The Question:
Can an interactive virtual tour really help improve the onboarding experience?
That was the question with which we challenged ourselves. The answer started to take shape when we stumbled upon Talya Bauer’s four Cs of successful onboarding: Compliance, Clarification, Culture and Connection. It gave us a framework to explore just how an interactive virtual tour [and in particular, our Living Vista Experience™] could indeed contribute.
In this blog, we’ll share our thoughts on how we can enhance each of those four Cs and the overall onboarding experience.
We do bring a little personal experience here: experience of ‘patchy’ [hey, our past employers are still watching…] onboarding in large businesses, and there’s certainly lots of supporting ‘patchiness’ evidence out there.
A Gallup study sums it up nicely: just 12% of employees agree their organisation does a good job at onboarding [v. 80% of employees in one of my past large employers who agreed that the on-site canteen did lovely salads].
So what goes wrong?
So many things can and do go wrong in ‘traditional’ onboarding. This contributes to the rapid loss of great people from a business – not to mention the huge wasted cost in recruitment and senior time. If c.one in five employees leave in the first three months, then about one third of these cite lack of clarity about responsibilities and context as a reason [research by Bamboo HR].
Non-availability; conflicting messages; training-style conflicting with learning-style; remote workers left behind; manager apathy; information overload … We’ve all experienced some or all of these.
A solution:
Let’s take each ‘C’ and look at how an interactive Virtual Tour and our Living Vista Experience™ specifically, deepens the onboarding experience and helps solve some problems.
Compliance
Worth remembering, if you can, that only 5% of all information presented in a classroom format is retained by the average person [the Learning Pyramid model]. So compiling a multi-media, on-demand ‘learning library’ within a virtual tour, means 24-7 access to remind or refresh [or read for the first time before that CEO meeting] in a more dynamic and memorable way, that accommodates different learning styles.
Our Living Vista Experience™ [LVX] takes compliance training to another level, where embedded Real or Virtual Presenters can introduce and bring real-life scenarios to the virtual tour. Embedded quizzes can aid knowledge retention. This all helps new hires not only properly understand the sometimes difficult detail, but also how it impacts day-to-day operations. Think Health & Safety training in the workplace: often quite dry and reluctantly undertaken – but brought to life, it could just save a life.
Clarification
By navigating through different departments and scenarios within a virtual environment, and hearing from the ‘big’ people [who often go missing in traditional onboarding], new employees can gain much better clarity about their responsibilities and how their role fits within the broader company structure. They’re more likely to stick around beyond 3 months.
in360’s unique LVX platform allows for a non-linear, personalized journey through the company, with a richness of media beyond the simple use of graphics and leaders’ messages on video screens. Rather than a one-size-fits-all model, employees can navigate a path based on their role, interests, learning style and pace, leading to a more tailored and clearer understanding of their role.
Culture
Culture is often said to be ‘caught, not taught’. By immersing new hires in an interactive ‘real’ version of your environment, which in many ways will embody your brand and culture, new hires can start to experience and ‘catch’ the core values and cultural norms of the organisation.
And with our LVX, the seamless integration of 3D models with real environments and embedded Real Presenters, with real voices and stories to tell, offers a highly immersive cultural induction. Directional sound and beautiful virtual displays allow a new hire to truly capture the sights and sounds as they virtually walk the office, the event space, the studio. They can participate in ‘townhall’ company events, with GoLVX embedded video conferencing functionality, click & interact with the environment, or play a treasure hunt against the clock to find those individual DNA elements that come together to define the whole culture.
Connection
Building connections can be challenging, especially when the expectation is to start ‘doing the job’ on day 1 [or day 2 in the more forward-thinking organisation]. Virtual tours can bridge this gap by featuring on-demand team introductions, especially helpful for remote workers, live [& recorded] interactive Q&A sessions with leaders, even virtual networking events [with virtual nibbles], helping new employees feel connected and part of the team from day one.
in360’s unique Real Presenters with AI-updateable dialogue feature, helps foster a sense of genuine connection with key people and to the very latest content. New hires can interact and ask questions in real-time through the GoLVX and Collaborative Notes features, making a virtual onboarding experience feel more human and less isolated. And whilst the language of business is often English [how did this happen??], a new non-native English speaker being able to listen to the CEO talk in fluent Japanese, French or American, creates warmth and empathy – our AI language replacement functionality does this at the click of a button.
Persuaded?
Can interactive virtual tours, especially when elevated to the level of in360’s Living Vista Experience™, provide a dynamic and effective way to address these four Cs of Corporate Onboarding, and in doing so, solve some of the common problems?
We believe so. By leveraging advanced technologies, companies can ensure their onboarding process is not only informative and compliant but also engaging, immersive, and conducive to building strong and consistent company connections. If you’re interested [or if you’re a recruiter or consultant with a client in mind], please don’t hesitate to contact us – a conversation is always good for the soul.
The rest of our refreshed website is full of information to help you discover how we can together transform an online presence.
Until next time.
