Bakery De Trog wanted to keep the knowledge level of all their staff as high as possible, so that they could also take on new employees on a temporary basis in an efficient manner. To this end, the company started using an interactive and adaptive app: BattleBakery. The valueXstream solution teaches De Trog’s processes, policies, and rules in a fun and competitive way.
Organic bakery De Trog from Ypres has been baking traditional bread with organic ingredients for more than 40 years, using both B2C and B2B brands. The range includes fresh, prepackaged, or frozen breads and pastries. De Trog supplies products to various shops and, for example, fills more than half of the bread racks of the Bio-Planet retail chain. In recent years, the company opened the first CO2 neutral bakery in Belgium and sent thousands of loaves of bread to Ukraine to support people living in the war zone.
Well-trained (temporary) employees
To be able to run seven days a week, the bakery supplements the permanent team with flexi roles. But how can you train temporary staff quickly and efficiently and onboard them effectively? For a food company like De Trog, hygiene and food safety are key, as is quality. The challenge is to guarantee that quality in a multilingual environment with ever-changing temporary staff. At the same time, the permanent staff need to regularly refresh their knowledge in an interesting and engaging way. When De Trog changes its way of working, it must immediately integrate this into its training.
BakeryBattle: the app that makes learning fun
valueXstream mapped out a full cost-benefit analysis of the project. “We compare the potential sales increase against the costs, such as the costs of the warehouse, utilities, and picking costs. That forecast revealed that holding stock locally would increase sales by 25% within 10 years,” says Van Hoeck. “In the longer term, we are more flexible with regard to phasing in and phasing out the product range.”
Practical effect
valueXstream offered De Trog a solution in the form of an app: BakeryBattle. Innovation agency NewBird integrated all the necessary knowledge into the app, which encourages repeated use through play. The employees install the app on their smartphone or tablet or access it on their PC, and challenge each other to a battle. A BattleQuiz consists of several questions, with or without illustrations, and the players immediately see the correct answer after answering.
“People like to measure themselves against each other. We use that in the game,” says Marc Van Hoeck of valueXstream. “With BattleQuiz, employees can compete while also learning important information. The app has different levels of difficulty, from easy to advanced, so that staff can progress to a higher level. New employees play BakeryBattle as part of their onboarding. In addition, each employee plays BakeryBattle three times a year during three to four weeks to keep their knowledge completely up to date.”
A handy poll to see the level of knowledge
More than 100 employees, suppliers, and external technicians play BakeryBattle. De Trog sees several advantages to the app. New employees can be deployed in the short term because they learn a lot quickly. An evaluation is also attached to the game results, so management can closely monitor the knowledge level of each employee and provide specific additional training when necessary. The evaluation could even lead to the revocation of access to the factory or the withdrawal of a staff member from certain activities. But that doesn’t prevent the players from having fun with the app. They appreciate the game format and its user-friendliness. Finally, the game also creates a good atmosphere among staff.
Technical environment
The software is a web application that runs as an app on iOS and Android. The app is developed with Backbone, Angular, and Cordova.
