New colleagues get a head start too. Through a short onboarding full of instructional videos, they get to know the company and its products before their first shift even begins.

"Because that first introduction happens through Oneteam, they already know the story behind Bakkerij Paulissen from day one, and that makes their start a lot easier," says Tya.

And it doesn't go unnoticed on the floor either. "New employees feel a warmer welcome right from the start," says one shop manager.

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A team that's grown closer

Despite the distance between the shops and the bakery, the team is growing closer together. Birthdays and work anniversaries automatically appear in the app, making it easy for colleagues to send each other a quick congratulations, even if they rarely meet in person.

The shops are quicker to find each other too. If one of them runs out of pastry boxes or coffee cups, a quick message in the shared group is all it takes, and another shop usually chimes in within no time.

"The shops are in really close contact now, something they simply couldn't do before," says Tya. "That's a real added value."

Conclusion

A year after the switch, communication at Bakkerij Paulissen no longer runs through scattered WhatsApp groups and notes tucked in with the deliveries, but through one place where the bakery, shops, and office find each other directly.

"When all the communication runs more smoothly, so does the baking, the production, and the distribution," says Tya. "And ultimately that's good for Bakkerij Paulissen as a whole."