Smulders „Halo SPP”

The challenge

In a manufacturing company, information from the office often doesn't reach the shop floor at all — or reaches it so that everyone understands it differently. Notice boards, TV screens, word of mouth through supervisors: they work in theory, not always in practice. Production workers — without company email, computer or phone — were simply cut off from the flow of information. On top of that, an „office vs. production” wall: two separate worlds in one company.

The solution

The Halo SPP app was created not as an HR system, but as a tool for people. The key was co-creation with employees:

• „Tone of Voice” workshops — for the first time, production and office staff sat at one table and jointly decided how and about what the company should speak to them.
• Ambassadors from the floor — production workers (like Konrad Kowalski, a welding-robot operator) tested the app, taught colleagues and helped with installation.
• Simplicity — login with an individual number, use like any smartphone: „anyone who can use a smartphone will manage”.
• Reaching the floor — posters and QR-code stickers, even by the lockers and showers.

In the app: a message feed (with pinning of key posts, comments and anonymous likes, push notifications), an event calendar with sign-ups — without a trip to the office (picnics, Santa events, „safety Wednesdays”), an employee bulletin board and a fixed section (departments, benefits, key phone numbers, safety, recruitment). Content is targeted per location.

A good example of digitising paper: the LMRA survey (last-minute risk assessment) that production workers fill in before starting work and after each change of task. They used to do it on paper questionnaires — consuming reams of paper every month. Today they tap through it in the app in seconds.

There's also a Kaizen module — an idea box split across the three plants (Żary, Łęknica, Niemodlin). Any employee can submit an improvement idea for their plant straight from the app via a short form. The best ideas are rewarded by management and published in the app.

Results

Smulders employs ~400 people across three sites (Żary, Łęknica, Niemodlin) — office and production. Only at this scale do the numbers below show their weight:

• In the first month alone, over 72% of employees logged in.

• The target: 40% access at launch, 60% by year-end — nearly 90% was reached.

• 1st place in the nationwide People Innovation awards (and 2nd place in the international edition).

• A single post (the 2026 company calendar, published at 6 p.m.) triggered 716 logins that very evening — more than the company has employees.

Halo SPP isn't a story of a project without stumbles — it's a story of persistence and listening to people. As Konrad Kowalski from production sums up: „What matters most is that all the information is passed on right away, in real time.” (from an interview for People Innovation)