GEALAN from the inside

Pangasius fillet with herbs or oven vegetables with lemon dip – to know what's on offer in the GEALAN canteen today, just take a look at GEALAN inside. However, the tool for internal communication can do much more than display canteen plans. Strictly speaking, it is a piece of digitalisation, because slips of paper and paper notices are increasingly becoming a thing of the past at GEALAN, GEALAN inside takes care of the digital transfer of information – as a mobile app on the smartphone or as a website. "We wanted to put our intranet on a completely new footing," says Marc Schenk (50), Public Relations Manager and member of the inside team from the very beginning. When Miriam Steinmüller (39), International Marketing Manager, happened to come across Staffbase as a provider of intranet solutions in 2023, she immediately liked the solutions of the Chemnitz-based startup. GEALAN-IT in Demand Management shares its enthusiasm for the platform and goes along with it when it comes to creating a new intranet. Soon the management, HR department and IT decided: Staffbase convinced us, we introduced it at GEALAN. "From the very beginning, we had the idea of creating a digital home port for all employees," says Miriam Steinmüller. "No more islands, but everyone on board. An official channel that everyone has access to – whether in the office area or in production, no matter where they are," she emphasizes.

In a team for the team

A core team quickly comes together to give GEALAN inside a face and structure and decide, for example, what the side menu should look like. The Staffbase solution is basically an off-the-shelf one. But what she looks like at GEALAN today, what her "look and feel" is like – that's where a lot of work goes into the inside team. Who has access and how must be clarified – a task that IT solves, as does integration with Microsoft 365. The graphics team decides, among other things, which colours and fonts are used on GEALAN inside and what buttons look like. The idea for its own logo also comes from the graphics: The company logo, known internally as the "GEALAN snail", is getting a new visual twist: The inside logo combines a stylised human silhouette with the letter i for information. "I think it was a very good decision to make the inside team interdisciplinary," says Miriam Steinmüller. "So not only are we responsible for the site with our marketing perspective, but colleagues from the HR department, IT, and the organization were also involved." inside is not only invented and developed across departments, but also editorially populated by all sides: inside employees can quickly be found from every department: On the one hand, they are the contact persons for their colleagues for all inside topics; on the other hand, they act as editors who can post and manage topics – so not only stories "from above" end up on the page, but from all areas of the company. "inside is a real bottom-up project, that's something special," says Miriam Steinmüller.

The go-live is on 29 February 2024 – a date that the inside team deliberately chosen: leap day becomes a switchover day at GEALAN: inside has been available to everyone since then. Pinning notices and hoping for word of mouth is now obsolete, because there is a much nicer and simpler platform for internal communication.

Marc Schenk is a communications professional. Even as a high school student in Münchberg, Upper Franconia, he wrote for the newspaper. He studied German literature, journalism and sociology in Bamberg and worked as an editor and presenter at regional television. At SpVgg Greuther Fürth, then in the first Bundesliga, he is responsible for the stadium magazine and stadium TV. In 2017, he took over as editorial director at TV Oberfranken. He then worked for years in corporate communications at an industrial company in Upper Franconia and was in charge of the company magazine. He joined GEALAN in 2020: As Public Relations Manager, he is responsible for press relations, internal communication via GEALAN inside and supports sponsorship issues.

More benefits for users

"inside is an entry point – it's really worth taking a look at it every day," says Marc Schenk. The most important function is information: top news from all areas of the company rank at the top of the page – regardless of whether a business milestone has been reached, certification has been successfully completed, a trade fair appearance is inspiring or a new colleague is being introduced: users will no longer miss anything that is of interest in the GEALAN world. inside also provides comprehensive information on the very big corporate topics such as vision, strategy and values, law and compliance, sustainability and process management. The platform also takes care of internal networking: contact persons and contacts are listed for each department, from finance and controlling to research and development to human resources and marketing – this means short distances to answer all kinds of questions. In general, every department and every location has its own news channel. Current figures from controlling are available here, as is a new planning tool for business trips recommended by the HR department. Award ceremonies, honors and new customers are also discussed – and GEANOVA stories can also be read. In each department, there are important documents for download, such as PowerPoint and image presentations, press releases and logos. Under "Services", users will find a wealth of helpful information: the contact to the IT Helpdesk or the link to the GEALAN Ideas Factory, where every employee can present their suggestions that could help GEALAN move forward. Under "Worlds of Knowledge", complete topic packages can be accessed on inside – there are explanatory texts and videos on artificial intelligence or sustainability; all important questions are answered. This gives every user the chance to keep up to date on current topics without much effort.

but inside also helps on a small scale: the "Search and Find" section has a classifieds character, carpools can be found in the GEALAN community and small news can be shared – a customer thanks them for the good cooperation, GEALAN is visible on the advertising board at the European Handball Championship, tomorrow there will be carnival doughnuts. Even a separate GEALAN wiki is available on inside: Important GEALAN terms are explained here; this is a good help, especially for new employees. "inside helps with onboarding overall," says Miriam Steinmüller. "Anyone who is new to GEALAN gets access and is specifically referred to the site because it answers questions that new colleagues have about their start at GEALAN."

Office and Microsoft programs are embedded in inside in such a way that every user can see his e-mail program, his calendar, his to-dos and his most recently edited documents – the jump from inside to the other programs is done with a mouse click. "We owe this extremely good integration to our IT," says Miriam Steinmüller. GEALAN inside is available in all company languages, depending on the user settings, the entire range of topics is displayed in Spanish, Croatian, Polish or Lithuanian, among others. The very well-functioning search also helps users. "It's just fun to use inside," emphasizes Miriam Steinmüller. "The handling is good – for us editors and for the users. And the site also looks really modern and good."

Open to openness

There are currently about 35 inside editors: They come from all areas of the company and from all locations. The team meets online on a quarterly basis to exchange ideas and plan. Each editor tracks down new, interesting stories in his or her area and is the contact person for his colleagues if they find something worth sharing. If you don't feel called to write, you can use AI to create texts so that your story also appears on inside. "We have so many colleagues who are working on something interesting, have achieved something cool and really have something to tell that is exciting for the whole group. We want to unearth this treasure," says Marc Schenk. "We deliberately keep the hurdles low and are very open about them." Openness is a central element of GEALAN inside. Anyone can participate and contribute something – there is no editorial loop in which contributions are first proofread. "We don't really need them either – we trust our colleagues and they appreciate the trust," says Marc Schenk.

inside is deliberately designed as a social tool; communication is similar to social media: there is a chat function that anyone in the company can use to get in touch with everyone else. Everyone has a profile that they can maintain: it records team membership, accessibility, which language they speak and whether they like to be addressed on a first-name or first-name basis. This simplifies virtual and personal communication. There is also a comment function, so that everyone can express their opinion on a topic. The "thumbs up" function strengthens praise, approval and motivation and makes it very easy, for example, to congratulate faraway foreign colleagues virtually on their latest successes.

Communication is Miriam Steinmüller's passion. After graduating from high school, the Plauen native completed internships, worked for radio, television and a city magazine. In 2011, she moved to an industrial company in Upper Franconia, where she worked for ten years in online marketing, brand management and corporate communications. In 2021, she joined GEALAN as International Marketing Manager: Carrying communication measures from the headquarters to the foreign locations and adapting them to the location

Insights about inside

After a year of GEALAN inside, the creators have officially surveyed the users. Any user could rate the platform anonymously. "The feedback was totally positive, which made us very happy. The information value and usability were rated particularly positively," says Miriam Steinmüller. At the moment, inside reaches 84 percent of all GEALAN employees in Germany; abroad, the figure is 82 percent, and the trend is rising. "This is in line with our expectations," says Miriam Steinmüller. "But of course we want to increase the numbers."

The number of news and articles quickly overwhelmed the inside makers. "We had hoped to have a new message every day, but we are far beyond that. A real flow has been created," says Marc Schenk. GEALAN inside is growing and thriving and is constantly gathering information and news. In order not to become confusing, there is the Friday series "Did you know" – here we specifically refer to already existing content: to benefits from which GEALAN employees benefit – job bikes, shopping benefits, bonuses – or to the already existing communities and colleague presentations. "Instead of creating the five hundredth subpage, we prefer to show users what is already online," says Marc Schenk. "That's much more than you see at first glance. inside has become quite a library."

Internal communication is not an end in itself. It is a central component of the corporate culture and helps determine whether employees feel informed, valued and involved. "I am convinced that inside not only brings added value to information for GEALAN employees," says Marc Schenk. "As a social tool, it connects us with each other and strengthens the feeling of togetherness."

The ideas for inside do not dry up. On the contrary, they are constantly increasing: The digital vacation certificate is already available to almost all employees at the German locations. It is planned to integrate shift schedules and time tracking. "I think that would definitely bring us close to 100 percent users," predicts Marc Schenk. More users, more clicks, only the top content will remain unchanged; Miriam Steinmüller and Marc Schenk laugh: The canteen plan is and remains the most clicked.