Kwalitaria

“When employees feel engaged, they’re happier, more motivated, and deliver better results. That’s what we aim for at Kwalitaria. With Oneteam, we finally have a tool that brings entrepreneurs and employees together and makes real engagement possible.”
– Sander Vleut, Franchise Consultant at Kwalitaria

Introduction

Kwalitaria is one of the most progressive cafeteria brands in the Netherlands and part of the Food Franchise Company (FFC). With more than 2500 employees across 135 locations, Kwalitaria is a household name in the Dutch fast-casual restaurant market.

We spoke with Anna van Doorn (HR employee), Mika Bloemink (Graphic Designer), and Sander Vleut (Franchise Consultant). Together, they are part of a project group at FFC that works to improve communication, engagement, and satisfaction. They share how Oneteam helps Kwalitaria bring entrepreneurs and employees closer together.

The challenge

Before using Oneteam, communication at Kwalitaria was fragmented and mostly one-way.

Sander explains: “We are a franchise organisation with 135 locations. We could only reach our entrepreneurs, but we had no direct connection with more than 2.000 employees on the shop floor.”

Anna adds: “The communication was always one-way traffic from HQ. As a result, employees were very focused on their own branch and hardly knew anything about the rest of Kwalitaria.”

This had several consequences:

• Entrepreneurs felt dissatisfied because they didn’t feel heard.
• Employees could not share their ideas, even though input from the shop floor is very valuable.
• Training and onboarding were difficult to manage, so employees were not always fully informed about new products or campaigns.
• The employer brand was weak, making it harder to show that Kwalitaria is a fun and ambitious organisation to work for.

Mika summarises: “We are such a large and fun organisation, but we couldn’t pass on that feeling to all our employees.”

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The solution

Kwalitaria had tried another app before, but it only focused on learning and often didn’t work properly. They wanted something more reliable, combining both communication and digital learning.

After an enthusiastic demo, they chose Oneteam. “We were immediately convinced,” Sander says. “Oneteam is the ideal solution for both internal communication and our digital learning environment.”

What convinced them was the mix of features in one app:

• Internal communication with two-way interaction.
• Onboarding and e-learning.
• Events, forms, and lesson packages.

Anna explains: “Oneteam is perfect for young employees. It works like apps they already know, such as Facebook or Instagram. Floor staff don’t have laptops, but they always have their phone. With Oneteam, they always have access to the information they need.”

The approach

Rolling out Oneteam within a franchise organisation came with an extra challenge: some entrepreneurs were used to their own local systems. The project team first had to show them the added value of Oneteam.

Sander: “We got a lot of support from Oneteam’s Customer Success team. They inspired us to get the most out of the platform. It was great to see that more and more entrepreneurs became active. All new branches now make very good use of Oneteam.”

Adoption is still growing, and the project team keeps working on further improvements.

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The results

Oneteam has already made a big difference at Kwalitaria:

• 78.8% of invited employees use the app.
• HQ can now communicate instantly with the whole organisation.
• The campaign newspaper is now shared digitally, and employees can respond with likes and comments.
• Entrepreneurs use Oneteam not only for updates but also for practical things, like offering a spare coffee machine to another branch.
• The events function is being used more and more.

Sander: “Engaged employees won’t leave for a quarter more per hour somewhere else. With Oneteam, we are making real progress in strengthening our employer brand.”

Mika adds: “We notice much more interaction now. Where the paper campaign newspaper had no feedback at all, the digital version brings in lots of fun reactions.”

Anna: “We also get great feedback from entrepreneurs. Oneteam strengthens the sense of unity within Kwalitaria.”

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Looking ahead

Kwalitaria is planning to expand the use of Oneteam even further. They are building out their academy with more lesson packages, created together with entrepreneurs. For example, one branch shared a training video on cleaning the milkshake machine, which was turned into a learning module.

They also want to make more use of events, forms, and checklists, to gather feedback and involve employees even more.

Anna: “We want Oneteam to become the central place for everyone at Kwalitaria, no matter if you work at HQ, as an entrepreneur, or as an employee in one of our stores.”

Mika concludes: “The versatility of the platform is amazing. Communication, learning, forms, events. All in one app.”