How Monuta ensures successful adoption of new software

Monuta is a funeral organization with approximately 700 employees, active throughout the Netherlands. They are there for people in all phases of farewell: throughout life, around the funeral and during the period of mourning and memory. In addition to funeral care, she also offers funeral insurance to make farewell financially possible. The Monuta Academy is part of the Training & Development department at Monuta and focuses on six pillars: onboarding, training, continuous learning, personal development, team development and leadership development.

Within this academy, both professional training and software training courses are provided for employees. The ambition is to make learning accessible and flexible, focused on employees' own direction.

The immediate reason to get started with SelfGuide was the implementation of a new policy administration software package. Previously, Monuta employees attended classroom button training and were supported with PDF guides and videos stored in SharePoint. They were then able to view these materials and then practice with them themselves in the live application.

This method took a lot of time and offered little flexibility. Creating and maintaining PDF manuals and videos is very labour-intensive. In addition, these tools also become obsolete quickly and are difficult to modify, so the question arose: “Isn't there another way to do this?” Monuta was looking for a solution to make instructions digital, accessible and flexible and to allow employees to learn and practice in the same environment. Here, the choice quickly fell on SelfGuide.

For the new policy administration, the Monuta Academy developed a complete training program in which SelfGuide plays a central role. All employees involved went through the same process.

“We started with mindset sessions to prepare colleagues for the changes. In it, we already gave some demos about how you will do the training. In the second phase, they went through SelfGuide's intuitive training module. In-depth knowledge took place during group discussions and finally, we covered typical workarounds that you always have with an implementation.”

Edward Boon, Senior Business Partner Training & Development

Monuta experiences SelfGuide as accessible, accessible and “scoundrel proof”: after seeing it once, anyone can work with it. The tool makes it possible to quickly record practical instructions and process explanations and to link them directly to the concrete steps in the software. The “classic button training”, but in a modern, digital form.

“A significant plus is the simplicity of creating instructions: record, click a few times, and the instruction is ready to use or modify.”

Mart Seubring, Training & Development Expert

Monuta is also very satisfied with the flexible way in which you can set up training courses in SelfGuide. Now, administrators are faster and more agile in creating, updating, and making instructional materials understandable, compared to traditional training environments. This also included conscious consideration of the structure and length of the instructions, manuals and training courses. By keeping them short and manageable, they are not only easier to consume, but also easier to maintain.

The Monuta Academy has consciously invested the ownership of instructions with process owners and key users in the line. As a result, they are not only responsible for the content of the instructions, but also for the feedback they receive from users via the feedback option in SelfGuide. As a result, they not only actively monitor the quality of the instruction, but it also remains up to date. However, the Academy remains responsible for the didactic quality of the instructional material and the structure of the courses offered in SelfGuide.

During the SelfGuide implementation phase, various process owners and key users were trained several times by SelfGuide in how to use the solution. Monuta himself created an internal 'blueprint' for what a good instruction should contain. This combination of clear roles, training and continuous improvement ensures that instructions are in line with practice and remain up to date.

In addition to the training courses related to policy administration software, SelfGuide is also used for training the file administration system for funeral directors and instructions that explain various business processes. For policy administration instructions, employees log directly into SelfGuide, where the instructional material is clearly grouped by “skill group” and everyone quickly finds the right instructions.

Monuta has now successfully trained all relevant employees in the new software package and they see that colleagues understand the system and are able to use the new way of working independently. The training courses in SelfGuide helped employees to practice more consciously with the software, making the transition to the new policy administration smoother.

“It takes a bit of thinking at the front about how to set up the instructions and how to set up the training in the system, but once it's up and running, it works very easily and quickly.”

Mart Seubring, Training & Development Expert

Employees had to get used to the new way of learning, but now recognize the accessibility and intuitive design of the tool. Through its own direction of learning paths, SelfGuide is well in line with the Monuta Academy's vision for learning.

Monuta is decidedly positive about the cooperation: the words “sober”, “no-nonsense,” “accessible” and “flexible” are emphatic. During orientation and implementation, SelfGuide came by several times for demos and reflection sessions. Even now, there is regular contact with the Customer Success Manager to discuss optimizations and new opportunities.

The easy accessibility and the ability to contribute ideas based on Monuta's actual needs are seen as important aspects that underline the successful cooperation.

Now that the basis is in place, Monuta wants to work with other departments to see which other applications SelfGuide can be used for and who will take ownership of them. The organization sees opportunities to further spread SelfGuide like an oil slick within Monuta, as long as the balance between IT, Training & Development and process owners remains well secured.

To organizations that are considering working with SelfGuide, Monuta states that SelfGuide's strength lies in its simplicity and accessibility, combined with an intuitive way of learning that helps employees really learn how to work in the software.