Maza opts for training courses from Normec Foodcare

All temporary workers joining Maza B.V. start with an e-learning course. “That way they are well prepared, and we know in advance what they have to offer”, says QA manager Martin de Winter. The company wants to expand this with a blended learning package for permanent employees. QA manager Martin de Winter explains that last year, he was looking for a training package for temporary employees. “It is important for temporary workers that they know how we work”, he says. “In addition, thanks to the training course they also get the feeling that they belong.”

Sjoerd Remmers, training coordinator at Normec Training & Education, says that the combination between e-learning and on-site training is powerful. “We call that blended learning and we have already successfully trained more than 800 employees in this way. The e-learning often demonstrates which aspects employees find difficult. We can then pay extra attention to this during physical training. And we can highlight current topics in the physical training, for example because they came out in the audit. Finally, the students receive an improvement assignment, in order to learn to apply the knowledge in practice. That completes the circle.”

Customisation

Martin opted for a customised e-learning course from Normec Training & Education. “Tailoring the e-learning did not cost us a lot of time”, he tells us. “The trainer of Normec Training & Education has been here a day to gather the necessary data. We then discussed which aspects I do or do not find important for temporary workers. Based on that we have removed slides or added them. And the trainer took pictures at our location, so that employees taking part in the e-learning can easily link to the practice. Finally, I completed the training course myself to check that it contained no mistakes.”

The QA manager is pleased that the training is tailor-made. “For example, it is important for us that employees can read Dutch well, so that they can see whether the products have the right labels. That is why we have added a number of photos of labels to the training. And we have supplemented the training course with a few trick questions to see how attentively employees are following the training.”

Blended learning

Martin has been working with this training method for a few months now and he is satisfied. “It’s nice that I now know in advance what temporary workers have to offer. That way I can use them in the right place, for example in production, on the packaging line or to carry out labelling.” He wants to start with similar training courses for permanent employees. “We will combine the e-learning with a training course on location. That too will be tailor-made. Each department has its own CCPs and improvement points. It is the intention that these are included in the training per department, so that the employees learn what is important to them in particular.”