Founded in 2003, Vacherin is London's leading caterer, providing staff dining, fine dining, coffee bars and event catering at venues throughout the capital, from law firms and fashion brands to the national broadcaster ITV. It employs 570 people, only 30 of them at head office; the rest work across 45 contract locations with teams ranging from three to 70 staff, including managers, chefs, waiters, baristas and front-of-house employees from 45 countries.

Vacherin's 570 employees are highly dispersed. Only 30 are based at head office; the rest are scattered across the 45 contract locations the company services across London, and no two contracts are alike. The workforce is made up of managers, chefs, waiters, baristas and front-of-house staff, and only site managers have access to business computers.

The company had an internal website that held documents and sent an employee newsletter by email, but open rates were low. The marketing team wanted a channel that was both real time and two way. In the annual survey, employees said that although they felt connected to their own location, they wanted to discover more about other Vacherin locations, their colleagues and their recipes.

Vacherin set specific criteria for a solution: a full-service provider with no IT demand on its side, a mobile-first platform to reach a dispersed workforce, something user-friendly and simple to manage, a highly visual app for employees from 45 countries, and Vacherin branding to create an integrated experience of the organisation.

After reviewing the available options, Vacherin chose Speakap's white-label option and branded the app VachChat. Speakap runs the platform as a full-service provider, so there is no IT workload on Vacherin's side, and the mobile-first, visual design suits frontline staff who do not have access to business computers.

There was initial nervousness at board level about launching a platform that gives employees a voice, so Vacherin used Speakap's built-in controls to limit employees to posting only in their preassigned groups. After a few weeks, the marketing team responsible for VachChat found the conversations so valuable that it removed all restrictions, allowing employees to post to the entire organisation.

Vacherin now uses Speakap for news updates, such as new contracts signed with venues; for sharing events and training opportunities; for recognition, including images of the employee of the quarter and posts from senior leadership; and for creating events such as cooking and barista competitions. Employees also share images of their locations, new recipes and their latest creations.

Next, Vacherin plans a series of employee focus groups to learn which features and content types work best, and to use VachChat more strategically around business goals and cost-saving initiatives.

• 75% uptake among employees in the first two months
• 5.7 check-ins per person per day on average
• Average visit length of 50 seconds
• Replaced low-open-rate email newsletters with real-time, two-way communication
• Employees across 45 sites share recipes, creations and location news, bringing the brand's personality through