We are celebrating ten years of MeeMaken. How? By giving the floor to one of the thirteen MeeMaken companies every month. This month we will be speaking to specialist in education Astrid de Blecourt and sales team leader Chantal de Groot of eWorks about the buzzword ‘creativity’. ‘With our courses, we focus on creative ways to raise awareness of safety.’
Our products are a form of creativity
eWorks originated within the MeeMaken Group. How did that come about?
‘eWorks was founded in 2018 as an offshoot of Infosequre’, explains Astrid. ‘Together with Infosequre and Splintt, we have formed the BeOne Development group in 2021, with a focus on meaningful learning experiences for people within organizations. Splintt specializes in creating eLearning courses and interactive films tailored for companies, and Infosequre is specialized in cybersecurity awareness. At eWorks we develop digital learning solutions in the field of safety, with a focus on safe physical work in the workplace. This makes a lot of sense, since MeeMaken is heavily involved in safety and many of its companies carry out physical work.’ Chantal confirms and adds: ‘We originated from the needs of companies in the MeeMaken group. Our focus is therefore on the sectors in which the companies are active: (maritime) industry, construction, transport, and the offshore sector.’
Is safety a topic with a lot of room for creativity?
‘The sectors we focus on need to be approached in a smart and creative way. Because the traditional way of training is still often the name of the game in these industries. Learning about safety through an online and a digital way is not necessarily something people are open to’, says Astrid. ‘Also, our target group already knows a lot about working safely in physical environments. In contrast, cybersecurity is a hot topic that people want to learn about. Our target group has already passed that phase – they know the basic rules and are very familiar, for example, with how hearing protection works.’ Chantal: ‘Some employees have been in the business for more than ten years. They have built up a work routine with their safety requirements, based on their experience. As a result, work is performed in a less conscious way and safety risks arise. It is important to break such a routine. After all, the fact that things have always gone smoothly might just be because you have always been lucky. So we have to work creatively to trigger a renewed awareness. And that’s what we do with our training courses.’ Astrid continues: ‘The content of our products is more on the traditional than the creative side. Our creativity comes into play in the form in which we offer the content. That’s what makes it interesting.’
“With our courses, we focus on creative ways to raise awareness of safety.”
How do you apply creativity to the eLearning courses?
Astrid: ‘We offer a range of products. For example, the online Toolbox library with more than seventy eLearning modules in four different languages, a customizable online safety onboarding with site safety instructions and safety and conduct rules. We also supply a great app – the DareToCare Safety App. With this app, we support learning in the workplace.’ Chantal: ‘Because almost everyone has a mobile phone in their pocket, we offer the possibility to have safety information at hand when you need it. We also divide our eLearning courses into micro-learning modules to cover specific topics. We can then easily bring topics to the user’s attention with a push notification. You look for the right moments; that’s what works best. For example, when it is slippery and extra safety measures apply.’
Chantal de Groot
Are you also creative with the content of the eLearning courses?
Astrid: ‘Safety rules are the same in many places. But in practice, details can differ per sector or per company. We respond creatively to this, for example with our flexible Safety Onboarding training. The basic rules have already been filled in and the company can adjust the details themselves. Other eLearning courses from the toolbox library can also be customized. You can change the look and feel at the touch of a button and translations can be carried out very efficiently. Quite important if you want to offer a lot of eLearning courses in a certain language!’
‘We notice that the way of communicating around digital training is very important. The solutions we offer lend themselves very well to blended learning’, says Chantal. ‘Digital and physical learning then go hand in hand. A company can use our interactive offline toolboxes to give presentations on the workplace and, in their own time, people can follow the eLearning courses from the online toolbox library and use the app.’
Astrid de Blecourt
Is there also creativity in the MeeMaken collaborations?
‘Absolutely. We work a lot with our direct sister companies within BeOne’, explains Astrid. ‘Together we look at improving products and share creative insights. And we also have much support from the industrial companies in the MeeMaken group. In our initial phase, we had to create a lot of content for our training courses. To do so, we collected stories and input from KenzFigee and Eager.one. The great thing about MeeMaken is that knowledge is at hand throughout the group.’ Chantal: ‘We also carry out assignments for the sister companies. For example, we have already been able to make nice training courses for LiftWerx and Eager.one. As a result of such collaborations, we have quickly become an established name in our sector. That way we can take steps that we couldn’t take on our own.’
Are you all set for the future?
‘We have some fantastic, ambitious plans’, says Chantal. ‘We are growing fast and are looking at ways to make it as easy as possible for our customers to consciously work safely. For example, we are focusing on the development of our software tools, so that we can offer customers a one-stop-shop.’
Astrid: ‘We will also continue to develop the training courses as such. We now have around eighty eLearning courses covering a wide range of topics. But the details of safety rules often change. Therefore, our training courses are continuously in development.’ Chantal: ‘BeOne is also developing a new little sister unit: a library with the energy transition as theme. Wind energy is an important topic here, but security and safety are also discussed in these training courses. Fun and creative developments that prepare us for the future!”
