To meet the onboarding needs of an ever-growing hybrid and remote workforce, many organizations are turning to virtual onboarding platforms as the cornerstone of their new hire orientation experience. While these platforms are useful for efficiently onboarding large numbers of employees, a new challenge is emerging —the company culture disconnect.
Sure, these platforms can be customized to express your company’s brand, but what about promoting the core ideas and values that lie at the heart of your organization’s culture?
An important part of the onboarding process centers on planting those culture seeds that will enable new hires to grow and thrive in your organization. While culture building has traditionally been done in person, it can be accomplished through virtual onboarding platforms. However, it takes a rethinking of how best to tell your organization’s story with a digital-first mindset. And it requires a real commitment to crafting a virtual onboarding platform experience that leaves new hires excited and inspired to be part of your organization.
Here are three ways to incorporate your company’s culture into virtual onboarding experiences:
- Get creative with your video content.
Video is often a core component of virtual onboarding platforms. It therefore becomes one of your most important opportunities for setting the right tone and laying the foundation for your company’s vision and values. Take, for instance, the new-hire welcome video. The basic version of this video is a leadership team member welcoming new hires. Simple, direct address to camera, very straight forward. Nothing wrong with that — expect it can be easily forgotten. This first impression needs to express your organization’s personality in a more engaging and interesting way. Consider incorporating an interesting visual style, like some type of animation. Or maybe weave together the leadership team member’s welcome message with short interview clips from long-time employees who are the embodiment of your organization’s culture. The goal should be to grab the new hire’s attention then show them your organization’s culture in action.
The same goes for other video content that’s part of your onboarding, like informational videos, office tours or task-specific trainings. You should choose presentation approaches that go beyond what’s typical and expected. Engage your new hires to make the experience more memorable. For example, an office campus tour can easily become an interactive virtual tour — 360-degree or virtual reality (VR) videos can give new employees an opportunity to explore the company’s headquarters or other important facilities. Take a documentary-style approach and give them a day-in-the-life look at what they can expect in their new role. More active and immersive storytelling techniques can help them feel more connected to the physical workspace and understand their responsibilities in a realistic setting.
2. Tap into curiosity and competitiveness with your training content.
Training is a key component of the onboarding process. It’s also another opportunity to tell your company’s culture story. How? When assessing the best way to integrate training materials into your virtual onboarding platform, consider designing a training journey that taps into curiosity and competitiveness.
New hires are inherently curious about the organization they’ve joined. Use techniques like storytelling, exploration and skills practice to subtly reinforce aspects of your company’s mission, values and personality. Maybe design the visual interface for the training landing page to look like a map of your organization’s facilities around the world. Then make each location a button that takes you to training materials related to a specific topic or role.
By the same token, your new team members come in eager to succeed. Play into these competitive instincts by finding ways to build gamification into the orientation experience. Think about what your training content could look like if it was transformed into interactive games, quizzes or challenges. Maybe go even further and award points, badges or levels for completing tasks or answering questions correctly. Look for ways to make the learning process much more engaging and enjoyable while delivering mandatory training. A gamified experience can increase motivation, participation and retention.
The point is to lean into your company’s culture and use it as inspiration for a virtual learning environment that feels authentic to who you are as an organization.
3. Build a welcome center, elevate your virtual event production game.
For new employees, networking opportunities are a crucial part of onboarding. The relationships forged during this time are immensely helpful with cultivating a sense of belonging. Virtual onboarding platforms can play a crucial role in facilitating this community building process.
Start thinking of your virtual onboarding platform as more than a repository of videos and training materials. This platform is now your company’s “welcome center,” a place where you can use virtual meetings and events to:
- Facilitate virtual mentorships and networking sessions, connecting new hires with experienced employees.
- Organize virtual meetups, coffee chats or team-building activities where new hires can interact with team members, ask questions and establish professional relationships.
- Host virtual town halls where new hires can hear from and have access to senior leaders.
With this shift in thinking, you’ll also need to up your production game for the virtual meetings and events hosted through the platform. If you have an in-house meeting and events team, bring them in to assist. Or find an experienced creative production company partner to oversee the execution. The goal is to deliver amazing, broadcast-quality virtual meetings and events that promote audience engagement and interaction while reinforcing the essence of your company’s employee brand story.
As hybrid and remote workforces become the new normal, organizations will increasingly use virtual onboarding platforms to facilitate onboarding. The more you find ways to integrate your company’s cultural identity into your platform, the more valuable this experience will be at laying the foundations of success for your new hires.
