In the Air and Everywhere: Brussels Airlines’ One-Stop Shop for Vital Comms and Information
About the Company
Brussels Airlines
Brussels Airlines, Belgium's largest airline and a member of the Lufthansa Group, faced the challenge of effectively communicating with their on-the-go workforce. Seeking a mobile communications solution that catered to their diverse workforce, Brussels Airlines turned to Staffbase.
Brussel Airlines’ Karina Arstanova, Digital Channels Officer, and Ilse Verhelst, Internal Communications Manager, walked us through their digital transformation.
Challenges
The majority of Brussels Airlines’ workforce is non-desk, with many of those workers travelling all over the world.
They needed a way to ensure the workers in the field got the same information as those in the offices.
Radical changes in the aviation industry during the Covid-19 pandemic had a negative impact on the sense of community among employees.
They needed a replacement for physical spaces where employees would gather and socialise.
With important comms all going through email channels, visibility around engagement was severely limited.
They needed analytics that showed whether or not employees were receiving and digesting updates.
"We looked at a few other apps from the commercial world. After comparing the functionalities of all the apps, Staffbase came out as the best solution for us."
Ilse Verhelst
Internal Communications Manager
An App That Reaches Their Dispersed Workforce
Streamlining and modernising comms benefits the business at all levels
A Modern Solution
The app launch was synchronized with the airline's new branding, ensuring a cohesive and impactful introduction for employees. One of the core aims of the rebranding was to modernize and simplify internal processes — prioritizing digital solutions across the board.
The introduction of the app was central to this goal. With it, the comms team completely eliminated emails for wider internal communication, directing all operational updates, project announcements, and event information through the app.
Relevant Comms First
Homepages were built for different departments to quickly communicate what’s most important to that group.
“The Ground Operations staff have a homepage called Airport Staff. Cockpit Crew and Flight Operations have a homepage called Cockpit,” Karina said. “Everyone sees their relevant information first. That's how we positioned it. We listen to what your needs are, we know what you want, and we offer you an app that will hopefully solve a lot of the issues you encounter every day.”
Creating a Visible Community
The introduction of a social wall within the app provided a space for employees to share their thoughts and feelings about work in a way that was visible and could be acted on by the organisation. Before the app, employees had been setting up pages on social networks such as Facebook. This change worked to foster a sense of community and helped to prevent sensitive information from being leaked externally. The app's usage extended beyond day-to-day communication, empowering employees to exchange ideas, ask questions, and share professional insights.
Deep Insights
On the metrics side, Staffbase’s analytics and reporting facilitated data-driven decision-making. Data focused on engagement, such as log-ins, open rates, posts and likes, helped the communications team tailor content and continuously improve their internal comms strategy.
“With Staffbase, you can really track and trace. The first thing I do in the morning is look at the dashboards and the second thing I do is read all the comments.” - Ilse Verhelst, Internal Communications Manager, Brussels Airlines
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I would definitely recommend Staffbase, and I have recommended it many times already to people in other companies because of its user-friendliness. For me, it's been life-changing when it comes to communication. You can’t compare the way we communicated before — with static, boring emails — with how we are doing it today, with interactivity.
Ilse Verhelst Internal Communications Manager, Brussels Airlines
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