Testimonial: content creation at DELA
DELA stands for “Draagt Elkanders Lasten” (“carry each other’s burdens”) and is part of a cooperative.
DELA was founded in 1937 in Eindhoven. At that time, people without money were buried at the crack of dawn in a corner of the cemetery, without a funeral, tombstone, or name plate. A group of people thought this was inhumane and created DELA with one clear mission that continues to this day: a worthy funeral for everyone, regardless of rank, status or income.
DELA’s funeral directors in the funeral homes, crematoriums and repatriation centers are available 24/7 with a listening ear, advice, empathy, but above all with years of knowledge. You can rely on them to ensure that all practical arrangements in the event of a passing run smoothly.
Why did DELA call on The Learning Hub?
A passing involves a lot of administrative and practical arrangements. Even after the funeral, there are still many things to take care of. Relatives often don’t know where to start. DELA’s Aftercare consultants are specialists in this matter and assist with all administrative, financial, and legal issues, which offers families time for what is really important: giving the loss of their loved one a place.
To provide consultants with the correct knowledge, DELA needed help setting up an onboarding program, for which they called on The Learning Hub. Because DELA wants to provide their new employees with a warm welcome, this online onboarding program is complementary to real life trainings.
How did we do this?
We came up with a learning path that consists of four modules. The first module consists of two parts: DELA as a company on the one hand and the 7-step plan on the other, which tells more about Dela’s services before, during and after the passing.
In the second module, we focus on how to report a passing. This module will tell you everything about the legislation on transport and declarations and funeral services law.
The third module focuses more on the human side of the story. Consultants will learn how to handle clients in their moment of grief and how to have a proper conversation about everything that needs to be arranged for a funeral.
Last but not least, module 4 focuses on a step-by-step plan with tasks a Aftercare consultant has to perform.
The result
Because this is an onboarding program, new employees have to become familiar with DELA. Employees are ‘the beating heart of the company’ and thanks to interactive exercises, they learn more about DELA’s mission, values, and pillars. In the next part of the module, the learners get familiar with the company’s services with the help of two realistic cases. They get to help Emma and Gabriel with their questions and concerns before, during and after the passing of their loved ones.
The second module concerns legislation and how a consultant can declare a death with the proper authorities. By means of five cases, the five most important causes of death are discussed. During each step of the way (from the doctor that calls it, to the funeral itself) theory and legislation are illustrated with the help of the cases. At the end of this module, the learner knows the chain of steps and their legal background and knows how to react or help a customer in a certain situation.
Everyone grieves in their own way. For a consultant, it’s not always easy to react in these situations. A person can be very angry or shut down completely after the passing of a loved one. The third module, with a focus on customer-oriented communication, wants to provide employees with some tips and tricks to handle this grief in a proper way. After a more theoretical introduction, we elaborated on the five cases from the previous module to confront the learner with different types of emotions in family members. Are they capable of reassuring the person that’s in front of them? Or will the situation go south? With the help of videos of customers grieving, they learn to interpret the situation, subdivide the customer in one of the four topics in the customer quadrant and readjust their ways of asking questions and presenting DELA to their needs.
When we publish this testimonial, we still have to start with the fourth module, but it will be in line with the previous three modules: interactive, fun and respectful of the theme.
The cooperation with The Learning Hub was very valuable to us. We have the technical knowledge, but they mastered the art of really listening and thinking along. This way, our e-learnings have become a real masterpiece, an added value to our organization.