Idea awarded with SME grant

The knowledge of our people at Selmers is of great value to us. Because our industry-specific knowledge is very complex and cannot be learned at school, we have set a target for 2020 to get our new employees up and running within three months, in a way that they can master the Selmers knowledge.

An ambitious goal! We have asked ourselves the following questions: How can we achieve this objective if much of this knowledge is mainly present in the minds of our people and has not been explicitly recorded anywhere? How do we ensure that technological changes are implemented and are comprehensively secured? And how do we ensure that our knowledge is retained by staff turnover?

We have been thinking for years about a way to secure knowledge in a kind of wikipedia system. Unfortunately that always failed on the software and the way knowledge had to be captured in the right structure.

We have now solved this problem. In cooperation with two other companies, we will develop a new online platform together with our sister company Boon Software. In this platform the entire Employer and Employee Learning Journey will be captured. A bit of a mouthful, but what it means is that we will create a platform where we can convert knowledge into a appropriate training for each employee. And where training modules can be easily adjusted, following our technological developments. With this platform we can train our employees, as well as our customers. A perfect basis for knowledge management!

You may wonder, why would it work now and why do we develop this together with two other companies?

Together with like-minded companies, who are also struggling with their company-specific knowledge management, we have made a plan of approach and submitted it as an “MKI idea” to the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO). Out of 190 submissions, a total of 48 plans have been selected for funding. The Selmers plan came in 13th and this resulted in a subsidy of € 75.000,-. With this money we can develop the new platform together with Boon Software and our technical trainer.

And do you know what’s even more special about this platform? The Selmers employees will receive lifelong access to their own learning vault. In this vault you can store all your education, training, diplomas and certificates for life and share with whoever you want. This gives you a clear overview of your own knowledge development. Exclusive and only for Selmers employees.

But for now, the platform is not there yet so we will have to start working to develop and shape the platform. Really looking forward to it!