If you’ve ever bought a kitchen, new furniture or a bathroom, you’ve probably been to one of The Mandemakers Group’s (DMG) 350 shops. Through intensive training, this specialist provides a unique customer experience. Whereas previously the more than 5,000 employees were trained in classrooms, DMG now does this through ‘blended learning’, which brings together offline and online learning. And that has led to more than just higher learning efficiency. This is how they did it.
Training days down from 30 to 6
Tom Scholte, e-Learning developer at DMG, was looking for a new Learning Management System. “First, we did extensive research into the added value of online learning,” he says. “We interviewed staff and trainers, conducted surveys and did theoretical research. Based on this, I wrote an advisory report for a new interpretation of the DMG Academy. Training used to be entirely classroom based. We now complement that with e-Learning. To make sure all that runs smoothly, we use the Totara Learning Platform.”
“At DMG, we offer e-Learning to all our new sales staff. The quiz form, the courses and the videos challenge our employees to learn all about our kitchens, furniture and sanitary products. The scoreboard adds another level of fun internal competition. The learning time has been shortened tremendously.”
Tom Scholte, L&D DMG
Looking for a learning platform
Tom Scholte on the added value of Totara for DMG
Personal training with the Totara LMS
DMG deploys Totara Learn as its all-in-one learning platform. It is used for the administration, documentation, reporting and delivery of the e-Learning courses. “For us, it is important that employees are in the shop as much as possible,” says Scholte. If we can, we allow them to learn online there. And learn as much as possible about what they need to know. Our trainers are intensively involved in the development of the e-Learning modules. We do as much as possible online and then go into greater depth in the classroom training. That works perfectly.”
The results of the new learning environment
Learning time for new employees at DMG has been greatly reduced thanks to the use of the Totara LMS. “Instead of 30 days of classroom training, we now only need to organise 6 days, so our new employees spend 24 more days in the shop,” Tom Scholte continues. “It used to take a year to train around 130 new employees fully in the classroom. Now it only takes 4 to 5 months. This means that DMG has much more capacity to train. The ultimate goal is to provide all current employees (>5,000) in all departments with online learning and better training, not just in sales. Step by step, the company will add logistics and other services to the Totara LMS.
“DMG is constantly challenging itself to achieve its ambitions. Both in business and in online learning. The fact that we’ve been guiding that process for years says everything about our partnership.”
Matthijs Waldhober, UP learning
