Flonk Hotels

"Oneteam has become the one place where everything comes together. Whether it's a renovation update, welcoming a new colleague, or sharing HR documents, everything is in one place and every single one of our employees knows where to find it."
- Myrthe Winkel, HR employee at Flonk Hotels

About Flonk Hotels

Flonk Hotels operates two locations in Groningen: Flonk Hotel Groningen Centre and Flonk Hotel Groningen Zuid. Together, the two hotels employ over 110 people across a range of departments, including Front Office, Restaurant, Banqueting, and Reservations. With two properties and a large team spread across the floor, strong internal communication is essential to keeping everyone connected and well-informed.

The challenge

Before Oneteam, internal communication at Flonk Hotels was scattered across multiple channels. Updates were sent by email, teams had their own WhatsApp groups, and other information was simply passed on verbally on the floor.

"At some point we had a whole collection of WhatsApp groups and newsletters going out by email," says Myrthe, HR employee at Flonk Hotels. "One thing would be in an email, something else in a WhatsApp group, and you'd hear the rest through the grapevine. It just wasn't working anymore."

For a hotel where almost all staff works on the floor, that's far from ideal. Not everyone sits at a desk or checks their email regularly, which made it difficult to reach the whole team in the same way at the same time.

Communication between the two locations was also a challenge. Flonk Hotels wanted staff to have a better sense of what was happening at the other location and to feel like part of one organisation, not two separate ones.

On top of that, there were practical day-to-day hurdles: sharing documents, organising events, onboarding new employees. Much of it was done manually or through one-off messages.

The solution

Flonk Hotels' HR team set out to find a platform that could bring everything together. They needed something that could:

• Centralise internal communication and reduce reliance on email and WhatsApp
• Connect staff across both locations
• Allow communication to be targeted by department
• Make documents, onboarding, events, and surveys easy to manage

"The most important thing was being able to reach everyone easily," Myrthe explains. "And making sure that, as a result, employees stay more engaged with what's happening in the organisation."

With Oneteam, they found exactly that: one clear platform where all of these pieces come together.

The approach

Once the platform was set up, Flonk Hotels began expanding its use step by step. The HR team took the lead, actively looking for ways to make Oneteam genuinely useful in day-to-day working life, not just a communication tool, but a real part of the operation.

One early priority was building out the timeline as the go-to place for internal updates. Flonk Hotels made room for a range of content: practical announcements, renovation updates, introductions of new colleagues, internal events, and year-in-review posts.

"I enjoy bringing colleagues along on what's happening," says Myrthe. "If a renovation is starting, we'll first post that it's kicking off. Then we share photos along the way, and finally the finished result."

Flonk Hotels also took a fresh look at the onboarding experience for new starters. "It used to be a pretty brief programme, just a short introduction and our core values," Myrthe explains. WeI've expanded that in Oneteam so new colleagues get a real sense of the organisation, both locations, and how things work at Flonk Hotels."

Key documents have also been made centrally available. Instead of emailing files to individual staff members, employees can now find things themselves, such as the staff handbook and other useful HR information.

The e-learning section is slowly taking shape too. "During end-of-year reviews, several colleagues mentioned they'd love to do a German language course," says Myrthe. "So I added one, and now managers point people there whenever someone says they want to brush up on their German."

In this way, Oneteam keeps growing alongside what's happening on the floor and what employees actually find useful in their work.

The results

The step-by-step approach has paid off. Today, 98.2% of all employees are active on the platform, and Oneteam has become a fixed part of how Flonk Hotels operates day to day.

The timeline has turned internal communication into something people actually engage with. Colleagues respond to posts, congratulate each other on new roles, and react to updates with enthusiasm. "You can see colleagues really responding to it," says Myrthe. "Lots of high fives, reactions, congratulations when someone gets a new role. It makes things more fun and personal."

The shift away from email and WhatsApp has made communication clearer and more manageable for everyone. Staff see updates relevant to their own department, while organisation-wide posts keep both locations informed and connected. New employees can also scroll back through what has been shared before they joined, helping them get up to speed faster.

For the HR team, the biggest gain is time and overview. Event sign-ups, surveys, documents and onboarding all happen in one place, removing a lot of manual back-and-forth. The onboarding survey that new starters fill in anonymously after their first weeks consistently comes back positive. "Colleagues say the communication is clear and that they feel welcome," says Myrthe.

Beyond the day-to-day, Flonk Hotels values the relationship with the team behind Oneteam. "What I really appreciate is that the platform keeps evolving and that you're brought along for the ride," says Myrthe. "We regularly get updates on new features, and webinars give you a preview of what's coming. And when we have a question, we always hear back quickly. It makes for a great working relationship."

Conclusion

For Flonk Hotels, Oneteam has become the central hub where everything comes together. From daily updates and event sign-ups to onboarding and HR documents, the platform has made internal communication simpler, clearer, and more accessible for everyone across both locations.

"It's just a really approachable platform," says Myrthe. "For us, and for the employees. Everything's in one place, and that makes communicating so much easier."