Groenoord Zorgt

“Since we started using Oneteam, it’s become much easier to engage with our colleagues. There’s more interaction, people feel heard, and part of a real community.”
- Jessica van der Weijden, Senior HR Advisor at Groenoord Zorgt

About Groenoord Zorgt

Groenoord Zorgt helps people who can no longer fully manage their own household by offering domestic support. The head office is based in Leiden and has 16 office staff. The other 300 colleagues work independently in the field, spread across the province South Holland in the Netherlands. They don’t use a work phone or laptop and go straight from home to their clients.

The challenge

For most colleagues, the workday starts at home, not in the office. They get on their bike and head straight to their first client. There’s no shared workspace, no team meetings, and no quick chat by the coffee machine.

“Our colleagues work independently, across many different locations,” says Jessica van der Weijden, Senior HR Advisor at Groenoord Zorgt. “That makes it difficult to stay truly connected.”

Most communication went through email. There was also one central WhatsApp group, but colleagues couldn’t respond in it. “We mainly sent out messages, but didn’t hear much back,” Jessica explains. “If we organised an event and hardly anyone came, we didn’t know why. Was the message missed? Did the date not work for them? Or was there simply no interest?”

This lack of feedback created frustration. It also became clear that the team needed more clarity, involvement, and connection. “We believe in the power of community,” says Jessica. “That’s part of the Blue Zone philosophy we follow. But you don’t build a community if you rarely speak to each other.”

The solution

Groenoord Zorgt started looking for a simple and reliable way to reach their field staff and keep them connected. “We had used a private Facebook group in the past. That timeline style of communication worked well, and many of our colleagues liked it. We wanted something similar, but more professional and also available to the colleague who didn't have Facebook.”

That’s when they discovered Oneteam. “From the first moment, it made sense,” Jessica says. “The timeline, the option to like and comment, the easy design. It felt right for us.”

During the demo, it quickly became clear that Oneteam could offer more than just communication. The platform also included e-learnings, vacation requests, event signups, and even a connection with Nmbrs. “That really brought it to life. We realised it wasn’t just a place to share news, but a complete platform to support our daily work.”

The approach

Jessica led the rollout herself. After preparing the content and onboarding materials, they invited all colleagues by email to download the app.

“Most people installed it right away,” she says. “For those who needed help, we were ready to assist at the office, but that turned out to be hardly necessary.”

At first, some colleagues noticed there was quite a lot to explore in the Hub. After a quick explanation, they quickly felt at ease and knew where to find everything. “Even colleagues who aren’t very tech-savvy manage just fine. It’s easy for everyone to use.”

The results

Since the launch, Oneteam has become the central place for communication, onboarding, and knowledge sharing.

93% of colleagues have downloaded the app, and 69% used it in the past week. It’s now used daily for news, updates, onboarding, e-learnings, vacation requests, events, and communication via chat and the timeline.

The e-learnings are focused on real work situations, with topics like recognising signs of illness, dementia, or delirium. “We even made a video where the entire office team introduces themselves,” Jessica says. “That way, colleagues in the field know who we are too.”

The timeline is getting more and more engagement. “Not long ago, a colleague posted a photo of a client’s birthday. They had cooked a meal together. It turned into a lovely post with lots of reactions. We didn’t see moments like that before.”

Conclusion

“For us, the biggest win is that we can now reach our colleagues quickly and easily,” says Jessica. “Not just all at once, but also per region or one-on-one. It feels more personal, and it works better.”

Jessica is also happy with the support from the Oneteam team. “Whenever I have a question, I get a clear and fast reply. And if I need some additional help, we jump on a video call and fix it together.”

In the future, Groenoord Zorgt wants to use more polls and forms to check in with their team more regularly. “We don’t only want to rely on the yearly employee survey. We'd love to get quicker feedback on a regular basis.”

Looking back on the journey so far, Jessica reflects on the impact Oneteam has had on their organisation. “Oneteam is helping us grow from a group of individual colleagues into one connected organisation. And that’s exactly what we wanted to achieve."