Unified Internal Communication at Panattoni for the Czech Republic and Slovakia – One Year After Launching the Company App

In the autumn of 2024, it was one year since the European branch of Panattoni – a leading industrial real estate developer – launched its own employee communication app. The solution runs in the cloud, built on the Plusco platform developed by the Czech company Sova Net.

In an interview with Daniela Benešová, Executive Assistant & Internal Communication CZ, we discussed what led to Panattoni’s decision to take internal communication to the next level, their experience with HR digitalization, and their continuous effort to keep the app’s content relevant – so that it remains a real benefit both for the employer and for every single employee.

ABOUT PANATTONI

Industry: Industrial real estate development
Branches: The European branch has been operating in the Czech Republic since 2007 and in Slovakia since 2018.

About the company: Panattoni is the European branch of Panattoni Development Company, Inc., founded in California, USA, in 1986 by Carl Panattoni. Today, it is one of the largest privately owned full-service industrial real estate developers in the world. After its founding, the company expanded first across the United States and Canada, then to the United Kingdom and the rest of Europe.

Daniela, you were there from the very beginning – both during the development and the launch of Panattoni’s internal communication app built on Plusco. Are you still in charge of this “baby”? 🙂

Yes, I’m still in charge of internal communication. Since I came to Panattoni after seven years in PR, communication was something I was naturally drawn to – and something that was missing here. I had capacity within my role, so we agreed that I would build internal communication from the ground up. One of the main goals was to introduce a communication platform that would help us do that.

Who uses your Plusco app and which offices does it cover?

We use Plusco for our Czech and Slovak branches of Panattoni, together totaling around 70 employees.
Even though each office operates separately – one in Prague and one in Bratislava – we often function as a single team.

“Plusco has significantly improved our internal communication. We finally have one central place where we share all important information for our colleagues. We now have a single official communication channel that’s easily accessible both via desktop and mobile app. All the necessary information is always at hand, which contributes greatly to overall awareness across the company. I appreciate its intuitive and user-friendly interface, both for users and administrators. And last but not least, I value Plusco’s customer service – their team is always willing to help and handles requests quickly and efficiently.”

Daniela Benešová, Executive Assistant & Internal Communication CZ

Let’s go back to the beginning. What led you to choose Plusco as your internal communication platform provider?

We defined a set of functionalities that our internal communication tool should meet – and Plusco covered almost all of them. Competing solutions didn’t come close to meeting our expectations for such an app.

What were your main expectations?

We wanted to introduce a tool that would finally unify internal communication, consolidate communication channels, and create one secure space for sharing information and important documents.

“We expected to introduce a long-missing tool that would unify internal communication and create a safe space for sharing information and key documents.”

With around 70 employees, Panattoni is considered a mid-sized company. From your perspective, do you see a difference in how Plusco benefits small/medium-sized companies versus large corporations?

We’re not a company that provides canteen services, so modules like lunch ordering and similar ones aren’t relevant for us.
However, Plusco offers a wide range of other modules and features, which makes it easy even for smaller companies to tailor an ideal version for themselves.

The need to share information effectively and strengthen company culture is universal – regardless of company size.

Panattoni has grown rapidly over the past few years. How did that transformation affect employee engagement and internal communication?

Yes, originally we were a small, almost family-like team, where exchanging information “over coffee” was enough. But as the company grew to dozens of employees, communication naturally began to fragment and important information started getting lost. There was no coordinated communication, and with the growing number of employees came growing chaos. Long-term colleagues always knew how to find what they needed, but new hires found it more difficult. Even though we tried to communicate transparently through regular all-company meetings every quarter, it wasn’t enough.

“From a small, almost family company where people shared information over coffee, we grew into a business with dozens of employees – and communication naturally began to fragment and get lost.”

You chose the Plusco Cloud version and customized it with Panattoni’s company colors. What were your first experiences using the app before launch?

The platform is very user-friendly. Filling Plusco with content was relatively easy and intuitive. Of course, we occasionally ran into some issues, but customer support (xDesk) helped us resolve them quickly. During that process, we even came up with some ideas for improvements.

What did you consider important before rolling out the new app to employees?

I didn’t want to launch Plusco until it was properly filled with content – not overloaded, but full enough for employees to immediately see its value when they opened it for the first time.

Since everything has to be entered manually – post by post, employee by employee – it took quite a while before I reached a presentable version.

What internal communication channels did you use before Plusco, and how did you handle them after the launch?

The official announcement of the new app went out in mid-November 2023 via email – which, until then, had been our company’s only communication channel.

“Before launching Plusco, email was our company’s only communication channel.”

Another, but more informal, channel was WhatsApp – and still is to some extent.
We’ve gradually tried to remove all official communication from WhatsApp, so now it’s mostly used for informal purposes. Sometimes, however, we still use it to redirect people to Plusco – not all employees have the app installed on their phones, or they don’t have notifications turned on. In those cases, WhatsApp is the channel that gets a reaction from 99% of people.

Have you evaluated the success of the new internal communication system?

We haven’t done a large-scale survey yet, but we monitor post views and engagement. We’ve seen that, despite the initial resistance (which tends to happen with any new tool), employees have gradually adopted it and use Plusco as a normal part of their workday.
Some see it as an obvious benefit and praise it; others still grumble about “yet another app.” ☺

What advice would you give to companies that are planning to digitalize their HR and internal communication and are about to launch their own company app?

From the beginning, we ran a contest to motivate employees to install the app – the Contests module is perfect for that, and we still use it from time to time.
We also use polls and event sign-ups through Plusco – in fact, we don’t offer any other option for signing up. 🙂

“Since launch, we’ve been constantly improving the content and finding new ways to encourage colleagues to visit Plusco regularly.”

What do you see as the biggest benefit after implementing Plusco at Panattoni?

It immediately met our initial expectations – mainly centralizing all communication and important documents in one place.
Launching the app practically brought my expectations in line with reality.

One last question – what are your plans for future development? Where do you see more potential for using Plusco at Panattoni?

We haven’t yet fully used the app for onboarding new employees – and that’s where I see huge potential.
It could help us guide newcomers to the right materials and make the entire onboarding process almost fully manageable through Plusco.

Thank you very much for your time and for sharing valuable insights into Panattoni’s journey with digitalizing internal communication.