Reinventing onboarding in COVID times
The question:
How to bring the newcomers together remotely?
The client’s starting point
- A mining group with 12,000 employees
- The traditional annual event for newcomers could not be maintained due to sanitary context
- A willingness to organise an unusual digital event despite the circumstances
Akoya Consulting’s response
- The co-construction of a new onboarding experience in a digital format
- The introduction of new immersive activities such as serious games or speed dating to engage employees
- Support in deployment to ensure the successful implementation of the first sessions
The whole story
Our client, a French mining group of 12 000 employees, organizes every year a two-day meeting at the head office in Paris for the onboarding of its new managers.
Given the sanitary context in 2020 it was necessary for our client to adopt this emblematic event in a 100% digital format. In order to reinvent the programme, Akoya Consulting designed an innovative set of activities with 3 objectives in mind: to accelerate the ongoing transformation within the group, to reinforce the cohesion and to foster the engagement through instructive and entertaining modules.
In permanent contact with our client’s project team, we co-constructed a unique, immersive and collaborative onboarding experience, bringing together formats that are new to the group: serious game, speed dating, quiz, etc.
The new 100% digital programme, which was positively perceived by employees, proved to be more inclusive than its physical predecessor as it broadened the spectrum of participants while minimising their travel costs.
Finally, this new onboarding experience became the new norm, after some adjustments, as our client repeats the programme regularly for its new employees.